Early Inspiration 1979-82
In the mid-1970’s the public schools in Portland Oregon started a number of magnet school programs to help increase racial diversity in some schools. One of those programs was a music magnet at Jefferson High School. The program attracted music students from all over the city. In 1980, I elected to become one of those magnet students, bussed-in daily for classes. There was, for the most part, a separate music teacher specializing in each type of instrument, so the music department was filled with professional adult musicians.
I studied drumming with Dee Wiggins and Obo Addy, had many great conversations with alto sax player Sony King and played in bands under the direction of lead trumpet player Rick Faunt and guitarist John Russo and other talented, dedicated professional musicians.
The “chair” I wanted to command more than anything was the drummer with the Sounds of Jefferson big band. The challenge was that Jeffrey Minnieweather had held that spot for over a year and was an amazing young musician (both technically and musically) and had been a featured soloist with the band and left some huge musical shoes to step into. A few months into my turn with the big band and Tracy Sanders joined us. He was a year or two younger than I was, but, like Jeff, had some seriously advanced musical chops for his age. Trying not to embarrass the whole band after what they were used to when Jeff commanded the drum set, and hold on to my half of the drum duties with Tracy’s emerging skills kind of lit a fire under my um… “thrown” and helped keep me practicing every chance I had.
While I played in the concert band and percussion ensemble too, I spent most of my practice time focused on music for the big band and the afterschool jazz combo class. It was in that jazz combo that some of my biggest inspirations came from.
Our bassist was Marty McGehee. He and I had actually met in 6th grade at outdoor school. We were from different schools and had been assigned to the same live-in cabin group. We got into a knock-down-drag-out fight that week that got us both into a lot of trouble. It wasn’t until we had been playing in the same bands for over a year in High School that we made the connection we had in 6th grade. Marty played fretless electric. He sounded amazing and seemed to effortlessly learn new jazz compositions and his time was really, really good. His waling basslines were great to listen to even back then. I believe he’s still playing music up near Seattle area.
Our guitarist was Eric Beal. He was always dressed to the 10’s and calm. He didn’t seem to have the burning angst that many of us used for fuel at the time. It was like he was an old soul or something. He’s went on to have a great career in music education and publishing:
The trumpet player in the jazz combo was already composing and arranging for our ensembles as a Junior. Dr. David Dzubay was so incredibility focused on what he wanted to do and accomplish and that focus has paid off for him. He became an internationally recognized composer and educator. I enjoy hearing his compositions performed and sometimes I think I hear some of his inspirations in the more complex concert band arrangements we played together at Jefferson.
I remember meeting Darin Clendenin one day after school and he, like me, was so excited to be studying jazz at Jefferson. We were in the choir room talking and he said: “I want to be able to play chords like this (randomly played some chord with all 10 fingers on the piano), and know what I just played”. That was my sophomore year and he disappeared from school that year. We heard he had been injured in an attack or something. About a year later he was back and was (suddenly for us) playing amazing piano. While recovering at home he was taking piano lessons from master jazz pianist Eddie Weed and had discovered jazz harmony in an advanced way. Darrin is still a “first-call” pianist based in the Seattle area.
Dean Willoughby was the band’s solid second-trumpet player. He was rock-solid reliable and a great musician. He now builds the word’s finest trumpets.
I know that our sax player Sean Kelleher is still playing music in addition to his “day-job” too.
These are just some of the people that inspired me to want to play music when I was a student back at Jefferson High School almost 45 years ago. These people still inspire me today. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to play and learn alongside these and so many other great musicians over the years.
As I find the time, I hope to do some more data mining (Internet stalking) and add more folks to this post. If you know of some musicians from that time I should add here, get in touch.