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Take Five With Peter Slocombe

By AAJ Staff
March 18, 2009
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Meet Peter Slocombe:

As a professional musician, Peter divides his time teaching and performing. He has had experience teaching privately, through the Community Arts Partnership (A non-profit arts organization), and running clinic's at high school music programs. He has also shared the stage with well known jazz artists: Larry Koonse, Joe LaBarbera, Darek Oles, Vinny Golia, and John Fumo.

Some of Peter's Compositions can be heard on the 2004, 2005, 2006, Capitol Records-released Cal Arts Jazz CDs.

His debut album, Lullaby for Elizabeth, features performances by: Peter Slocombe (saxophones); Larry Koonse (guitar); Gary Fukushima (piano); Sam Minaie: (bass); Matt Mayhall: (drums) and Brian Walsh: (bass clarinet on track 1).

Instrument(s):

Tenor and alto saxophones.

Teachers and/or influences?

My teacher Paul Novros had a huge impact on me while i was in college. I try to stay open with my musical influences and grab as much as possible from all musical genres.

Your sound and approach to music:

I try to be very honest with myself when practicing. It is sometimes easy to get carried away on an instrument like the saxophone and lose your musicality. I will spend a lot of time working on finding my own sound on the instrument.

What do you think is the most important thing you are contributing musically?

The most important thing I could contribute musically is originality. There is a lot of potential in young musicians right now, but i feel that they often get caught up chasing someone else's shadow. I think that this is an exciting time for jazz with a lot of interesting crossovers, and I could try to incorporate some of those into my music.

CDs you are listening to now:

Elliot Smith, Figure 8;

Sonny Rollins, Newk's Time;

The Gap Band, Greatest Hits;

Freddie Hubbard, Straight Life.

What are some of the essential requirements to keep jazz alive and growing?

Originality and an active audience. We need more young people supporting creative music and going out to live shows.

What is in the near future?

Hopefully I will piece together a lot of unfinished compositions I am working on. I would like to release another album and promote the music to a larger audience.

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About Peter Slocombe

Instrument: Saxophone, tenor

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