There were a lot of great things you could go and hear for very little money at the time [ '80s]. Mike Stern is still playing at the 55 Bar on Mondays or Wednesdays.

Jon Gordon

Categorized in : Littles Monday Bars

I have to say, music was always my self preservation survival technique. This sort of sacred space in my life and in my mind.

survival space self

The Monk competition did open some doors. And I was thankful for... by Jon Gordon

The Monk competition did open some doors. And I was thankful for that.

competition monk doors

I remember [Joe] Lovano came around to me at that time [of Monk competition]. And I had taken some lessons with Joe and I had seen Joe on the scene. He had always been so great to me, such and inspiration and so kind. One lesson that I had with Joe was just amazing. I'm just such a fan and an admirer of his on every level. He was like, "Don't worry... you're just out here. You just do what you're doing. Don't worry if it doesn't make you a household name or anything."

taken inspiration names

I remember Art Blakey saying to me, "Just remember, we're blessed... by Jon Gordon

I remember Art Blakey saying to me, "Just remember, we're blessed to do what we do."

blessed remember art

I never got to play with Art [ Blakey], but he was kind and spoke to me a number of times. He said, "You know, the people who are working 40 hours a week. Those are the ones who are really paying dues. Sitting at a desk doing the same thing every day. We're really blessed to do what we do."

blessed play art

It's a complicated story [hoe I got into music ]. I actually wrot... by Jon Gordon

It's a complicated story [hoe I got into music ]. I actually wrote a book about it, titled For Sue.

hoe stories book

I think that's important to remember - That we're blessed to even be able to attempt to do this [music].

important blessed thinking

I think we're in a time and place, the last 20 plus years, and certainly now, it's only more so, where it's just about us creating a body of work. Creating hopefully our own scene.

creating years thinking

I never really had a classical saxophone set-up. I just had a mid... by Jon Gordon

I never really had a classical saxophone set-up. I just had a middle of the road set up.

middle-of-the-road saxophone middle

I just think that I associated music with something that was heal... by Jon Gordon

I just think that I associated music with something that was healing and transformative as a kid.

healing kids thinking

[Manhattan School Of Music] were kind of just getting the jazz program up and going when I first started there. I was 17 in September of 1984 when I started there.

manhattan school firsts

[Manhattan School Of Music] didn't' have a jazz undergraduate program at the time so I played a semester in the big band. There was a graduate program. But I wasn't really that involved in jazz yet.

manhattan band school

We listened [with my mother] to [Frank] Sinatra and Glen Campbell and we had some Beatles records that I liked. This was in the '70s.

frank records mother

I took some comp for non-comp major classes with Giacomo Bracali and Ludmila Ulela, who was a really famous composition teacher.

composition class teacher

Justin Di Cioccio led a jazz program at Music and Art, but there was no jazz in Performing Arts. After they joined, it became Laguardia School of Arts.

jazz art school

Justin [Di Cioccio] was [at Laguardia School of Arts]. He later took over at Manhattan. But I knew Justin through the McDonald's band, which at the time I was finishing high school and starting college, I got involved with. I was not that heavily involved with the school at MSM my first year there. I took a semester off to start my 2nd year. Took classes I felt like taking during my third semester, but by the start of my third year, September of '86, they began the undergraduate jazz program and I joined that program.

college art school

I had a great year with Bob Mintzer [at Laguardia School of Arts]. Bob is great. We could have just brought the clarinet or dealt with classical stuff, or brought the flute or just dealt with comp and arranging... what a great teacher.

teacher art school

I had a really nice association with Richie DeRosa, a great musician, a great drummer and composer and arranger. And I had a number of classes with him.

nice class numbers

I made some nice associations. Ben Perowsky and Kevin Hays... Bill Mobley and Pete McGuinness. A lot of talented people.

hay nice people

We [with my mother] listened to music when I was a kid. We listened to a little bit of Bob's [Gordon] music, but just a little, I think it was too painful for her.

mother kids thinking