Happy New Year, if you happen to be reading this blog. Every year about this time I hop online and write down some of the things I would like to accomplish in the upcoming 12 months. Now that I have retired (for the second time) from the Academy, there might actually be time to get some of these projects done. A partial list would include preparing some of my big band and jazz combo arrangements for publication, beefing up my online profiles to attract more private students, establish some type of affiliate marketing arrangement with some online vendors, and creating more educational content for my students.
I already have several projects in the works, including teaching online lessons, teaching at a local music school, accompanying my storytelling wife on her gigs, and of course, playing casual piano and saxophone gigs around the area. I have also landed a seat on tenor sax with the New Hampshire Jazz Orchestra, about which you will be hearing more. And I am still playing an occasional concert with the Seacoast Big Band on lead alto.
One new project that I am very excited about demands some research into funding possibilities for archival purposes. I have been gifted with the cassette tape collection of a local musician (with an international reputation). These tapes, in his possession for decades, provide aural insight into the jazz scene in Boston and Portsmouth, NH, with some performances at UNH in Durham. There are many well recognized performers blessing us with their artistic interpretation of great jazz standards, and the recording quality is excellent because engineer Gaylord Russell was behind the controls. Some of his work currently resides in Special Collections at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, thanks to the vision of Dorothy Prescott, and perhaps these recordings will find some space there after being electronically converted to disc.
Last year, I qualified for the New Hampshire “Humanities To Go” program and made a presentation of historical slides at the Taylor Community in Laconia. In January, I will be editing the presentation and putting it up on YouTube for anyone interested in the influence that the Jazz Program at UNH, developed by Dave Seiler in the 1980s and 90s, has had on jazz in the Seacoast Area and New Hampshire in general. Many of his (and my) students are currently running band programs of their own, and many graduates of the program have gone on to successful careers both teaching and performing jazz and other contemporary styles of music.
OK - so what, you are probably asking yourself, does this have to do with achieving YOUR goals for 2025? Simply this: start with a list of all the projects you are currently involved with. Then make a second list of all the projects you would like to see come to fruition in 2025. How much of what you are currently doing relates to the new goals? This is where you revise your plans; what new actions can you take that will bring you closer to realizing the new projects? What actions have proven unproductive and can be let go? What feels most important to you creatively or financially? In my opinion, incremental change is the least anxiety producing course of action. Take little steps, but do them everyday. Plan your available time before launching into too many new projects at once. Prioritize the most important work and get it done early in your day while you still have energy. Take time out to walk, listen to music, read a book, practice Yoga, drink tea and take care of yourself. These few days after Christmas and before the New Year can be really useful in recharging your spiritual batteries! Good luck!