Personalizing the Young for Old

I guess starting a blog description should come with some sort of disclaimer: my age, my profession, how long I have been doing what I am doing, my esteem (if there is any), and what goals I have.

To let off on some of the personal stresses, I'm a twenty-two year old from Orlando, Florida with a degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Central Florida. I've studied with Richard Drexler, Chuck Archard, Eric Bergeron, Michael Hill, Per Danielsson, and have played with some giants including Lenny Pickett, Michael Philip Mossman, and Antonio Hart. I've performed in masterclasses including the styles of Swing, Bebop, Hard Bop, Free Jazz, the Avant Garde, and more. I've studied composition with Sun Mi Ro, Thad Anderson, and have taken arranging for Big Band with Per Danielsson. I've performed over two hundred dates in the last two years while finishing school and consider myself a working musician (hence the title of the blog).

It wasn't until about a month ago I considered my progress. I've been performing on upright bass for three years, electric bass for about nine now (recently purchasing a six-string), and have some experience playing clarinet, saxophone, and piano.

On the side, I am a writer and take that craft very (if not perilously) seriously. I write non-fiction, fiction, prose, poetry, and the occasional experimental work (though usually pointed out after the fact).

Given my "credentials," what I am trying to display here after talking with Emily, my wonderful girlfriend and fellow author (I consider her a musician as well, a talented and humble singer, but don't tell her I said that), is my change over time. This blog is meant to move from my young (now) self to my older (later) self. I'll present my challenges and questions, most often emphasizing what I value right now: Artistry in Music and Writing.

My next post, which will be my first discussion, will be on the idea of the "Young" musician versus the idea of the "Old" and what that means for experience, performance, and art.

Thank you so much!

Welcome!

Hello there. My name is Brandon Kyle (Jude) Miller. I am a musician and writer from Orlando, FL. If you're wondering what this blog is about, it is about being an artist and maintaining the "Artistic Mindset" in the modern world, a world of minimum wage, thrown-out gigs, corporate types, and general unrest among the younger generation. I feel positively about the world I live in and hope to explore some of the ideas of being an artist in the 21st Century world without having to sacrifice things like financial security and one's vision for the "greater good" or because "that's the way the world works." What I hope to accomplish here is bringing in my personal philosophies and exploring them, at length, in order to create a clearer vision of what it is to be an artist and a musician, without having to sacrifice one's humanity in order to do so. This blog should be updated at a minimum of once a week.

The idea came from meeting saxophonist Antonio Hart. He asked a group of students after we played through Bill Evan's "Nardis," "What are you trying to say?"