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Peter Rawlings

About Me

My Jazz Story

I love jazz because of its brutal honesty. I was first exposed to jazz... by my Father, who was a WW II Veteran, who grew up during the Swing era, who would play Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, Les Brown, Kai Winding, Cannonball Adderley, and others, on Sunday afternoons after church. When I started music lessons in third grade, I didn't know what instrument to pick. My Dad (a huge Benny Goodman fan), suggested the clarinet, and I responded: "What's that?" He pulled out the dictionary to show me a picture of one, and I said, "ok". That started me on my journey. I have met Stan Kenton, Nathan Davis, Ken Pullig, Gary Burton, Herb Pomeroy, John LaPorta, Joe Viola, Bob Mover, Phil Wilson, Mike Stern, Branford Marsalis, Herman Johnson, David Mash, Ernie Watts, Milt Jackson, Mark Yannie, Jack Schantz, Chris Conway, Dave Banks, Jim Wannacott, Quincy Jones, Makoto Ozone, Aimee Mann, Scott Robinson, Roland Paolucci, Cyrus Chestnut and Donald Harrison. The best concert I ever attended was MIles Davis in the early eighties in Boston. The first jazz record I bought was Miles Davis's Kind of Blue.