For the past couple of years, I have listened more to many of the great saxophone players of jazz history; John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Art Pepper. Not only sax players but piano players, trumpet players, even a few trombone players. It has been older music in general.

The first musician I ever gravitated toward was David Sanborn. I heard him on a record my Aunt had from the Montreux Jazz Festival. I don’t remember what year. I believe it was 1977-1980. Dave was playing with Randy Crawford. His sound and the soulful way he played grabbed my attention.

I was in high school and Sanborn was the first sax player I’d ever heard who played in a way I understood. I knew Blues at the time because of the kind of music typically played in my home. My dad loved B.B. King, Bobby Bland, and My mom liked Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, Johnny Taylor, Al Green, and many others. We listened to music all the time. We even listened to the Beatles, Supertramp, and many others.

I first learned about more traditional jazz in high school, but I still gravitated to more sweet-sounding, easy listening smooth jazz. I skipped over the more conventional jazz artists of old. It wasn’t until later in life that I gravitated to more modern music performed by artists like Michael Brecker and Bob Berg. Now that I am nearly 60 years old, I am appreciating and learning from players like Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, and so many more. I started with the more modern players like Brecker because of their work on commercial R&B and fusion jazz. Mostly because in my mind it did not sound old. It was kind of like rock music with a little funk and jazz mixed in.

I was young and very stubborn. In college, my professors told me to listen to the greats. I did not. I wonder how much farther along I would be had I heard what they were telling me. What you listen to has a direct effect and influence on how you play.

When we are young, we always think we know best. When I think back on it, I’m always reminded how true this saying is; “Youth is waisted on the young.” I wish I had been more of a listener. Every teacher I had in high school, college and even the Armed Forces school of music told me to learn my scale inside and out, and to listen to the greats. I didn’t really begin to do either of these things until I was much older. And I really didn’t begin to listen to the old legends, analyzing the music they played until I was 54.

Wisdom was certainly wasted on me. I really don’t know what I was thinking back then. I could have gone so much farther in my professional life and enjoyed it much more had I only listened to the mentors in my life.

Well, I may be old now, but I am a much better listener now, though I lack the same drive I had in my youth. I am still capable of learning and improving, and I am doing so, slowly but surely.