Things are really heating up just in time for summer! Tanya has been interviewing celebrated and famous musicians about their careers and how they balance being DADS as well.
Check out the Forward to the upcoming book due out in 2014:
“What do you love about music?”
“To begin with…everything”
‘Almost Famous’
Okay, so…one day, Roseanne Barr gets into my dads NYC taxi…
Oh wait! I should tell you this:
I had two dads. Both musicians. One passed away 2 years ago. The other one, still rocks and is gonna keep on rocking until his last breath on earth…perhaps even from the great beyond!
My biological dad was a jazz drummer- had a bit of success working for the BBC and playing with big bands & such. In the 70’s his gambling, boozing and womanizing led to him driving a NYC taxi cab (he said it was because the young kids were coming in ‘reading music’ and he never learned to).
SO, one day, Roseanne Barr gets into my dads taxi, and the FIRST THING my dad does when he recognizes her, is he whips out my acting resume/ headshot and hands it back to her, praising me as an ‘up and coming young star’ who perhaps she would like to use in one of her projects. Well, when I heard this, I was SO embarrassed- as any young teenager would be- and I cried “why would you ever do something like that daddy?!?”. His response was something I will never forget. He said,
“Because you and your sister are THE MOST important thing in the world to me. I love you more than life itself”.
My other dad came along when I was at The Performing Arts High School in NYC, where I was studying as a Music major. It would take more than a paragraph to describe and list his enduring and fortuitous career in music. Suffice it to say, that when he and my mum were dating we got to go see him on tour with Harry Belafonte AND playing on the radio in the most popular songs on Paul Simons “Graceland” album. Dad # 2, or Cool Mo G. as he is affectionately known, has jammed with presidents, on a hit tv show in the band for 7 years, on many movie soundtracks and with countless music legends. He brought love and security to our family, and he inspires me to “keep moving forward”.
Writing this book is in part a dedication to the two most influential men in my life (who in my opinion were/are, dads who rock). But also, in a way, it is my ode to music…
You see, MUSIC is in me and all around me; it has always been my best and most faithful friend; Music sympathizes with me for whatever mood I am in or whatever I am “going through” or feeling- there is a kind of music that expresses it perfectly for me. I believe this is Universal. Music rocks you- it gets you to move, sway, shake…in other words, to be alive! I get so excited just even talking or thinking about music. I grew up going to gigs of friends and family, to recording studios, to the NY Philharmonic, Jazz Vespers at St. Lukes sitting on Dizzy Gillespies lap…with music flowing out of Howard McGhees trumpet into my window while he practiced every day and Latino grooves highlighting the neighborhood stoops.
“WON’T MEAN A THING IN 100 YEARS…”
When I was in college a very close family friend of many years, Arnie Lawrence, was a mentor to these young upcoming bands like Blues Traveler & Spin Doctors. And I was in this world of hanging out with musicians in clubs and bars and searching for meaning…and Arnie had this sax solo on a Blues Traveler song “100 Years” that would just about break my heart open whenever I heard it! Arnie passed away many years ago, but he influenced so many lives in such a positive way, and to this day when I hear that song, I can hear Arnie laughing and remember the awe I felt watching him play.
I can put on a cd of my biological dad playing drums on jazz versions of Beatles songs and he comes alive! Music allows him to be immortal. The impact and power of music to transcend space and time makes me think that it will most definitely all “mean a thing in 100 years”.
My gratitude goes out to the people, the musicians, who are not afraid to share their musical voice with the world. And the stories therefore, that lay behind those songs and that music, are deeply, deeply interesting to me. These successful and celebrated men who rock all genres of music, are also in fact just human. Love, family and relationships are the most fundamental of human desires. Therefore (TITLE PRIVATE) is about the music makers who have the most important job in the world: Parenthood.
WHY DADS?
I think that historically speaking, men have kind of a bad rap when it comes to fatherhood. And rightly so in some cases or not, I believe that it is not the intention of these fathers to abandon- Because the love a parent has for a child is unlike any other kind of love or bond. I know from experience, that there is a multitude- a quickly growing population actually- of dads out there who are sacrificing and working hard, to be the best parents possible.
When it comes to children needing things from their fathers, the most precious commodity is not in fact an Ipad- but rather TIME. Quality time spent doing things with their fathers (and mothers, of course) and knowing that they are safe and secure leads to the most well balanced children. (I know this for sure! because I have been a teacher for 20 years.) A huge childhood phase of development is worrying about whether or not their parents will forget them at school, or lose them at the market. It stands to reason therefore, that as a child of a professional musician, a natural fear would be “Is daddy coming back?” This puts fathers who are performers-frequently away from home for work-in a VERY challenging position.
Which leads to my passion project: (TITLE PRIVATE).
This is a book about the love, and the relationships between fathers and their children…when the dads just so happen to ROCK!
I have always been a storyteller, either as an actress, voice-over artist or writer. In recent years I have been working as an ad copy- writer and in 2012 I was asked to start writing articles for an entertainment magazine. Last month I did my first live interview, which turned out to be something I seem to have a knack for; People have always felt very at ease opening up to me and confiding in me. I am an attentive listener, always empathetic and freely sharing my own personal anecdotes. I think I have unwittingly been interviewing people my entire life.
“EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY”
A final note in describing the nature of this book, I must add that photography can be a way to capture the same kind of magic that music makes. Only, a photograph can also capture a magical moment that we may miss, hold on to that magic and make it eternal. If my interviewees are comfortable with it, I feel it is very important to have photographs as part of the stories I am telling in this book. And not some kind of flashy, glossy or marketing fueled distortions. I would like to share truthful, real, private moments with my musicians and their children. They may “rock” and be “stars”, but they are after all, still human.
It is our humanity that unites and brings us all together …and ultimately it is our humanity that will keep us together.
