Why Jazz School in Paris?
I have been asked this question so many times… and I never quite have a reason. It was just the obvious path for me, combining two dreams, studying jazz, and living in Paris. This city doesn’t seem to have the cutting edge jazz of today, like New York or even Montreal. But it does have a long history of liberating jazz musicians, giving them a place to be free to express themselves. Back in the 1920’s – 50’s many black jazz cats came to Paris because they were treated like kings and queens here, no prejudice to color their fame. I love history, I love tradition. But I also love the path less taken, so for me the choice to come to music school at all was a total twist of fate. All the musicians I know back home learned from pure playing. It might make take a good 20 years, but they get their chops with out ever stepping into school. I guess I felt I didn’t have that kind of time, being that I started again at 24. Also I wanted a few years to give priority to studying music, not just s
