- When asked if I've, you know,
had any kind of significant experience in my career
that really sort of made me feel so excited
about being a musician or excited about making the choices
that I've made, I have to say one of the highlights
that really sticks out in my mind was a recent trip
that I did for the State Department
Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassador Touring Program,
we were slated, a trio that I was involved in, a jazz trio,
were slated to go on a five week tour to South Asia,
India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Maldives.
We were supposed to leave September 13th, 2001,
which was right after 9/11, of course it was canceled
because the State Department was evacuated
and, well, everybody knows the rest,
but luckily they reinstated the tour the following March,
and one of the exciting highlights was
they set up a concert that we did in Southern India
with one of the most famous, prominent,
and just one of the most amazing Indian musicians they have,
and he wrote a piece for us with his group,
he had a six piece ensemble, and wrote a piece for us,
a 20 minute piece with some sections for improvisation,
and they also had us send them a jazz piece
to try their hand at, and it was a large concert
that was televised all over India,
and it was really one of the most exciting experiences
of my life because to, you know,
have the skills to be able to,
I'm not saying that I played, can play Indian music,
but they weren't expecting that from me,
but the fact that we made the effort
to try to connect with them in music
that they were comfortable with and they made an effort
with us and we were able to pull it off
and people were so excited about it
and it was amazing music, and it was so much fun,
and also the significance of, particularly after 9/11,
just making those kind of connections through music
with people that were, had nothing to do with the politics
or nothing to do with anything,
but just connecting as people loving music
and as people wanting to, you know, appreciate each other
and the craft that they've developed,
it was such an exciting moment in my life
and really made me glad that I had the skills
to be able to do that and that a lot of the things
that I always wanted to do were coming into fruition,
so it was a really exciting opportunity.