Only a few musicians are able to understand what I do.
Many of those I could name are musicians that no one has ever heard. I was very fortunate to start out at fourteen or fifteen in Kansas City with some of the best musicians in the area, who I still rate as some of the best I've ever played with. I am reminded of drummer Tommy Ruskin, and trumpeter Gary Sivils, in whose band I played from the age of 15 to the age of 17. Excerpt from Rolling Stone
No one has ever heard them, but everything I do relates to those early musical experiences. in Kansas City. For me it was a great thing. Then there's my idol, the leader of my favorite band: the Gary Burton Quartet, which I joined when I was 18 or so.
Then I met David Bowie.
He was an incredible guy. Honestly, but that's my problem, at that time I didn't even know who he was, because I didn't follow that kind of music that much.
I had been commissioned to compose the score for John Schlesinger's The Hawk and at one point someone suggested that he could sing one of the songs I had composed.
I got hold of some of his records, as I didn't know his importance. I thought he was the perfect person to sing that song, with his voice and all: he was the right singer for the vibe of that song. Schlesinger invited him to a screening of the film, I sat next to him and we chatted for a couple of hours.
Even without knowing much about him, my impression was that he was one of the smartest people I'd ever met. I still think: it wasn't brilliant, it was beyond.
During the screening I saw him taking notes, and when the film was over he had about fifty titles, one better than the other. One of these was This Is Not America, which the director liked very much.
David took my demo of the song, which was basically the main theme of the film, took it to the studio and worked on it. Most of what he then played me surprised me a lot, melodically they were things that I would never have thought of.
Then we spent a couple of days working on that song together. For me it was like being in the studio with Sonny Rollins or Ornette Coleman, an extremely forward individual, one who mastered his skill, his craft, his vision to the highest level. Being with him was an incredible experience.