Although I made a career in engineering, I always enjoyed playing music and starting from an early age had my run with guitar, drums, piano, and now the bayan, a type of chromatic accordion.
I’m grateful to my teachers and artists who taught, helped, and inspired me through the years. I actively sought out different approaches while learning to play the bayan and I’m grateful for what I found.
Kenny Werner’s “Effortless Mastery” taught me an approach to performance that works for me. When I compose I can’t tell you where the ideas come from, they just appear, bit by bit, and I write them down. That’s why my albums are an eclectic mix of genres. I don’t really plan for what style the next song is, it just comes to me.
I compose these songs for myself and expect no one else to like them, however I’m thrilled if someone does, especially if someone else tries to perform them.
I’m the only bayan player (that I know of) in Santa Barbara, California. My life here, and travel elsewhere, surely inspires where my songs come from. That’s why my artist pseudonym is “Santa Bayanian”.
Besides enjoying life with my beautiful and wonderful wife playing, and composing for, the Bayan is my thing now.