I have been composing, performing and recording music for over three decades. My earliest musical influences were from my father who while not an accomplished musician certainly knew how to do wonderful and passionate impersonations of Leonard Bernstein conducting Beethoven. When folk ask me 'does music run in the family?' I jokingly reply that it does but it stops in a few places. It flowed (and still flows) through my piano playing older brother who introduced me to the world of jazz at an early age. In jazz I discovered the joy of creating music on the spot which tended to suit my personality, I took to it without reservation. With jazz I chose the formal route through the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in Melbourne, Australia. My fears of becoming institutionalised at the VCA were quickly dismissed during my first class, here the students were directed by the lecturer to play the sound of the beach on their instruments, I played the sound of the seagull on my instrument, from there I flew through my degree.
After my time at the VCA I worked as a free lance musician for a number of years in the Melbourne jazz scene. I played with wonderful musicians such as David Hirschfelder, Joe Chindamo, Andy Vance and singers Al Martino, Christine Sullivan and Lisa Fields. I even did a season with the Moscow circus on ice, thankfully the musicians didn't have to play on the ice. What I soon discovered about many jazz musicians was that they were much like philosophers, with ADHD. They took deep musical concepts - like the lydian chromatic concept of tonal organisation - and dialled them up to high speed.
At the age of 24 my life began to veer off the rails, a profound spiritual experience arrested me and established harmony with God my Creator.
I took a two year break from music and travelled the world at that point. An Anglican vicar wisely suggested prior to my departure, 'many people travel the world to find themselves and don't know when to come home because they are unsure when they have found themselves'. I found I had already sorted the big existential questions on life although I was unsure of what role music would play in this new found world view.. I saw a lot of great music in the USA and Europe along with some spectacular scenery. In the USA I had a Sony Walkman and 1 cassette of Dvorak's New World Symphony, I wore it out.
Returning back to Australia in the early 1990's I co-founded the gospel group the Sons of Korah. This involved 8 CDs and a trunk load of touring the planet for round 15 years. The band had (and still has) the goal of setting the 150 Biblical psalms to music.
Of recent years I have been mainly focusing on my own projects and have recorded 4 CDs of instrumental music. The material is all acoustic and could possibly be described as 'reflective world music'. I have an affinity for Latin and Middle Eastern musical expressions as is evidenced in my recordings. I'm also a lover of the German record label ECM whose music often appeals to introspective's as myself.
Since 2014 I have been street performing (busking) throughout Australia and New Zealand. The experience of playing music to the broadest possible demographic has afforded a host of new experiences. Possibly you have seen me on the street, given a donation, purchased a cd even....thankyou.
My home base is currently in Geelong close to Melbourne, Australia where I live with my wife Angela and three adorable children. RG.