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And So Forth

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John Erickson



Last Updated: 11/26/2009

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March 20, 2007 - Tuesday 
Mizar5 Interview

I had a really great piano professor at San Diego State University. His name is Rick Helzer and he was heavily into jazz harmony and chord voicings and all the different possibilities in re-harmonization. He was crazy about the Miles Davis Quintet of the late 60s, Wayne Shorter tunes, Herbie Hancock. While I was never particularly drawn to that stuff, and you probably wouldn't hear that influence in any of my music, I'm really thankful to have had that kind of exposure to it. And to have had a teacher who was so enthusiastic about all the subtleties of chord voicings, I feel like I got a good grounding in jazz harmony there. As for the local scene, at that time there was a lot of Latin and Brazilian jazz happening. My first steady gig was with a salsa band. So I had to study those styles, learn to play montunos, etc. There was a period there of a year or two when I felt at least halfway competent as a latin piano player. Now I almost never play that stuff, but again I'm thankful to have had so much exposure to it. I know enough to know how much I don't know.

11:49 PM
 
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