Just got home from eating a big blueberry sundae at Jonathan's (24 hour family restaurant chain in Tokyo). Went to Tower Records in Shibuya tonight and bought a bunch of recording/music production magazines and then went to the Outback Steakhouse and ate a whole rack of bbq babyback ribs. Mannnnnn...that was some good eatin'. While I was at Tower Records, I saw a great dvd playing of Carlos Santana and Wayne Shorter playing together live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1988. It made me think back to my experience at the Montreux Festival in 1995. Of course, it was a great experience to be there and performing but, I really enjoyed the "after hours" sessions. I heard musicians from all over the world and from all different styles jammin together. All the barriers were broken down. I love that. I grew up listening to bebop and blues. My very first album was called , "The In Between", by Booker Ervin. I had a couple of Charlie Parker things with Miles...some Clark Terry, B.B. King, Roy Buchannon, Beatles, Elvis, a little Mozart and Haydn. I listened to Doc Severinsen, Chase and Maynard Ferguson a lot. But, it was really Clark Terry, B.B. King, Roy Buchannon, Charlie Parker and Booker Ervin that had my ear. I've always loved bebop. I'm crazy about Dexter Gordon, Hank Mobley and Kenny Dorham. But, there are so many other kinds of music out there. I want to play music with all kinds of different grooves from many nations and cultures. I often hear musicians trashing other styles of music (other than what they are into). Some straight-ahead people trashing free jazz or fusion or smooth jazz. I don't get it. When I was in music school, I played in as many ensembles as possible. But, often my friends (who played only classical) would ask me why I play that jazz crap. Jazz musicians would ask me why I play that classical s---. I even had teachers that hated it because I played "jazz". Some even called it "devil's" music. As a 20 year old music student, that kind of thinking just blew my mind. I couldn't believe that people could be so closed and arrogant about music. However, over the last 20 years I have been surrounded by that kind of thinking. I've even had some players walk off the bandstand because I wanted to do a tune in a gig that was in a style they felt was "below" them. Just trying to look at this rationally, I would think that musicians would be some of the most open-minded in terms of crossing-over to other styles. But, it just hasn't been my experience. Recently, I've been doing a lot of "groove" music...maybe some would call it fusion, even smooth jazz or kind of an r&b thing. Whatever....I don't much care about those labels anymore. I know that some are disappointed when they listen to my "jazz" podcast and they don't hear me doing an all acoustic version of some 60 year old "cover" tune. Don't get me wrong, I truly love all that. Maybe sometimes I will do that. But, I don't feel any obligation to always have to do that. And I certainly don't care what anyone thinks about it. I love to put Miles on with Red Garland on piano and hear them swingin their asses off on All of You or one of the "pop" tunes of that era. But, now I think it's my responsibility to do something new and/or original. At least something that relates to life in 2005. Or something that relates to my life. When I lived in the USA, I saw people dancing at over 50% of my gigs. Now that I've been in Japan for 7 years, I realize how much I miss that. I remember doing a gig in Siberia, Russia in January of 1996. We were playing Miles' All Blues with that Jimmy Ponder funky Pittsburgh beat and suddenly the whole audience stood up, folded their chairs against the wall and started dancing. It was maybe 300-400 people. It was so nice to play and see those people moving to our "groove". My concern now is how to create different emotions and vibes in the room with our music. I want to use differnet colors, different beats, simple harmony, advanced and extremely modern harmony, and nice melodies. I want people to feel deeply touched. That's how I felt when I saw Jimmy Scott recently. When I saw Pat Metheny's band last year with Richard Bona and Antonio Sanchez. When I saw Shirley Horn. These were all very deep experiences. Very emotional artists. They go beyond style. They reach in and touch your heart.