We met on Theriomorph’s blog. Glad I finally looked you up. I should have when you mentioned the Mozart clarinet concerto. We have things almost in common. I am a saxophonist from the east coast who, only I started improvising when I was 5 (not well, mind you, but could always play what I felt, and then have spent the rest of my life learning the other stuff.

I love your perspective, humility and gift for communication. You must be a fine clarinetist. It is funny to me that you wrote this Long Way Around posting… several years ago I was the odd man teaching jazz at a predominantly classical school in the New York area. The clarinet professor (reputable guy, you’d definitely know him), my immediate “superior” took it upon himself to try hard to disarm me by insisting I teach classical sax for at least 3 years before doing any jazz so that the students could get the “fundamentals” before learning the way out stuff. We basically disagreed about everything… one day i found out from a mutual student that every day this teacher would attempt to find the most efficient way to get to school, shortest distance vs. least light and stops, etc. Whereas I would leave school each day and purposely get myself lost, so I could find a new way home. I have always used this story to demonstrate the difference between an improvisor’s nature and that of a, let’s say, non-improvisor. YOU, my new friend, have enlightened me and I will return the favor by insisting that despite your musical path, you are an improvisor!!! thanks for the lesson…

I recall being mesmerized by that same Mormon Temple. It is so hard to drive and view it at the same time. In fact, I think that is unsafe, which is why I relished being a passenger to gaze at it reaching to the sky with a magic that fascinated me. I did not grown up travelling the world, so that was a new site to me, unlike any building I had ever seen. When I first saw it, I thought it was a castle.