Today we’d like to introduce you to Gordon Goodwin
Hi Gordon, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In the early days I did gigs playing saxophone and keyboards in various settings. I got a gig playing at Disneyland, which lead to them calling me to compose and arrange music for their shows, attractions and parades, and this became a career-long relationship. I still do work for them. But in the 90s I started getting calls to compose for television and then for film. My life was a balance between working alone in my studio writing music and going out to play jazz gigs on my saxophone or piano. These jazz gigs were a labor of love, but never paid very well, so it was fortunate that I had my composing opportunities so I could support my family. I traveled for several years as musical director for Johnny Mathis, which was a great experience and lead to another life-long relationship. Along the way, I got to compose and arrange music for many accomplished artists, including Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Sarah Vaughn, Quincy Jones, Barry Manilow, Ray Charles, Christine Aguilera, Paul McCartney and many others. My composing work for Warner Brothers Animation brought in three Emmy Awards. I got to travel the world and conduct some world-class symphony orchestras, like the London Symphony, The Atlanta Symphony, The Dallas Symphony, The Toronto Symphony and the Melbourne Symphony. It was a head-spinning career and I loved every minute. But at a certain point, I started to question what I was doing. I had just turned 40 and was feeling a little restless. I was working for a lot of companies and writing music that fit what they needed, but was feeling like at some point, I should consider planting my flag and composing some music that held meaning for ME. There comes a point in your life where you realize there might be more road behind you than ahead of you and your start to balance your time a little better. So I made the decision to carve out some time in my life to compose music for big band. The music that inspired me to become a composer back when I was in 7th grade. So I worked every night from about 10:00 pm -1:00 am and I wrote new big band music. After about 4 months I had around ten pretty good charts and so I called up 18 of the best musicians I knew and we went into the studio to record this music. As we were doing this, I started to wonder if perhaps we were on to something. But I was still unsure. I didn’t really know how to get a record deal, or an agent or a gig. And was I really up to the challenge (and hassle!) of leading a big band? But little by little, I learned. And we got a gig. Then another one. And before long, the appeal of performing in front of an audience started to kick in and our first album got two Grammy nominations and then we were recording our second album, which got three Grammy Nominations. Then we started to do more and more gigs, including in Europe, Japan, France and Australia. And now here we are, and the Big Phat Band is celebrating its 25th Anniversary, having released ten albums, with 25 Grammy Nominations and four Grammy wins. It has been a wonderful ride, with our share of bumps and bruises, but with an extreme level of joy to see people embrace what we do. Our audience has a very wide demographic, with people that are old enough to have seen Benny Goodman live, to middle school and high school music students who are playing and studying our music as part of their own love of jazz. There is no better feeling than finding what you love and expressing that with freedom. The Big Phat Band has done that for me. I almost missed my shot at this, but really, it is never too late. Your primary responsibility as a human is to find out what you love, what you believe in and dedicate your life to that. And here, 25 years in, I feel like we are just getting started, with much more music to come.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The primary challenge was that my genre of choice was jazz, and this is not music that most people like or appreciate. We do have a very supportive base, but when your band has 20 people in it, there are a lot of costs involved to pay the musicians and cover air fare and hotel costs. It is rare to get a creative fee for a performance that can cover all of those costs. So you have to solve that puzzle. Then with the advent of digital music and streaming services, people stopped buying CDs. These days, recording your music is still important because it is the engine that affects the rest of your activities, like touring. But you are not going to make money from CD sales anymore. And the streaming services pay HORRIBLY and are ripping musicians off big-time. I don’t really think it is something that can change at this point, and the music industry was really asleep at the wheel with big tech established the ground rules regarding artist royalties. A very unfortunate state of affairs. Then – the job of leading a band of twenty accomplished and strong-willed individuals is something that takes time to learn. There is a sacrifice to be made when you step into the leader’s chair. There becomes a degree of separation from the people in the band when you are calling the shots and are paying them for their services. I learned I had to make some effort to bridge that gulf. And when some of the people in the band are close friends, that can complicate things as well. I think I have lost about 10 friends due to this band and its certainly a complicated thing, but overall, the vibe in our band is great. I have learned how important it is to have good chemistry as an organization, along with excellent musicianship.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Your question shows the perspective of many in our industry and our culture. What is your specialty? What are you known for? Personally, I never made it a goal to specialize. Most people know me from the music I compose for the Big Phat Band, but others know me from my composing for film or animation. Some think of me as a saxophone player, others think of me as a piano player. I have always been interested in a wide range of music. While I was in college, I was playing in the jazz band, studying Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky and Debussy, and playing in a rock ‘n roll band in a club at night. I studied conducting for years. I studied flute and clarinet for many years. I’ve been studying piano since I was in kindergarten. I had to learn how to use computers, samples and composing software. I had to learn about recording and producing and all the ever-changing technology for those skills. I had to learn about marketing and promotion. I had to learn how to read contracts and do budgets and learn about social media. It’s never-ending! And I wouldn’t change a thing. I know that I would be a better piano player if that was all that I did, but I love the experience of jumping from discipline to discipline. It keep me engaged and charged up!
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The industry is in sad shape, especially for subgenres like jazz and classical music. I am very conflicted as to what to tell young music students. I cannot in good conscience tell a young musician to dedicate their life to studying an instrument, to spend hundreds of thousand of dollars to go to college, only to graduate and not have any gigs. If you want to be a rapper or a pop star, there are economic possibilities, but the reality is that successful people in that world have won the lottery. It’s a pretty big long shot to have career success on a high level. But even for those already in the industry, the disparity in the distribution of royalties is crippling. But having said that, there have always been challenges in the arts and whatever these challenges might be, artists must step up and find solutions. Artists must advocate and evangelize for the music they love. Grass-roots support for the arts can be effective, but it takes organization and commitment. We cannot rely on the corporate media to do this, since they only understand and are motivated by profit. Spreading the understanding of the value of the arts to the human condition is as important as can be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bigphatband.com
- Instagram: @bigphatbandhq
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigPhatBand/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe5fIdavHRjzu5gM8_qYRlA
Image Credits
Rex Bullington
