It was around 1960 when Steve Lacy, a saxophonist in Thelonious Monk’s band at the time, wrote down a series of items, pieces of advice that Thelonious Monk had conveyed to him while touring in 1960 and 1961. Long before there was an internet, Lacy’s handwritten list went viral. And while it provides insights into Monk’s philosophies about performing, many of those pieces of advice can metaphorically apply to life outside of music. In this episode, we tackle the first 11 items on the list; in our next episode, we will address the rest of the list.

David Michael Bashwiner is a composer, a guitarist, a professor at the University of New Mexico, and at the root of it all, a neuroscientist. He speaks nationally on the subject of music and the brain, and in particular on how music is used to establish meaning and emotion, for example, by the movies as the means to having scenes interpreted as they are intended. David talks about how his neuroscientific approach to music guides his understanding of music theory.

Ronnie Frugé learned t play guitar as a 10-year-old on a Sears Silvertone acoustic in a town called Iowa (pronounced I-o-way) outside the city of Lake Charles in Southwest Louisiana where, now in his 70s, he has returned to live and perform. His first influences were Cajun songs; his first band featured him on guitar and a friend on accordion. From South Louisiana his music took him to Austin, Texas, then the Colorado mountains, then to Nashville where he spent 11 years working his way up and through the swarm of guitar players all seeking stardom, and only some like, Ronnie, able even to gig regularly. No matter the town or the venue, wherever he played, the one constant was an enthusiasm and energy that got people on their feet dancing. His story is that of many: a talented guitarist, singer, and songwriter who might not have achieved celebrity but is grateful for a career that has enabled him to make a living playing his music for the people.

On Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025, surgeons at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida drilled 14 holes in jazz pianist Mark Burnell’s skull and inserted 200 electrodes in an attempt to halt his increasingly frequent seizures resulting from a brain injury that had been festering since a childhood accident. In the newly developed treatment protocol designed to remove damaged areas of the brain, Burnell was kept awake and instructed to play jazz on a mini-keyboard while also singing the tunes’ lyrics. If he played a wrong note or sang a wrong lyric, the doctors were alerted by his wife, vocalist Anne Burnell, who was at his side for the procedure. At her signal they would stop probing so as not to disturb the part of the brain used for making music. In this episode we interview the couple and hear their amazing, inspiring story. Stay tuned for the results of the surgery.

Typically people who want to play music want to play the kind of music they like most. And learning to play involves studying and absorbing how the musicians we admire most play. But maturing as a performer means finding your own voice; that is, beyond imitating, learning to express your music in your own unique way.

Responsibility is one of the life lessons that learning to play music and performing music teach you. Not only do you have to show up, you have to be “on,” that is, playing your best every time you take the stage, no matter how you feel or what your day was like. You owe it to your audience, to other members in the band you’re playing with that night, and to yourself.

Consistent with our recurring theme of how music has a positive impact on our lives, we talk about how music teaches those who learn to play to express themselves better, not just through music but in other ways, including in their careers outside music and their social interactions.

A composer, conductor, and journalist, and the founder, publisher, and principal writer of EarRelevant.net, Mark Gresham has been writing about classical and post-classical music and other arts for more than 35 years. He co-founded the monthly publication Chorus! in 1989 and edited it through 1995. Thirteen of his interviews from the magazine were published in 1997 as the book, Choral Conversations. Before founding EarRelevant, he was a contributing writer for Creative Loafing from 2002 to 2011 and then for ArtsATL until mid-February 2019. In this episode of Music Life & Times, Mark discusses his life-long involvement with music in multiple capacities, how music has shaped his life, and its impact on all of us.