Doug Little

A couple of months ago I got an email from Doug Little, who had been one of my students way back when, when he was in high school. He's based in Minneapolis now, and has created a place for himself in the music world. Doug was visiting the Bay Area, and we had a nice chat over coffee. Doug is a really fine straight-ahead player (alto, tenor, flute, bass clarinet), but has also picked up a pretty deep interest in Cuban music along the way. He's received grants to study it, and has spent 8 months in Cuba over 4 trips. I can't take credit for how great a player he is now, but I'm happy if I helped at all.

Doug has several bands; he's also an educator, and runs the Twin Cities Jazz Workshop in the summer. You can check Doug's bio and music on his website, www.douglittlemusic.com. He has a bunch of videos on youtube; here are a couple of them. This one is from a sax quartet he wrote:

This one is more American/straight-ahead:

It's always nice to hear from ex-students, and of course, gratifying if they are still playing music. Obviously, very few make a career in music. That's harder to do now than ever, and I'd never advise a student to try it, unless (like me) there's really no good alternative.

Not too long ago, as I arrived at the Saturday session of an adult jazz combo that I coach, Bob (the drummer) said to me, "I met one of your ex-students - we played a gig together last night." Me: "Really? Who?" Bob: "Jerry P." Me: "Oh, yeah, Jerry - nice kid, good player." Bob: "He's not a kid, he's an old man." I did a quick time calculation. Bob was exaggerating, but...