GregMeyerMusic
49 Lakeside Dr.
Greenbelt, MD 20770
alt: 301-821-2291
dolbadar
About ME
I started playing alto saxophone in the 6th grade, probably because my parents always watched the Lawrence Welk show. I switched to the tenor in 7th grade. It was always something I did well. My mom brought home a record one day from a discount stand in the grocery store called Groovin High. It featured selections by Phil Woods, Art Pepper, Pepper Adams, Richie Kamuca, Jay Core and Gabe Balthasar. I was stunned. I had a scary feeling they were making all that stuff up. Flash forward 2 years to a pep band rehearsal at John's house. We played Tijuana Brass tunes for home basketball games. During a break John was showing us his private lesson stuff. The cat was blowing Dizzy solos in the 8th grade!! Hey what's that - Bbm7? Oh that's a chord. It tells what notes you can play. CLICK!! They WERE making it all up! I had been listening to Al Collins on the radio and I probably had heard Getz, Cannonball and who knows who else. I was a Purple Grotto denizen. Now it all began to make sense. I need to play like that.
I moved to Maryland for high school and studied with Joe Moser and later went to the University of Maryland to study classical music with George Etheridge. The French stuff was challenging and fun and quite different from jazz. I still like running through the classical music. I got a B.S. in Music Ed. in 1974 and went back in 1976 for two semesters as a sax performance major. Real life got in the way so I didn't stay for the M.M. Got married and moved to New York. What fun that was.
In the middle 70s I liked to go to Harold's Rogue and Jar in D.C. where I met Turk Mauro and Mike Brecker. Turk agreed to give me some lessons and after a few months he sent me to Phil Woods up in Delaware Water Gap. I drove up there twice a month for several months and got a whoopin, but I learned from the master. When I moved to New York I bugged Mike for a few months until he finally gave me a lesson of sorts. He was very relaxed and genuine - a real class act. He introduced me to Slonimski's theory and the Coltrane connection (Countdown, Giant Steps...). Wow, another CLICK!!
Working in New York was amazing. I played in the Manhattan Plaza Jazz Composers Orchestra under Muhal Abrams and later Slide Hampton and next to Chico Freeman, Walter Bishop Jr., Jack Walrath, Ricky Ford, Roger Rosenberg, Doug Purviance and many more. I had a steady gig at the Village Gate in a big band, I was on the avant garde scene, I played in a rock band called the 4 Skins, I played many recording sessions with many people (including Bob Mintzer, Jane Ira Bloom ...), I fronted a wedding band in New Jersey, and had a heck of a good time. The desire to make a steady income, however, led me to the road. I played in, fronted, and led show bands in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and seemingly every Sheraton in between.
So the old biological clock was clicking away and, well, I had to go back to school and get into IT. So I put down the horn for a while and now that my kids are a bit older I have a chance to return to music and I'm loving it! "You don't quit playing because you get old. You get old because you quit playing."
Got that right!
49 Lakeside Dr.
Greenbelt, MD 20770
alt: 301-821-2291
dolbadar
