Richard Kalman

As a child, jazz records were played in the house. Early faves were Eartha Kitt, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra. I matured into a love of jazz in phases. As a teenager, I took up guitar and learned folk music and blues, admiring Josh White, Robert Johnson, Leadbetter, Buddy Guy. Folk heroes were Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and The Limelighters. The San Francisco explosion of Rock and the arrival of the Beatles and Rolling Stones overshadowed almost everything else. I learned piano by playing through the entire Beatles book and longed to learn jazz improvisation, as practiced by great jazz musicians. I earned a BA in Jazz Studies, at SSU Sonoma, graduating in 1991. Thereafter I began teaching and performing vocal jazz. I led a vocal jazz combo for several years and was then invited to co-lead a jazz big band. That's what I'm doing now. I found in jazz musical expression of deep feelings not touched by other music, and in jazz vocals, artistic articulation of powerful personal emotions. In addition, jazz improvisation provides an intellectual challenge, and excitement is found in discovering the novel paths the music takes.