Though multi-instrumentalist Van Bertie of Locals 427-621 (Tampa Bay, FL) and 655 (Miami, FL) was born on a small Caribbean island, his career has brought him all around the world, performing at a wide variety of events.

“My dad was a musician, he played piano and repaired and made pianos and organs,” says Bertie. “I would listen to my father and play along.” Van’s brothers were also musically inclined, and Van first picked up his older brother’s guitar at about age five.

Van Bertie of Locals 427-621 (Tampa Bay, FL) and 655 (Miami, FL) plays guitar, steel drum, and flute.

Growing up on Saint Christopher Island, which is more popularly known as St. Kitts, Bertie thought he could probably earn a living playing music, though he knew it would mean leaving the island. “I started listening to the only radio station on St. Kitts and playing along with all the songs. That’s how I got serious with it,” he says.

At first his four-piece combo traveled around the Caribbean, playing in the Virgin Islands—Saint Croix and Saint Thomas. Then, as a solo artist, in Africa and Canada, he performed mostly Caribbean music, reggae, calypso, plus some R&B, oldies, and top 40 songs. Eventually he landed in New York for a while. “It was cold, and very different as far as culture,” he says.

One day his brother told him: “I’ve got a contract for you to come and play for a cruise ship.” Bertie traveled on cruise ships from island to island for about three years, until he got tired of the lifestyle. He settled down in Florida.

Bertie says he first joined the AFM about 1995, when he was working in Canada. He was encouraged to join by another musician who worked at Disney World. He says the organization has helped him along the way, plus he has a pension plan.

When Bertie first left St. Kitts, he only played guitar. He took up playing the steel drums about 12 years ago due to the popularity of Caribbean music. He also plays some flute. “Right now I am specializing in weddings and corporations, major hotels, and gigs like that,” he says.

He currently also plays in a five-piece reggae band, as well as a blues band. One favorite recurring gig for the reggae band is the Annual Bob Marley Birthday Tribute at the Green Parrot in Key West.

Composer and musician David Amram of Locals 1000 (Nongeographic) and 802 (New York City) has spent his entire life exploring a diverse range of music and “hanging out” with other musicians.

David Amram ended 2015 by celebrating his 85th birthday in grand style, with festivities in New York City, Toronto, and London, among other places. Looking back on those 85 years there is plenty to celebrate. Amram’s career has followed an odd trajectory that has had him playing French horn with a series of iconic jazz musicians; befriending and collaborating on a wide variety of instruments with classical, folk, rock, world, and country musicians; and conducting 75 of the world’s top orchestras. As a composer, he’s written 100-plus works for symphony and chamber orchestra, two operas, 23 Broadway musical scores, and worked on 20 film scores. The member of Locals 1000 (nongeographic) and 802 (New York City) took the time to share his wisdom with International Musician readers.

As a young musician you met and worked with a lot of iconic musicians. What do you think they saw in you?

I think they saw I was very young and very eager. I understand that now because I’m very old, but I’m still very eager. When I see a young person, and I see that look in their eye, I see myself as I must have appeared as a 20-year-old. I remember all the older people, not just in jazz, but in symphonies, folk music, and Latin music, who took the time to try to guide me to feel that I could do something, and most of all, that I should respect the music first and foremost and try to be gracious to every person who crossed my path because they could all teach me a lesson. That was a blessing in my life to this very day.

Now that I’ve turned 85, I realize that it’s my turn to do what Dizzy Gillespie told me I should do. When we played at his 70th birthday party at Wolftrap Farm in 1986, he said, “I met you in 1951 at your basement apartment in Washington, DC. You were then a 20-year-old hayseed, hick and now you have gray hair. It’s time to put something back into the pot.” That’s what Dizzy did his whole life. He understood that that’s what we are supposed to do in music and that’s what we are supposed to do in life. And if you do that, you feel good because you have made a contribution.

You had many interesting opportunities to work with various people—Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller, George Plimpton. Can you talk about some of those early projects?

There were a lot of other people in very prominent positions who probably thought I was just a nut case, but I happened to be very fortunate. I’ve met thousands of people, some that no one ever heard of, who have been enormously helpful.

I was working in the US Post Office part time, working as a moving man, playing with both Charles Mingus Quintet and Oscar Pettiford’s big bands, and squeaking by, when I got a call in 1958 from Elia Kazan’s office. At first I thought it was a crank call. They wanted to get a composer for the play, JB. They had gotten in touch with about 10 famous composers, all of whom were too busy. Kazan knew that I was a budding classical composer of sorts, composing music for Joe Papp’s free Shakespeare in the Park, and was a jazz player.

The same thing happened in 1966 when I was chosen as the first composer in residence with the New York Philharmonic. I got this announcement saying that 300 or so composers were being considered. I never thought they would choose me. If I made a list of all the people who never wrote back, or said no, that would be 15 times longer than anything in my bio.

Do you recall the feeling the first time you heard an orchestra play one of your compositions?

They were going to play my “Autobiography for Strings,” in 1959. I had never had a piece for a whole string orchestra, or any kind of a big orchestra, played in a formal concert. The feeling was that all these terrific musicians were doing something, and that I was just like the proverbial fly on the wall; it wasn’t about me. It’s the same feeling I had when my kids were born. Suddenly, there’s something else that you helped to get started and you hoped that it would have a life of its own.

You are one of the most versatile composers/musicians ever, comfortable in jazz, folk, and classical worlds. Is it difficult to “fit in” in all those scenes?

I think that was an issue probably for most of the 20th century, but now, with the availability of YouTube, today’s young people are able to see, hear, study with master Middle Eastern tambourine players; South American pipes players; Afro Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Brazilian percussionists. Each of whom have hundreds of different styles in their cultures … I was called a pioneer of world music, but I’m not. I just have been, and always will be, interested in all kinds of music that touch my heart.

Most of my life I’ve been a full-time student in the university of hangout-ology, where, if you are sincere and you can say, “please” and “thank you,” that’s all the tuition you need. Conversely, if someone gives you the cold shoulder, have compassion for that person, but hang out with somebody else. The thing that really appeals to me about music isn’t about the lifestyle, it’s about the music and all those blessings the music brings to you and all the people you can meet and things you can do. I never have writer’s block as a composer because I have enough inspiration from all the terrific people I’ve been surrounded by. I have a few hundred years of stuff to write.

How important is it for young musicians/composers to put themselves out there and get to know others?

I think the most important thing is to be around music, not just for networking, but for spiritual, musical, intellectual, social survival, and to realize that small is beautiful. [That’s] what Charles Mingus told me on the first night I played with him. Half the people in the Café Bohemia were either asleep, nodding off, or listening to their transistor radios … Mingus would have to fight to get paid at the end of the week. But, he said, “No matter how ratty the joint, every night with me is Carnegie Hall.” Conversely, years later, when I did play Carnegie Hall, it was so much easier, because Mingus made me understand that the challenge was to make everybody at Carnegie Hall feel like they are in your living room.

Why is AFM membership important to you?

I think that ever since Ronald Regan trashed the air traffic controllers and made it fashionable to ignore over 100 years of hard struggles, and sometimes even the loss of life, to give people some kind of a decent reward for their lifetime’s work, a lot of people use that as an excuse to exploit others into doing what they now call outsourcing—taking work to places where people are still in almost a slave labor economy. And I always found it disturbing that something musical, created in the United States, would become part of that outsourcing process. So when I do the very occasional film score I always request that it be done in the United States through the musicians union.

How did your Woody Guthrie project come about?

I met Woody in 1956. We spent hours talking about all of his experiences traveling, when he shipped out to sea, the places he traveled across the US, all the kinds of music, and people he heard, from the time he was brought up in Okemah, Oklahoma, to his travels around the world. He loved New York because you could have the world all in one place. He described how he used to walk through all the different neighborhoods and hear all the languages, the food, and all the different people and the fantastic music in those communities.

Decades later, Nora got in touch with me and said that the Guthrie Foundation was taking thousands of his poems and lyrics and having different people set them to music and they would like to have a classical piece. She said we had to use “This Land,” his most emblematic song. She asked me to reimagine Woody’s travels from when he left his hometown of Okemah.

It came out beautifully and Symphony Silicon Valley gave a wonderful premiere performance.

Is it difficult to conduct your own music?

Not if you remember that, when you are conducting your own music, it’s not your music anymore. It’s everybody’s music who’s playing it; you are there to help out the situation. Hopefully, the musicians will find something in the music that touches their hearts and they can then put their own creativity into what’s down on the paper. Rather than assuming the dictatorial approach, I try to be a fellow musician, appreciative of being around a lot of people, most of whom play better than I ever will. If you are clear and listen, stay out of the way, and help when needed, the music somehow always tells us what to do.

What is your outlook on the music industry today? Are you hopeful for its future?

The music industry, like the Titanic, has sunk to the bottom because it was too big, too fast, poorly administrated, and did not serve the needs of the customers. All of us who are in it—lifers in the music field—are in the rowboats that didn’t go down with that ship. We are going to shore for our next gigs and we are not going away. That’s the thing that’s so encouraging today. Those of us who love it and those who love to listen are now forming our own relationships. It’s a new day and a better one.

There are so many phenomenal young musicians, composers, conductors. When I go to schools and colleges they say, “Mr. Amram, your egalitarian attitude certainly is refreshing, but don’t you realize that, according to demographics, there are too many performers, composers, conductors, and not enough opportunities, and it’s a hopeless situation?” I always respond: “There are never too many sunsets and there’s never enough beauty.” I also tell the kids that what you do to pay your rent has no bearing on your value as a musician. Secondly, in our society, what you deserve and what you get have nothing to do with one another. And third, if you feel you were put here to do something and that is your calling, then regardless of all setbacks and struggles, do it anyway.

I think what we lack in today’s world is older people remembering that part of our gig is not to make younger musicians, composers, conductors, and soloists love us, but for us to show that we love them and we are all here to put something back into that pot.
What can we do as musicians to help ensure the health of our industry?

We should all continue to work towards keeping quality music of all genres in our public schools. Just as certain people in our society are trashing unions, they are also trashing public education. Part of our gig is to be advocates for all music.

What Leonard Bernstein told me in 1966, when I was the first composer in residence for the Philharmonic holds true today. He said, “David, your job as a composer is not just to please yourself, you are supposed to contribute something to the repertoire, to be an ambassador for music.” I think that’s part of what we all somehow have to find a way to do.

And, never to give up your love and enthusiasm for music. Treat all your other brother and sister musicians with respect. That’s really important.

I understand there’s a new five-CD set David Amram’s Classic American Movie Scores (1956-2016). When will that be available?

It highlights my music that was used in films and Broadway productions from 1956, leading up to my latest for the 2016 film Isn’t It Delicious. Some of this music never made it to the final cut of the films and is being heard for the first time. The set will be released in the US in February.

For Freddie Jones trumpet is everything. It has been a huge part of his life ever since he picked the instrument up at around age 12. Raised in Memphis, Tennessee, his mom had a beauty salon on the corner near Stax Records. The young musician was immersed in the local music scene. Brothers Willy Mitchell (trumpet) and James Mitchell (saxophone) who founded the Memphis Horns; Mickey Gregory who played with Isaac Hayes; and Ben Cauley—were among his heroes.

“They were neighborhood guys; it was very inspirational. You had all that music coming out of Memphis and we were playing it in high school and junior high,” he says. “I was probably in the 6th grade when the Bar-Kays came out with Soul Finger.”

Freddie Jones of Local 72-147 (Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX) founded the charity Trumpets4Kids, which provides children with quality trumpets and helps them succeed through music.

Jones began playing trumpet professionally as a teenager, first joining AFM Local 71 (Memphis, TN). “I’ve been in four different unions,” says the now Local 72-147 (Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX) member. “I think it’s important to have a consortium of people you can talk to.”

While still in high school, he was hired as part of an opening act for Bobby Womack, and was thrilled when he was invited by Ben Cauley himself to sit in with the main act. He says that experience was amazing. “Just to be in those places … but instead of hanging out I got to play.”

After graduating from high school, Jones began college at Memphis State, then attended Central State University in Ohio, though he admits he was out on the road gigging much of the time. He traveled through the Dallas/Fort Worth area several times with different bands and eventually transferred to the University of North Texas where he earned a degree in jazz studies.

Following college, Jones stayed in the area and slowly built a career. Aside from his many gigs in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, he has performed throughout the Southwest, and even overseas. His band, the Freddie Jones Jazz Group, has been together for almost 10 years. Jones has put out five CDs, including his most recent album, Your Last Move (2012), which he describes at a funky mixture of sounds that started out as a smooth jazz record.

Jones may be most well-known in the Dallas area as the trumpet player for the Dallas Cowboys, performing the National Anthem on solo trumpet before every home game since 2013. That gig, which has him routinely playing for 80,000 people at AT&T Stadium, was not something he ever thought he’d be doing.

Not a huge football fan, Jones says it was kind of ironic that he was asked to audition. He knew a couple former players. Emmitt Smith, Drew Pearson, and others would come see Jones play around Dallas. Coincidentally, the blue Martin Committee trumpet that he’s been playing since the 1980s is almost a perfect match for Cowboy blue.

Of all of Jones’ work, the one accomplishment he seems most proud of is the founding of the nonprofit Trumpets4Kids. The organization uses music as a tool to help children learn and shape their lives.

“Music fosters the development of attention and listening skills; it assists in emotional development; and music involvement is known to enhance self-esteem and confidence,” explains the Trumpets4Kids.com website.

“The goal of the organization is to empower youth to create together and independently in order to have a future,” Jones says. “We donate trumpets to students who have a need. We give them a trumpet they can be proud of, and let that push them towards their goals.” The trumpets given out are all good quality instruments—sometimes former instruments of professional players. He says the trumpet community has been “amazingly” supportive of the program.

But Trumpets4Kids is about more than just donating instruments; it’s a whole program with built-in lessons in responsibility and playing opportunities. The students selected in about 9th grade are interviewed by Jones himself. Before handing over the trumpets, the kids are asked to sign a contract agreeing to practice one hour per day, maintain the trumpet, as well as teach, help, and perform for other kids.

One Trumpets4Kids event that has grown over the years is Trumpet Wars. This activity was inspired by Jones’ days as a teenager in Memphis when he’d meet up with other musicians on street corners to challenge each other. The next Trumpet War will be held at Texas Wesleyan University, Fort Worth, on March 7 and will include competitions between trumpet trios, quartets, and quintets from all over the area.

“You can’t play trumpet by yourself all the time,” says Jones. Participants in the program also attend Interlochen music programs, and play in the Fort Worth Youth Orchestra, as well as the Dallas Youth Orchestra.

Trumpets4Kids’ mission is to help children succeed, no matter what career they choose to follow. But Jones has some special advice for young people launching a career in music. You have to be very diligent and focused on music, and get an education. And finally, he concludes, “I believe we all need somebody to help us at some point.”

With professional chops way beyond her age, Gina Osmar of Local 433 (Austin, TX) is making a name for herself in her local music market, as well as nationally. Osmar’s vocation began humbly at age three when she “played” a kit made up of empty cans brought home from the family restaurant. She learned basic 4/4 time from her dad, David Osmar, playing along to “Bad Company.” She got a real kit for Christmas when she was six. At age seven, she began drum lessons and was invited to join a church band made up of teenagers.

Osmar says that, at about age 10, was when she “finally” decided she wanted a career in music. “I had been playing at the NewChurch Georgetown for about a year by that time. That’s when I finally said I wanted to do this for a living. Then, we went out and recorded in Nashville. That’s when I started to get serious about it,” she says.

Fifteen-year-old Gina Osmar of Local 433 (Austin, TX) was only 10 when she decided she’d like to have a career in music.

The recording session happened when an independent record company saw a video of her playing “Lonely Night in Georgia” (a half-time shuffle) at her church. They were so impressed with the way she kept time with the singer’s nuances that they asked her to fly out to Nashville to record with some up and coming artists. That was her first paid session “gig” as drummer; she was 11.

At 15 years old, Osmar has now performed more than 500 shows. She has steady gigs at a couple of churches, playing for around 6,000 people almost every week. She performed with the headlining band Forever Starts Today for three shows at last year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) conference, and also appeared at the 2013 and 2014 NAMM shows in Los Angeles.

An AFM member for two years, Osmar was inspired to join after hearing about the benefits from other musicians. “I heard really good things about it,” she says. “It means security, good gigs … there’s a lot of positive about being in it.”

“I’m trying to teach Gina that, ‘If you want this to be big business, treat it like big business,’” says her dad, David Osmar. She doesn’t play for free. “She has done paid studio work from her home studio where she can record top-quality tracks for anyone, anywhere in the world.”

As a student at East View High School in Georgetown, Texas, Gina Osmar keeps a busy schedule. Her favorite sport is softball. She had to cut out basketball and marching band because there wasn’t enough time for that and all her musical activities. She is also learning to play keyboard and guitar, and has done some composing.
Though she doesn’t keep to a strict rehearsal schedule, Osmar says she often spends three hours in her studio when she gets home from school. “Music has always been a part of me, so I always seem to find the time to get that into my schedule,” she says.

Currently in 10th grade, Osmar hasn’t made any definite plans for what will follow high school. “College is one of those things I’m still not sure about.” As for her eventual career in music, she says, “I would love to be a touring artist, or play with a big name artist and tour with them. That would be awesome … or to play on a [television] show like Jimmy Fallon.”

Even with her busy schedule, Osmar makes it a point to give back to others. She’s used her talent to raise money for the homeless, and even donated a drum kit to a village in Haiti two years ago. This February she will play for the Wounded Warriors Foundation. “I think music helps everybody. I like to get involved with people who also love music. A lot of joy comes from seeing peoples’ reactions to the band I am playing with,” she says.

Part of that reaction may come from the fact that she doesn’t “look” like your typical rock and roll drummer. One time a producer recommended her as a drummer to a blues rocker in New Jersey.

“The producer was telling him that he found a drummer … and she’s a girl … and he says, ‘No way!’ and then he tells him that she’s only 14 and he says, ‘Absolutely, no way!’ But then he heard what I could do and he thought it was a pretty good idea,” recounts Osmar.

“It doesn’t really bother me,” she says, rather she enjoys the surprise when they discover her talents. “I would love to see more female artists. Females are often put out [in the music industry] as sex symbols and I would like to see more females that aren’t like that. That would showcase a lot of true talent and personalities.”

Osmar will perform at the NAMM Show again this January. At the show, she will also spend time with some of the equipment manufactures who have endorsed her. She is the youngest Audix microphones artist, and also has endorsements from Pearl, Soultone Cymbals, DC California Drums, AHead drumsticks, Remo drum heads, and Alien Ears in-ear monitors.

California party band The Hodads takes its name from the slang for a greaser, non-surfer who hangs out in the surfer scene. The group was first launched as a beach party theme band.

“We were a bunch of local musicians working for hire. At the time, there were a lot of casual offices hiring us to put together different groups. We just figured we would put our forces together, do it ourselves, and cut out the middleman,” explains Tony Jones, Hodad drummer.

The Hodads—(L to R) Sterling Smith (keyboard); Bob Schuster (guitar); Jimmy Street (sax); Tony Jones (drums), and John Hatton (bass)—outside a class reunion party gig at Coconut Joe’s.

A couple of the band members used to play with The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, says Jones. “We put that the material together to do beach parties,” says the Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) member. Upon seeing the potential, the band expanded the concept to all kinds of party themes and styles of music, among them: Blues Brothers; Motown revue, disco ’70s; Margaritaville; ’50s sock hop; psychedelic ’60s; country and western, biker, yacht club, as well as Hollywood themes; and the classic rock show. “We do whatever the party calls for.”

All of The Hodads are vocalists and they take their turns as frontman for the group. Jones is known for vocal impersonations of Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, and Ray Charles. Also a songwriter, he has performed with Milton Berle, Fred Travelena, Danny Gans, The Drifters, The Coasters, Billy Preston, Patty Andrews, and more. He says that all of The Hodads are vocalists and take their turns as front men for the group.

The multi-talented, highly experienced professional musician line-up also includes Jimmy Street of Local 7 (Orange County, CA), and John Hatton, Bob Schuster, and Sterling Smith of Local 47. Street, who plays sax and guitar, has performed with Frank Sinatra, Jack Jones, The Drifters, The Coasters, and Big Daddy. Other credits include appearances on Live! with Regis and other television variety shows.

Hatton, a bassist and violinist, has performed with Juice Newton, Elvis, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Dolly Parton of Local 257 (Nashville, TN), The Righteous Brothers, José Feliciano of Local 47, Seals and Crofts, Fabian, The Rivingtons, Liza Minelli, John Davidson, and Big Daddy.  Guitarist Schuster has worked with Bob Dylan of Local 802 (New York City), Steven Bishop, Gary Puckett, Trini Lopez, The Coasters, The Drifters, Danny Thomas, and more.

Smith, the group’s keyboardist, has recorded and toured with The Beach Boys, Randy Meisner of Local 47, Jan and Dean, Bob Dylan, Lisa Hartman, Barry Manilow, and Terry Reid, as well as Arthur Brown.

Aside from this core group of band members, The Hodads often add other musicians to meet the requests of their clients. “We’ve done everything from being like a pit band backing a CBS affiliate to a 19 or 20-piece party band that plays disco and contemporary music. We add onto it if people want something extra—female singers, horns, and strings,” says Jones.

One thing this band is doing right, is taking advantage of many different avenues for promotion, including their listing on the booking sight AFM Entertainment (www.AFMentertainment.org) and creating their own comprehensive website. The Hodads’ website includes all the information clients may need to book the band: song lists, stage plots, possible configurations, as well as video and audio demos.

Jones says one of their more interesting corporate gigs was a two-month job playing for IBM employees at a beach resort in Cancun. “They had different groups from all over the US that came down for four days,” he recalls. “We played the first day at a beach party and on the fourth day for a formal dinner party inside the Ritz Carlton. People didn’t know we were the same band.”

Another unusual gig was at a Las Vegas product release event for Transitions Adaptive Lenses. “They were announcing a lens called XTRA,” says Jones. “We were to come dressed as the Village People and sing to a track of YMCA [which they also produced]. We did that one song and left.”

A 37-plus year member of Local 47, Jones says, “My relationship with the union is pretty close.” It goes back to his father, also a musician, who was the local’s live-in security guard for a while.

Today, with more people using DJs for their events, Jones says the corporate work has fallen off some. Still, he offers a few tips for up and coming cover bands that want to take on this kind of work. “Be as versatile as you can, and be able to play any style of music and know it well. These days you have to sound exactly like the recording to be authentic,” he says, adding that it’s key to read and adapt to the audience. “We look for audience participation and ‘pressure points’ that get people motivated. If the tempo and song repertoire is to their liking, and they are dancing, we keep the train rolling and don’t change the tempo.”

Educator and entrepreneur Jonathan Haas of Local 802 (New York City) is a world-class musician—percussionist with the American Composers Orchestra, the Aspen Chamber Orchestra, and principal with the American Symphony Orchestra—and he is also a timpani soloist. His contracting company, Gemini Music Productions, a partnership with fellow Local 802 member Neil Balm, is the largest employer of musicians in New York City. As Haas tells it, when he was a young musician he had no idea his career would pan out this way.

“What I thought I would end up doing—playing in a symphony orchestra for the rest of my career—I didn’t end up doing,” says Haas. Though his first job out of college was principal timpanist for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, he stayed in that post for only a year, choosing to follow other musical pursuits.

Local 802 (New York City) member Jonathan Haas has commissioned about 30 pieces for timpani.

As a professor of music at NYU, Haas encourages his students to remain open to whatever path their careers might take. “If it is apparent that music is what makes them happy, then all the questions like ‘how will I make a living?’ are not germane. They have a calling. That in and of itself is very worthy to explore, whether success presents itself in the way they are expecting, or not,” he explains. “I pretty much tell students they should not expect it to present itself the way they think.”

Haas’s performing career evolved to creating a niche as a solo timpanist after he discovered recordings of 18th century timpani concertos written for eight timpani (one player) and an orchestra. “The timpani played the melody; I thought that was the greatest sound,” he says. Then, Haas learned that one of his “hero” composers, Karlheinz Stockhausen, had written a piece for solo timpani. He wrote Stockhausen and requested the music to perform its US premiere. He set to work rearranging these pieces for a Carnegie Hall debut, which also included an obscure solo timpani piece from Samuel Barber.

Solo timpani was unheard of and the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation denied him funding. He borrowed money from his parents to rent the hall. Vindication came after the 1980 performance, when a representative for the foundation, who had attended the show, handed him a check for $3,500 to cover the cost.

Now on a mission, Haas approached composer Philip Glass with the prospect of commissioning a timpani concerto. Though the composer agreed to the idea, the timing didn’t pan out. By the time Haas found five orchestras across the US who would commit to funding it, Glass was busy with a commission for the Metropolitan Opera. It took another 10 years and a second fundraising mission before Glass finally went to work on the concerto that became Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra.

Both Glass and Haas were surprised by its overwhelming success. Since its premiere in 2000, Haas has played the piece 75 times, plus he estimates its been performed another 50 to 75 times without him.

Since the Glass commission, Haas has commissioned about 30 pieces from various composers. His current project is a commission with rock drummer Glenn Kotche of Local 10-208 (Chicago, IL)—a concerto for amplified bicycle and orchestra.

Haas’s passion for percussion, is matched by his passion for teaching. He took his first teaching position at the Peabody Conservatory when he was just 27 years old. “My teachers gave me everything; I appreciated that so much,” he says recalling his mentors—Saul Goodman, Rick Holmes, John Kasica, Rich O’Donnell, Tom Stubbs, and side-by-side training with Charlie Owen at the Aspen Music Festival. “The influence of the Aspen Music Festival was very deep. That experience was very motivating,” says Haas who also teaches at Aspen.

Haas says that, in today’s music scene, diversity and expertise on a wide range of instruments are critical. “World music is now in the fabric of music making; everybody has to embrace it,” he says. “A successful musician is a global musician. At NYU, percussion majors are required to achieve mastery in both steel drum and African drum ensembles and cultures.

Beyond talent and skill, Haas says that cooperation is the number one trait he looks for in young musicians. “A young musician has to come with a musical reputation, cooperation, and they have to be a top player,” he says. “You can’t wait until you get out of school. Your reputation is percolating.” He recommends young people go to concerts and make themselves known to the musicians they admire. Meet them and be genuine; if you like what they are doing, tell them. Ask them sincere questions about specific techniques, he advises.

In contracting through Gemini Music Productions, Haas sees one of his missions as helping musicians. “We [Neil and I] are doing contracting in a different way than our predecessors,” says Haas. “We don’t want power and control over people’s lives and destinies. We want to get musicians what they were entitled to and to stick with the rules that were negotiated, and to help managements understand the side of being a musician that they don’t necessarily understand.”

Haas praises the AFM for doing its part. “Union membership is essential because we are all in this together,” says Haas. “One voice isn’t strong enough. Music has a lot of single leaders in it—the conductor, the artistic director—making decisions. Back in the days before the union, they abused their influence and power. The union is there most of the time for protection of musicians and their music making, but it also advances wages, healthcare, and pension.”

Putting aside all of his commissions and concerts, Haas says he is gratified by the young people he’s worked with. “I’m most proud of being able to identify in a young person, the things that I felt myself when I was young, and to encourage them. There’s nothing more satisfying than sitting in the audience, hearing one of your students, and kwing that you had something to do with encouraging them.”

Harvey Mason of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) is not only one of the most recorded and in-demand drummers of all time, but he’s also one of the founders of the award-winning contemporary jazz group Fourplay, plus a talented composer. As a session drummer he’s played with everyone from Duke Ellington and Erroll Garner in the 1960s, Herbie Hancock and George Benson in the 1970s, to Beyoncé, Christina Aguilera, and Usher in more recent years. Altogether, he’s been recorded on more than 1,000 albums and on 150 motion picture soundtracks. It’s easy to see why he is nicknamed the Chameleon.

Harvey Mason of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) is nicknamed the Chameleon for his versatility in adapting to a wide range of genres.

Mason began his career playing with orchestras and bands as a child, which he says taught him discipline. “When you stepped out of line you were very clearly recognized by the conductor,” he recalls. “When I started playing the drum set around 13, I already had the concept in mind of what the drums should be doing.”

He recalls first joining the union in his hometown of Atlantic City when he was around 14 years old. “I used to go to the union [hall] and they had an old timer’s band that rehearsed there. I played with those guys when I was very young,” he says. “Those guys wanted certain things from the drums, so I adhered to that and I learned a lot.”

Mason credits the union with setting rates and monitoring the work environment for musicians so they are treated fairly. “They set rules and stipulations with the big companies that make movies and records to make sure you get paid,” says Mason, adding that the royalties and pension have been incredible.

Mason headed out to the West Coast after studies at Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory of Music. Launching his career as a session musician, his first big break was playing for Here’s Lucy (the Lucille Ball show) with George Shearing. “People heard me and started calling me and it just snowballed from there,” he says of his career. “I wasn’t really interested in being a live player; playing for recorded music was my dream and I achieved it. I love the anonymity and playing so much diverse music.”

Rather than focusing on developing a style, Mason says he’s always tried to play in as many different ways as possible. “Sometimes a style can be a detriment because you sound a certain way; you are not valuable if you are not able to switch styles,” he says. “You are better off as a musician if you can play in a lot of different situations.”
“I love all kinds of music,” he explains. “As I was called, I tried to make absolutely the best music I could in every situation. It has always been my MO to try and sound authentic—to find out what made a particular kind of music click from my chair.”

As people in the industry saw Mason’s skill, adaptability, and professionalism, his demand grew. “I really didn’t seek out different experiences; they just sort of came to me,” says the musician who’s played in country, Latin, and R&B bands, as well as orchestras. “I was more than willing to explore.”

In 1976, Mason signed his first record deal for five albums. He has released nine albums as bandleader to date. Mason’s latest album, Chameleon (April 2014), revisits and reinvents a number of projects he’d either written or played earlier in his career.

The lead song, “Chameleon” was a tune Mason had co-written for Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters album (1974). Chameleon also includes a hip-hop version of Bobby Hutcherson’s “Montara” (1975), as well as a hip-hop/jazz arrangement of Mason’s ballad “Either Way,” and updated arrangements of Quincy Jones’ “If I Ever Lose This Heaven” (1974), Patrice Rushen’s “Before the Dawn” (1974), and Donald Byrd’s “Places and Spaces” (1975). Mason says he is surprised about how strongly ’70s jazz-funk resonates with today’s young jazz musicians.

Much of Mason’s creative energy these days is also focused on jazz “super group” Fourplay, which includes Bob James of Local 802 (New York City), Nathan East of Local 47, and Chuck Loeb of Local 802. Mason says that when James, East, Lee Ritenour of Local 47, and himself founded the band in 1991, they had hoped it would have longevity, agreeing that there’s a special chemistry between them. “When you see us play, you can see it, feel it, and hear it—that feeling has been there from the beginning,” he says.

The group’s new CD, Silver, marking Fourplay’s 25th year and 14th album, is out this month. Mason explains that the four composers use a democratic process to decide which tunes to record. “Everyone plays their songs to the guys in the band and hopes they are going to like them,” says Mason.

“Whoever wrote the song is the leader [for his songs] and has the last word, but everyone chimes in and gives ideas,” says Mason. Silver also brought back former Fourplay guitarists Ritenour and Larry Carlton of Local 257 (Nashville, TN), and includes Kirk Whalum of Local 257 on saxophone.

When asked for his advice for up and coming session drummers, Mason points to the keys he believes led to his own success. “Be versatile, learn to compose, learn about different styles of music, produce, and learn about recording. Learn as much as you can because we are not sure which way the industry is going to go,” he says. “You have to be versatile to have staying power.”As the new year begins. Mason will be touring again for Chameleon, and start work on his next CD.