Bradley Sowash - My Story

(Some sections are excerpted from an article published in Wind and Wire, Winter 1999)

My first attempts at making music were exciting and free. I couldn't wait to learn more.

By the time I got to music school, most of my music professors were into the, then fashionable, styles of serialism and atonality; (we called it bump/squeak music). It was clear that if we wanted to be in the good graces of our teachers (grades), we would have to write in these cerebral styles. So we diligently worked out our tone rows rejecting any conventional melodies that may have bubbled up from our embarrassingly traditional sub-conscious minds.

During this same period, I began playing in a rock band. This rhythmically charged music probably had a lot to do with the "groove" that is found in most of my writing today. Costumed and shimmering under the lights, I was initially thrilled to be performing pop music.  We seemed "bound for fame" with a headliner spot at the Ohio State Fair and support from a local radio station that featured us on their "hometown album" (my first professional recording).  Eventually, however, the endless stream of cocktail lounges and high school proms grew tiresome leading me to look elsewhere for musical fulfillment.

Wandering into the university dance department from the music school, I found they were ready to hire improvising pianists to accompany their modern dance classes.  Here was more creative ground!  The dancers, teachers and choreographers were hungry for inspiring music and they were willing to pay for it.  Playing and writing for contemporary dance continued to fulfill me for the next 10 years and I benefited by being asked to play tempos, meters and feels that were outside my personal musical tendencies.

Later, while living in NYC, I dressed in black, hung out at loft concerts, experimented with minimalism and did my best to fit into the downtown experimental music scene. During that time I continued to dream straightforward, honest melodies which I recorded in a sketchbook but didn't use since they didn't fit that scene. I learned a lot about art and truly enjoyed the atmosphere of envelope-pushing experimentation that was going on around me. However, in the end, I knew that was not, ultimately, for me. Yearning to find my own voice, I expanded my vision.

I was American, loved to improvise, and had night owl tendencies so our own indigenous Jazz seemed like an ideal home for me - and for many years, it was my exclusive musical terrain. After intellectually honing my jazz skills in NYC with well-known teachers, I moved to Europe and found that even casual audiences in piano cafes seemed to know a lot more about this "exotic" art form than most Americans. Their support and interest motivated me to turn my jazz study into practical technique. I dug into bebop lick books, analyzed standards, practiced digital patterns, and learned to swing hard. Today, I'm a better musician because of it. I will always love playing and listening to mainstream jazz. There is a lot to appreciate about this sophisticated and still-evolving music. I like the fact that jazz musicians from anywhere in the world can sit down and "jam" together instantly. I admire and am heavily influenced by the great jazz improvisers. As a player, I was getting closer to finding my musical home but, as a composer, I found even jazz to be stylistically limiting.

All of these explorations were of enormous value in my development as an artist. They helped me to eventually define my own musical style. By thoroughly understanding what I was not, I could see more clearly what I was. And by immersing myself in several musical traditions, I gained a rich stylistic pallet from which to draw. Today, I write and play my own music. When the ideas come, I let them flow regardless of whether they fit in with one style or another. Critics continue to comment on the varied influences they hear in my work and have a hard time categorizing it. That's great. I'm free of restriction and finding my true voice. Making music feels exciting and free again. I like being here and I'm willing to remain an 'independent' musician to sustain it.

See Bio for a more formal description of my background.