Challenges ONLY make you STRONGER!!! by Jon Gordon

Challenges ONLY make you STRONGER!!!

Jon Gordon

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Categorized in : Challenges Stronger Stay Positive

Phil [Wood] said to me in the car going back, he said, "Look man, you better know why you're playing this music. Because I've known too many who lived and died for it. And if you're not trying to change the world, I'm not interested."

There's a lot of good people out here that want to help you grow and to help the music to continue to grow and evolve and go find those folks and be around them and carry it on... carrying the tradition on in the way with what it is that you have to offer. Find some good people in the music that will believe in you and they'll help you do that.

want believe people

If I could have picked two guys on the planet, to have some exposure to at that age, those were the two right guys [Phil Woods and Charles McPherson].

Enthusiasm attracts more passengers and energizes them during the... by Jon Gordon

Enthusiasm attracts more passengers and energizes them during the ride.

passengers enthusiasm

Enthusiasm comes from the Greek word entheos, which means, "inspi... by Jon Gordon

Enthusiasm comes from the Greek word entheos, which means, "inspired" or "filled with the divine."

greek enthusiasm mean

You fuel your life with trust and love instead of fear and doubt. by Jon Gordon

You fuel your life with trust and love instead of fear and doubt.

fuel and-love doubt

One negative person can create a miserable office environment for... by Jon Gordon

One negative person can create a miserable office environment for everyone else.

environment office negative

Earlier that year [1996], Ronnie Scott came to Visiones when I was playing with Maria and he hired me to come and play in his club in London, which I was gratified by. That allowed me to make some more connections.

connections play years

[Winning the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition]... by Jon Gordon

[Winning the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition]definitely opened some doors.

competition winning doors

I had played some festivals with people and met and been around some good people, for sure. But what I say to my friends and students, anything like that with a grant or a competition, it involves a great deal of luck.

competition luck people

The best thing you can do is just go and have fun with [competiti... by Jon Gordon

The best thing you can do is just go and have fun with [competition].

best-things competition fun

I saw a nice interview with Dave Binney recently. He was saying, "Man it was never easy. It's not like 'Oh wow, the good old days.' What, when certain people couldn't vote?" There was more work for musicians in the '40s, '50s, '60s. But I don't think it was ever easy.

nice men thinking

You hear about the struggles with substances and all that, but [Phil Wood] was a really a great guy. This was a great man.

guy struggle men

[Phil Wood] was a great artist, and he knew things. He could be mildly conversant in several languages.

woods language artist

Percy France told me, similarly, he and Bird used to hang out. They were good buddies. And he said, "Man, we'd just walk through town, sometimes with our horns. And we'd walk by past an Irish bar. And you'd stand outside and check out the music. And Bird would go in and sit in with these traditional Irish musicians. Then we'd past a Greek restaurant and we'd hear that. And Charles "Bird" Parker would go sit in with those guys. He was just listening to everything, reacting to everything.

[Charlie Parker] was kind of a sponge and intrigued by it all.That's similar to what Phil [Woods] told me about Bird, too. Like he was into cooking. He was just into a lot of things. Yeah, it's about dealing with bebop and jazz and Trane [John Coltrain] and post-Trane and knowing the history. But you've got to live. You have to experience things. Know something in this world. So it was a very deep education about what it means to try and be an artist.

knowing artist mean

The first CD I had, that I think had had any redeeming qualities to it, I did when I was 25 with a relatively small label called Chiarascuro.

cds quality thinking

The first jazz cruise that I was on was '91. I played with Maria Schneider and John Fedchock's band. Got to meet some amazing people that week.

band people firsts

Things dribbled in in dribs and drabs through my 20s. But it was... by Jon Gordon

Things dribbled in in dribs and drabs through my 20s. But it was a struggle.

I had made a couple of records in Europe. One as a leader, and one as a sideman before that. It was what it was. I started to work with Maria Schneider around that period and some other people, I started to get called to sub at the Vanguard in my mid-20s.

couple europe people