When I entered Berklee College of Music I was a stressed out and anxiety ridden bassoon player with imposter syndrome, but then I met the distinguished Barbara Lafitte- a renowned professor. She is a professional oboist who played as principle oboist for the Boston Ballet Orchestra for 26 years and who frequently plays with the Boston Pops. She has a zen about her that you don't see from many classical musicians. I envied her peaceful, positive, and consistently delightful way of being. She had figured something out that I hadn't. From then on I took every one of her class to try and uncover the mystery of her present disposition. 

 

I identified with her as a fellow double reed player. Our instruments are ancient and medieval designed to player older kinds of music, but that didn't stop Barbara from teaching and talking about things so seemingly outside her lane such as musical improv. Barbara is an elite player, meticulous with every note in the lavish orchestras she plays in, but somehow she siphoned a part of her practice to include free playing. She showed me that I could play from my intuition, that I didn't need ink blotted notes on a page to play music, and that I didn't always need to worry about playing the "right notes". 

 

Barbara directed me to the Effortless Mastery Institute at Berklee, a magical corner of Berklee that not everyone there is aware of where the legendary jazz pianist Kenny Werner teaches workshops and classes on his book called "Effortless Mastery". He taught me techniques to reacquaint myself with my bassoon. Instead of an object marred with apprehension, the instrument became my friend an extension of myself. He is a brilliantly technical pianist who teaches radical ideas like "There are no wrong notes!" and helped me and other students to overcome "fear-based playing". Free playing to him is a way of life and I was fortunate enough to improvise and learn from him.

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Lastly, independent of my formal education, I discovered a dance class in town hosted by a professional dance company called "ParadiseMoves". They host Movement Slams in Boston open to the public that are infused with many of the same principles the Music Slams have except their medium is dance and movement. The Movements Slams are vibrant with discovery and electric with in-the-moment inspired dance composition. It was some of the most thrilling experiences I had during my undergrad education.

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Out of these influences the Music Slam is born!