New Year Goals

I know…It’s March 29th. The new year started 87 days ago, but it’s a new year for ME, since my birthday was yesterday. I have SOOOOO many new things in the works, I don’t know where to start. It’s not time to talk about some of those plans, but I anxiously look forward to being able to.

One thing I’m very excited about is my new single I released yesterday - Plain & Simple.

#music #musicblog #musician #jazzmusician #contemporaryjazz #saxophone #saxophonist #composer #indiemusician #newmusic

This track is inspired by and in memory of the late Joe Sample (keys) and Tom Scott (sax). Both have been very instrumental (no pun intended) during my musical journey over the years. Along with my childhood hero David Sanborn - who passed recently - these musical icons have helped me create my own sound. I don’t listen to much ‘new jazz’, so I couldn’t tell you who is active on the jazz charts anymore - both smooth jazz and straight ahead. To me, most smooth jazz is too…smooooooth, and I have never had much interest in playing standards and traditional jazz.

I was a child of the 70s & 80s, graduated high school in ‘90. My musical influences up until I was 14 and started listening to different types of jazz, was primarily Top40 and classical music. My first CD was Kenny G’s Duotones. Shortly thereafter, I was introduced to the music of David Sanborn and it literally changed my life. In my 20s I was a big fan of smooth jazz artists like Norman Brown, Peter White, Dave Koz and Candy Dulfer, but also was very inspired by music from SpyroGyra, The Rippingtons, Brandon Fields, The Brecker Brothers, and Marcus Miller.

In 2009, I bought the album ‘Did You Feel That’ by Joe Sample & The Soul Committee. Once again, my life was changed. I began hearing music differently. That album had a certain essence to it that brought together pieces of so many styles of music that I love. Shortly after, I also started listening to ‘Smokin' Section’ by Tom Scott & The L.A. Express. I had primarily played and preferred the sound of alto saxophone, but Tom’s playing on that album really spoke to me in a way that no tenor players’ sound ever did.

In 2010, I formed my first jazz group in my hometown of Mansfield, Ohio - Bryce Millikin & Friends. We played several local gigs over the next year and half. Our set lists were a combination of my originals, some covers and my own instrumental covers of pop tunes - inspired by how Herbie Hancock did so with songs like ‘Thieves In The Temple’ by Prince, ‘New York Minute’ by Don Henley, and ‘Love Is Stronger Than Pride’ by Sade on his 1996 album ‘The New Standard’.

If you’re wondering where I’m going with all of this, I’m almost there…

I have been composing ‘my music’ for 15 years now and have enough recorded demos for 4 albums, and usually write 3-5 ‘winners’ a month. I realized a few months ago that it’s time to face my fears of my music not being ‘good enough’ and start releasing some tracks. David Sanborn’s passing last year was the final nudge I needed.

You see, I have never felt my music wasn’t ‘good enough’, it’s just that any time I had reached out to other musicians to collaborate or to be part of what I was doing, either they weren’t interested or things just didn’t work out. So, I figured out how to produce my music my way. There were times when I felt led to create certain songs because the ideas would come to me as if I was listening to them. Sometimes I had drop everything and work on the idea before it left me and went to someone else.

Back to Sanborn’s passing… I awoke really early one morning and had this powerful feeling that I was being inspired to write ‘my music’ because it IS different than what is out there right now. My sound is a tribute to all who have inspired me over the past 40 years. I guess you could say I felt led to believe it’s my turn to carry the ‘contemporary jazz’ torch. I know that sounds arrogant AF, but I don’t mean it that way. I will never be the kind of players that Sanborn, Sample, Scott and others are/were, but it’s time to take my gift and my passion for my music more seriously. I have been shown there is a purpose for it, and now it’s up to me to step up to the…mic.

So, finally launching this website was the first step. I’ll continue releasing my music regularly, and will be putting together another band soon to play my tunes I wrote for a larger group. Others are beyond my playing ability, so I will be reaching out to other players to record them, giving me the opportunity to wear my producer’s hat.

It’s and exciting and scary time.

But it IS time.

I heard the call, and I say ‘YES’…