Inspiration & the Creative Commons

I use a Creative Commons license for my music, in the hopes that someone else will hear it and be inspired.

Well, it finally worked.

I received a message through MySpace from TLee, a student filmmaker from Syracuse University. He found one of my songs online, liked it, and used it in his sophomore film project!

The song is “A Spy in the House of Pancakes“, track #13 on handmade.

TLee’s message meant a lot to me. See, I’m only a musician because other people inspired me. I have found such joy in music, and here are some of the people I owe it to:

• Alligator Records, who made me love the blues. When I first came to Gainesville, my first visitors (in the band sense) were Little Ed and the Blues Imperials and Koko Taylor.
• John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius, and Chick Corea, who innovated and created new styles of jazz.
• Jamey Aebersold, Jerry Coker, Mark Levine, and the other great jazz educators who taught me the science behind the sound.
• Marty Liquori, who helped me start my first band.

So I feel I ought to “pay it forward.” For years, I studied other people’s music — jazz standards. After all that time learning the language, I gained the ability to speak on my own. If it hadn’t been for the folks who created and inspired me, maybe I would never have found music . . . My Own Avalon.