In December 1997, I was few days past my twenty-first birthday, in my fifth semester at The University of Kansas as a fairly new Music Education major and in my third semester of ten in the KU Jazz Singers.  Dan Gailey, director of jazz studies, knew I was a big Pat Metheny fan and would probably know the rhythm to the 22/4 "First Circle," so he asked me to play the tambourine part along with his Jazz Ensemble I on the Bob Curnow arrangement of the tune in an end-of-the-semester performance with the University Dance Company.  When I went to his office to pick up the tambourine music, though, Dan told me that the pianist for the band had just been caught stealing equipment from the university (was it tubas, maybe?  Something weird, for sure...), and so he needed a pianist to step into the band, not just for this concert but for the IAJE performance in New York with Dave Liebman as a guest on soprano sax, performing selections from Vince Mendoza's "Sketches" suite.  Dan gave me the piano book for JE1 and told me to go buy Frank Mantooth's "Voicings for Jazz Keyboard" book and start learning voicings as fast as possible, and I commenced to practicing like I never had before.  I ended up as a barely funcional jazz pianist, using stock, memorized voicings at IAJE, but I was able to get through the gig without falling apart, and I spent the next five semesters in the band and playing piano in the jazz combos.  I had been arranging already at that point, but gaining jazz piano skills in this "trial by fire" manner, although not an ideal entree into the art, was the biggest turning point in my development as a young arranger, and I'm forever grateful that I had that opportunity, because it's been a key part of shaping the course of the rest of my professional life.

So here is my fateful first performance as a jazz pianist in 1997 with KU Jazz Ensemble I, directed by Dan Gailey.