Artist Interview by: Unknown User
As the pianist/keyboardist for Spyro Gyra for 27 years, Tom Schuman is following his personal inspiration in producing his latest solo effort, “Into Your Heart,” a revealing insight into the man and artist who with faith, talent, and the support of a loving family, has come to the realization that beautiful music is the expression of a happy soul.
Schuman’s debut release on his own label is filled with persuasive, original compositions, ones that will move you to thought, love, happiness and enjoyment. Many reflect his own personal associations like the compelling Because of You and Portrait of My Father. Mixing it up with lilting rhythms on Samba for Two and Find a Way, Schuman coaxes the listener into a smile. You’ll want to keep his CD handy for frequent replay as each time you hear it, you’ll enjoy it even more.
Tom Schuman speaks with JazzReview in candid fashion, enlightening our readers with his zest for life and the happiness he has found with his music that will go, “Into Your Heart.”
JazzReview: Most of our readers recognize you as a performing member of Spyro Gyra. Before we discuss your new solo project, let’s talk a bit about what’s going on with Spyro right now?
Tom Schuman: We are in the process of making another record and have been in the studio a couple times already. We are going back in a week or so. It’s already sounding fantastic and it’s a new direction for us musically. I can’t really go into details on how it’s a new direction, but it just sounds different from what I’m used to hearing. Especially Jay Beckenstein’s writing habits. He has been going through some tough times and it is definitely reflected in his writing. He’s produced some incredible material and I’m very excited about this upcoming record.
JazzReview: When will this new Spyro album be released?
Tom Schuman: It will be released on Heads Up [Telarc] next year. The great thing is we can create it at our leisure. Basically from 1977 until a few years ago, we used to put out one record each year. It’s been very difficult to keep up that momentum.
JazzReview: Spyro has a long list of album credits. Was this something that the label prompted you to do, put out one album each year?
Tom Schuman: I think that was just Jay’s routine. He kept that happening for many years. He felt there was a time for touring, a time for writing, and time for making another record. So, we just naturally slipped into that yearly schedule of touring, writing and producing.
JazzReview: Spyro Gyra live concerts have always been popular. Some even suggest Spyro’s music at performances were much more creative and improvised than on their albums. Do you still maintain a heavy tour schedule?
Tom Schuman: We have been averaging 100-120 days on the road for the past five years. After doing more session work in the studio, we will be going into rehearsal for about ten days to develop a completely different show for the next year. Jay Beckenstein has even allowed me to rehearse one of the tunes off my solo, Into Your Heart, so fans will be hearing that in upcoming concerts. Jay has been so very supportive and I can’t thank him enough. It has been a great 27 years.
JazzReview: Has it been that long? I can hardly believe it.
Tom Schuman: I started working with Jay Beckenstein back in 1975. I think those are the tapes that he had with me playing Mr. Magic and a few other standards of the day. It’s always been a great musical experience. The traveling has been wonderful too. I’ve been in so many places. It’s an education that you just can’t buy. I mean I got to meet some of Jazz’s legendary idols. I had breakfast with Count Basie. I hung out with Dizzy Gillespie. It’s been incredible.
JazzReview: Your Jazz Bridge debut CD, Into Your Heart, contains some absolutely beautiful material. I especially enjoy Portrait of My Father. You were very close to your parents growing up and they were a big influence on you musically.
Tom Schuman: That’s right. My father, Wally, was one of the best Jazz bassists in Western NY from the 50s through to the 80s. He gave me a lot of support in music and taught me how to be a professional. My father met my mother on the bandstand over 50 years ago when he sat in with a Jazz band that she was singing in. My mother had a voice like Sarah Vaughan. I have a recording of her singing ‘Lover Man’ with me accompanying her on piano. I think I was 8 or 9 years old. She was also a great teacher in her own way.
I wrote Portrait of My Father right before my father died, so he got a chance to hear it. My mother still is my best friend. Both my wife and my mother are my two very best friends. They are two people I absolutely trust, listen to, and aspire to be like. Believe it or not, the two women in my life are my idols. [laughs]
JazzReview: We love hearing that. [laughs]
Tom Schuman: I got to tell you…us guys…I don’t know what God did to give us the dumb gene, but we make a lot of stupid mistakes. [laughs] All we have to do is listen to our women and we smarten up real fast. I can’t tell you how my life has changed just keeping my ears open to what they say.
JazzReview: You and your wife have worked very closely together in starting your own label.
Tom Schuman: My wife is an angel. I met her in California in 1978 and we stayed in touch as friends. Right when my life was at it’s absolute lowest…I mean professionally it was great. Spyro Gyra was always working, but my personal life was just a shambles. I was getting to the point where I just wanted to drop out of society, change my name and never play piano again. She sent me a beautiful Christmas card and from that point on, I just pursued her, married her and I’m just so absolutely happy. It all comes from following the things that are put in front of you. I totally believe in divine intervention and I did pray for a way out of my hostile, volatile life. And here I am! It all works.
JazzReview: Without getting too personal about the crossroad you experienced in your life, did it change your music on a personal level?
Tom Schuman: I used to write some very challenging music, but when I look back on some of the things I wrote, they were musically challenging, but at the same time also kind of schizophrenic, in that it would go from one beautiful passage to kind of a twisted, funk groove. Then it would go into a five-eighths deal. It didn’t know where to settle. You know, it was always searching for a place to go.
Now when I write, I write nothing but great feelings and comfort. The feeling I get back now when I listen to my music is love and understanding. It’s almost like I’m being told, ‘Hey, you finally reached who you are. You are what you are supposed to be.’ So, that is how I think my writing has changed. I’ve actually turned into and became the man I was supposed to be.
JazzReview: I don’t know too many people who can say that, both about themselves personally and about their career.
Tom Schuman: I’m very content with who I am now. It is reflected in my music. When you listen to ‘Into Your Heart,’ you get this wonderful feeling. My music now is more heart music than what I had written before, which was more mind music. I’d much rather be putting out music like what’s on “Into Your Heart.” A lot of people are bored with happiness, but I’m just enjoying it. [laughs] It’s such a wonderful thing if you can achieve that.
JazzReview: Maybe part of that was a growing process and the path you had to take to come to where you are now.
Tom Schuman: That’s true. There are a lot of great tunes that came out of that period, but you ask me how my writing has changed. It has settled into something that has a purpose. From beginning to end, it sings praise to that purpose. The beauty of instrumental music is it’s a piece of art. You can sit there and look at it and get something wonderful, or sit there and get something sad. It doesn’t matter. It’s a beautiful way of expressing yourself.
JazzReview: Well, all of the feeling is there with the music you composed for this CD. When I listened to it, I went to my own places emotionally. It’s very moving.
Tom Schuman: Like being in love. That’s why I put it out on February 14 because I thought it was an instrumental love record. We are still in the process of sending out press packages on the release.
JazzReview: You produced Into Your Heart on your own label, “Jazz Bridge.” Can you tell us a little about it?
Tom Schuman: Yes. We are still a small company. It’s called JBM Studios and Jazz Bridge Music LLC. I don’t know if you believe in angels, but I do. We have another person working for us and I have to mention her name. Her name is Yvette Parker. Yvette got a hold of us somehow. I think it was by e-mail. She has been working so hard for us. We are a young company and cannot offer the same deals major studios do. But for her it’s not about the money. To me, that depicts what an angel is all about. I’ve been very fortunate to be sent all these wonderful angels in my life. Everything is coming together for me. I’m hoping it continues and I’m sure it will.
JazzReview: Are you already thinking ahead to another release?
Tom Schuman: I already have enough material for two or three more CDs. It’s just a matter of producing it. I was just down in the studio reconfiguring it to get into shape to record a Jazz trio.
JazzReview: Is it rewarding producing music with your own company?
Tom Schuman: I found that I create so much more readily and honestly at my own studio, right from the conception to the production. So, I want to surround myself with all the equipment that is possible to actually make that happen. ‘Into Your Heart’ is a result of that. Most of songs that you are hearing on the CD were done at my studio. I take it somewhere else to either have it mixed or have tracks transferred, Midi sequences to Pro-tools digital audio, but here in my home studio I’m surrounded by love and support. Bar none, you can’t get that anywhere else.
You can go to the best studio on the planet and not find that. All you get is, “It’s seventy-five dollars an hour and your clock starts now!” [laughs] Tape is this much, your engineer is going to cost you this much, this is extra, that is extra! All you’re thinking about when you are in there is, “How much is this costing me?” I have news for everybody, these days the technology is at the point that for twenty thousand dollars, you can have a pretty darn good studio in your own house. It’s digital audio. It’s noiseless. It’s the best of everything. You can put it out and nobody will know the difference, whether it was done in your house or a hundred and twenty-five dollar an hour studio.
JazzReview: Of course you have to know something about the actual process.
Tom Schuman: Oh yeah. I’ve been in the business long enough now that I’ve seen the growth of technology and where it is going. I’m very impressed. I’m seeing things now that I’m very excited about. I can’t wait to do the first acoustic recording, which I will be doing sometime in May.
JazzReview: Who will be joining your next CD?
Tom Schuman: I have two great musicians who graduated from Howard University. The drummer’s name is Cora Coleman. She is a fiercely talented Jazz drummer and has been studying with legendary Jazz drummer and singer, Grady Tate, for the past few years. I’ve seen her play and sat in with her. She’s really amazing and I think she will be very famous one day. Then there is a young bassist, Ameen Salim. Cora recommended him. I’m going on faith here, but if Cora says he is the best, then that is good enough for me. I haven’t heard him play, but I called him and said, ‘You’ve got the gig.’
Cora is another one of those people who just came to me. My wife had met her when she was flying to Houston to visit her mother. They just struck up a conversation and my wife told her I was a musician and was in a band. Cora said, ‘Well, I’m a drummer!’ I had just been saying to my wife, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could find a female who plays Jazz drums?’ I know there is Terri Lynn Carrington out there and of course, Sheila E. This is my dream to have a female Jazz drummer. Next thing I know my wife is telling me, ‘We found your drummer!’ I finally got my grand piano, a Baldwin 7 ft. SF-10. I have all the microphones and equipment I need in my studio right now, so it is just a matter of getting everybody together to do it.
I would like to produce an all-acoustic record of Jazz standards. I just want to be known in the Jazz community as someone who can play. It’s nice to be a Fusion or Smooth Jazz keyboardist, but to tell you the truth, that isn’t what I’m about. I was brought up in a Jazz family and grew up playing duets with my father. I’ve played in trios and Jazz quartets, doing all the beautiful Jazz standards of Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers. That’s what I really want to do. Although I know I get a lot more radio play or I might be able to pay the bills a little better if I play Fusion or Smooth Jazz, but I can do that as well. I’m going to try to create two different products. One is very attainable Jazz or listen-able Jazz. I don’t how else to call it. The other is more traditional Jazz.
JazzReview: I don’t think piano, bass and drums can get any better than when playing all the beautiful Jazz standards.
Tom Schuman: I know. It’s very honest and in your face. If you can’t play it right, you can’t fix it. To be able to play it that raw, that’s the ultimate musicianship. And, it’s absolutely the easiest thing to record because you don’t have to go in and sweeten anything. It is, what it is. It takes a lot of faith and self-confidence to be able to do that and I think I’m ready for it. I’ll be doing some standards and some originals. I’m not sure if it will be a double CD or two separate releases. One will be an all-acoustic trio, or maybe a quartet ensemble. Maybe I’ll bring in some horn players to play on some things.
JazzReview: It must be rewarding to express what you want to play on your own label, but don’t you think this is the trend nowadays? I mean recently major labels have cut so many great artists from their repertoire.
I know what it feels like because I was with GRP when I came out with my first solo record. A year down the road when I was thinking about making another one, they said, “Well sorry!”
JazzReview: Do you think popularity infringes on an artist’s creative process?
When you’re dealing with powerful labels, once they get a hit on their hands, all they want to do is make more money. Obviously, of course, this is the bottom line. You can’t come up with a hit and then give them a follow-up record that sounds totally different from the one that sold a million copies. You’re going to alienate your audience.
JazzReview: Yes, because they want to hear more of the same thing that attracted them to your sound.
Tom Schuman: They want you to do the same thing only different enough that it isn’t a complete copy of the original. That in itself is insane. You can’t go back and say, ‘I made a million dollars on this. I want to make another million.’ What you should be saying is, ‘Well, I made a million on this honest statement that I made and thank you, but I have a lot of other statements to make. If you want to buy this one fine, if not I’ll take the loss because it is still an honest statement.’ That is how I want to do it. I’m not a major label. I’m a very small, homemade label. I can take these chances. That’s why my wife and I created Jazz Bridge Music.
JazzReview: Many artists are forced to do that today. They either have to offer their music on a website site or create their own label because the major labels aren’t carrying them. It’s a whole new ball game.
Tom Schuman: Yes, and I don’t really blame them. They have employees to pay and money in the bank they’d like to keep. That is the nature of business. The artists are in the business of doing exactly what comes naturally: revealing their innermost heart and soul to the rest of the world. Whether the world likes it or not really shouldn’t matter. Unfortunately when you are working with a large corporation, it does matter. Your fans, the consumers, are really the most important element.
Sometimes I’m confused by what record companies want from you. First they want you to be brilliant. They want you to be artistic and come out with the new, fresh stuff, whatever that is. Once it becomes popular, then they want to turn you into a copy machine, coming up with the same thing over and over again so it continues to sell. After the third copy, even your fans are going to say, ‘Hey, this guy just came out with the same stuff. I’m tired of it.’ People are not stupid.
I just want to put out my best until the day I die. If it sells fine, if it doesn’t, well if I’m going to be poor at least I’ll be happy. [laughs] I’m content with my music and my family. That’s all that matters.
JazzReview: You included a tribute song, Past Stories, to Jaco Pastorius on your CD.
Tom Schuman: That was written after he passed away and that was a long time ago. It’s been in the can a long time and I just managed to resurrect it.
JazzReview: How do you go about writing? I know this is probably an over-asked question in an interview, but for many it is an awe-inspiring process many admire.
Tom Schuman: I don’t try to do it as a routine or have little tricks of the trade. I just take whatever inspiration, whether it is a bass-line or a drum pattern, or just sitting at the piano and playing a piece that comes to me. I will take any little inspiration and turn it into something. For instance, one of the cuts off Into Your Heart is Because of You. I don’t know how many other Because of You songs that have been written, but this tune was written two or three in the morning at my wife’s apartment before we were married. I realized I didn’t have to go through what I was going through, as far as my life was concerned. This woman was in my life for ten to fifteen years before that. I could have been this happy ten or fifteen years ago.
I wrote this tune that night in its entirety just by sitting down, turning on the computer and playing. Now, it very rarely comes to me like that, but I literally sat down and played that tune from beginning to end the first time. I sat back and said, ‘I’ll be darned, that’s a Jazz standard I just played.’ It sounded very familiar. I thought it sounded like something somebody else wrote and I just played it. Oddly enough, it wasn’t. It was a complete piece from beginning to end. And because of the technology, it was the same midi files that I used to produce it on Into Your Heart. So what you are hearing is my very first performance of that tune. I was writing it on the fly. That is the most honest depiction of a tune that I can think of. That’s the great thing about the technology. I never lose any of my files. I keep everything I’ve ever written.
JazzReview: That’s a wonderful story and exciting to know that what we are hearing was the original creation, with all the passion and emotion you were feeling at that moment.
Tom Schuman: Like the Pastorius song. I wrote that in1987. It was just sitting around in my old Atari 1040ST for all those years. All I did was transfer the Midi file to bigger computers, using digital audio to reproduce the sound and high-end samplers to recreate the bass and drum performances. It was a very exciting process for me because I was realizing it was a tune that I wrote 14 years ago. Some of the performances you hear on the album are over 10 years old. I just brought them up to technological standards.
JazzReview: It is important to keep those ideas and never lose sight of them.
Tom Schuman: Never lose them, even if you think it is total trash. It’s the trash that may turn into something that is popular one day. It is really something. Whenever I sit down at the piano or keyboard, I don’t necessarily practice. A lot of people ask if I practice. Well, I don’t really practice. I just sit down and play whatever comes into my head. If it is a difficult passage, I might run it a few times.
JazzReview: You might surprise yourself and say, ‘Whooo what was that?’
Tom Schuman: Yeah, I might come up with something I’ve never played before. It comes out right the first time, but then it’s hard to replay it. When you allow yourself to be the conduit with which music and creativity flows through you, the capabilities are limitless. That only happens once. When that inspiration comes through you, you play this thing and you’re almost saying, ‘I don’t believe this is coming out of me.’ If you are lucky enough to have recorded it, when you hear it back you say, ‘Oh my gosh, now I’m going to have to learn that.’ [laughs] So it is a very strange experience.
Creative artists out there will know what I’m talking about. I’m not trying to say we are above anybody. That is just how we get it. Sometimes it is something I can’t reproduce. Like the song Because of You. I will never be able to play it with that much honesty and that much simplicity again. Every time I play it, I have a new kind of nuance and new ways of playing the chord changes. I’ll never play that the same way I did the first time.
JazzReview: Isn’t that rather normal? You cut a new CD and then take it on tour. You never play it exactly the same. You improvise upon it. It’s always evolving.
Tom Schuman: Yeah it grows and with some songs, it’s nicer if it’s been played a few times. But with Because of You, the statement I was making the first time I played it was the most honest way of saying it. I couldn’t think of redoing it. When I first played it for my wife, I would listen to it with her and say, ‘That is it! That is exactly what I wanted to say.’ It was its purest form.
JazzReview: I understand. When something is perfect, that’s it. Because of You is that kind of perfection. It’s not a song one could easily forget.
Tom Schuman: Let’s face it. It’s a Jazz sacrilege what I did. I went in and played a Jazz standard with samples and sequencers. I shouldn’t be saying this, but people are going to know anyway. But, you try and sit back and listen to it and say it’s a computer-enhanced performance. I’m putting my heart and soul into everything I do. I want people to know that even though this record was made like this, I didn’t lose any of the heart and soul of it.
JazzReview: I could never say this CD doesn’t have heart and soul. It oozes it and really moved me.
Tom Schuman: Well thank you. A lot of musicians will go in and be produced by playing a live studio performance. Then the process of production irons out the heart and soul of the original performance. They come in and replace parts and over-dub things that weren’t meant to be there. They splice it up, edit it out, and kind of go into reverse. I’m trying to use the technology to increase the feelings that come through, to enhance them or magnify them somehow.
JazzReview: Does it really matter how you do it? These are your original songs. As long as the end result is the feeling that you wanted to convey, what difference should it make?
Tom Schuman: That is all the more reason I want to prove it to myself and do it the old-fashioned way as well. I’m going to go in and take three or four versions of each tune that I want to put down and pick one of the best performances. That will be it. Nobody can go back and fix their parts. This will prove I’m a true Jazz lover and a standard, real, Jazz player. Obviously, everybody knows me as the keyboardist for Spyro Gyra. I want to be known as Tom Schuman, the Jazz pianist.
JazzReview: There you go.
You may purchase Tom Shuman’s moving debut CD on Cdbaby.com, Cdstreet.com and Amazon.com. His Jazz Bridge Music’s website will soon have a merchant program for people to be able to purchase any of Schuman’s CDs. “That way,” Schuman says, “I’ll be able to sign the CDs before sending them out.” CDs are also available for sale at all the Spyro concerts.
For more information: http://jazzbridge.com
Photo by: © David Hopley
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