The Bob Baran Story...An Interview

This interview with Bob Baran focuses upon some of the biographical highlights of his life in music. He discusses certain events that were instrumental in shaping his musical "voice" and his ultimate direction as a Composer, Performer and Producer.

Did you come from a musical family?

Yes, my mother was a pop singer of sorts who was featured on a weekly radio show in Detroit when she was a teenager. My Dad was a killer sax player who had some notoriety around Detroit in the late 40s and early 50s. Our home was full of music of all kinds.

Were you born in Detroit?

Yep, I grew up in the E. Seven Mile Road and Ryan Road area. You could see Pershing High School from the front yard of my parent's little house on Yonka Street.

My Dad gave me my first sax, a Busher 400 “Top Hat” alto when I was ten years old. I still have that sax and of course never appreciated it when I was a kid. My Dad kept telling me it was a really good sax. He was right.

Is that where you received your early music training?

Yes, my Mother and Grandfather introduced me to the piano. (We had an old Grinnel Bros. upright in the basement) Of course, my Father was the one who introduced me to the saxophone.

As far as actual "music lessons" are concerned, unfortunately, when I was in the 4th grade the band teacher at Stevens T. Mason Elementary School refused to give me sax lessons.

He refused?

Yeah, I was small in stature, but large in circumference, when I was ten. I was physically incapable of carrying the sax the six blocks or so to school and back.

He gave the “school” sax to a kid named Billy who was bigger than me cause he could carry it back and forth to school. You see,I had this crazy notion that I could use the school sax for lessons and band and practice on my sax at home. The band teacher didn’t agree.

How did that affect you?

It was demoralizing. I remember crying all the way home from school...My Dad, to his credit, was outraged with the band teacher and taught me some colorful verbal “riffs,” if you know what I mean.

Was there a lesson there for you?

Yeah, we are always going to encounter individuals who will knowingly or unknowingly attempt to crush our dreams in music or any endeavor. That teacher didn’t stop me from playing the sax. In retrospect I was “saved” from his musical influence.

What about your later musical education?

Well, I had a kind of vindication. In 1975, at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, I auditioned for Dr. Eugene Rouseau. The first thing he said was: “The saxophone department closed six months ago.”

The second thing he said was: “But, I’m going to let you in.” Any serious sax player knows Dr. Rouseau is considered the greatest professor of saxophone in the world... The “ultimate sax teacher”...And the Indiana University School of Music is world-class.

You know, I don’t even remember that elementary school band teacher’s name.

That was later, where did you actually get your first lessons?

My family moved to New Orleans area when I was 11, so my first sax teacher, I believe his name was George Steltz, turned out to be the band director for one of the most highly touted High School Jazz bands in New Orleans! The guy was so humble that my Dad and I didn’t “know” this about him until I was invited by Mr. Steltz to participate in a group recital at that school.

This is starting to sound like a movie script...

It's all true!...The rejected “fat” kid from a blue collar neighborhood in Detroit is whisked to New Orleans where one of the top “jazz” teachers in the area gives him his first lessons on the sax...And years later
the “ultimate sax teacher” accepts him into the “already closed” sax department at one of the top music schools in the world...I didn't make this up.

Did your family stay in New Orleans?

No, we lived in Metairie, which was like a suburb of New Orleans, for about four years and then our family moved to Rockford, Illinois.

Rockford is where I went to high school. I graduated from Guilford High School a year after Rick Neilson.

Rick Neilson of Cheap Trick?

Yep, in fact there may still be a tape of Robin Zander and me (on the sax) jamming in the summer of 1970 in a South Beloit, Illinois, recording studio owned by a mutual friend of ours. The studio was operated by a couple of guys who used to have a band named “A Lovely Sight,” I think, and so they named the recording studio A.L.S. My first “gig” came that fall when a group got formed named “Godfather.”

Godfather was a seven piece “horn band” that did cover material. Our debut was at the largest club in Rockford at the time, “Flo’s Inn” near the airport.

So you started playing in nightclubs while you were still a teenager?

Yes, my first experience as a professional musician was playing six nights a week. During that first month I also got to play with “The Shadows of Night” They had a big 60's hit: “Gloria,” I also played with the “New Colony Six”. Godfather ended up on the road playing in Milwaukee, Racine, Chicago...Chasing gigs and trying to keep the band together.

You already had a music career before you went to Indiana University

After Godfather, I played with black groups exclusively for a couple of years. I remember jamming every Saturday afternoon at “The Eldorado Club” in Rockford. I was the only white guy in the place. But, it was cool cause I was part of the band.

I remember playing with one band in particular headed up by a guitar player named “Preacher”. He claimed to have been James Brown’s lead guitar player for a few years on the road. Was it true? I don’t know, but the guy could really play, and I believed him at the time.

Any special memories from those times?

One gig during that time really affected me in a very powerful way. It took place a few miles out of town in a black social club. Once again, I was treated like royalty cause I was part of the band. This club was so poor that the floor had collapsed in the center of the dance floor. It was around ten feet in diameter, just an open hole...broken wood.

The beautiful thing I remember was how people just danced around it like it wasn’t there. There was a “suspending of disbelief” that took place there that night that taught me the power of music to lift an audience into another reality. That club, that night, could have been the ballroom at the Ritz. An incredibly humbling experience I have never forgotten. Those days were the best “gigging” experiences I ever had.

Was there a significant experience in a band that changed your musical direction?

Well, during this time in my life I played with a lot of different bands. But one thing in particular happened during the waining days of Godfather. We brought in a a local Rockford musician, Tom Leary, into the band. He brought his own original music to the band and I got to see a composer and arranger at work, teaching and conducting the band as Godfather began to shape a new sound. Tom was a de facto "mentor" to me. I loved playing his music...And looking back on it, that experience changed me in a big way.

How did it change you?

I never again had "the juice" to seriously pursue "cover material". Not doing original material seemed like a waste of time. Sure I enjoy sitting-in on occasion, but I have never been able to commit myself to "learning and playing" other people's music. I love to sit-in and even collaborate but it's always in an improvisational manner. The minute they want me to learn "parts" I'm gone.

What happened to Godfather?

Unfortunately, the band was primarily working musicians which meant no regular gigs equals no musicians. After the band broke up I entered into my “R&B” sojourn. So it was a few years until I reconnected with Leary.

"Colonel", a guitar player, and I started hanging out and before you know it, Tom Leary, Roger Wiley and Vadis Brown were a part of it too. We had yet another version of “Wheezer Lockinger” back together. This time with me playing soprano and tenor sax. "Wheezer" is what we named the band as "Wheezer Lockinger" had been a well known regional band. We played a couple of gigs and stayed together long enough to record a demo at A.L.S. studios which had moved to Rockford from South Beloit, by that time.

You mention being in "Godfather" and "Wheezer" aren't they fairly recent bands?

I was in the original "Godfather" and "Wheezer" which was a part of the Rockford music scene in the '70's.

Were there any other significant band experiences?

There was another significant band after “Wheezer” it was called “Continuum”.  This was a band I put together a few months after I left “Wheezer”. We rehearsed in my basement and did original material we all collaborated on.

The band was Vadis Brown, Roger Wiley, “The Colonel,” Jim Wells and me. I remember buying a brand new Wulitzer electric piano cause I was the only one in the band with credit. Colonel played the “Wurly”.

At the time I was under a lot of pressure. I was the only guy in the band who was married, and I wanted to see more progress than I think we as a band were capable of. After all, this was a “part-time” endeavor with long daily rehearsals after regular work hours.

We managed to cut a demo and soon after I had to call it quits. I couldn’t in good conscience continue with the band at that point in my life cause I frankly didn’t really know what to do next.

The band broke up but launched you in a new direction

It’s funny. Here I was a few months into making payments on that piano and I get the notion that I should start seriously playing it. This is the point where I made a critical decision. I decided to approach the piano from the mind-set of “pretending” to play.

What do you mean pretending to play?

I told myself that I was going to close my eyes and start moving my fingers around the keyboard until it started to make sense musically. You know, I acted "as if". After all, I had already taken a semester of class piano at Rock Valley College, so I at least knew where to put my fingers.

Did you really just pretended to play the piano?

I did indeed. I convinced myself that if I continued to approach “learning” the piano in that manner it would just be a matter of time before I would evolve my own unique approach to playing it. This was the "key epiphany" which was the ultimate foundation of my entire musical career.

In retrospect, that seems very enlightened

You must understand, at that point in my life I could clearly see and believe that I would, over time, figure out patterns and phrases that would be uniquely my own inventions. Tying these unique patterns and phrases together would become my musical "voice".

Was this a kind of “stream of consciousness” practice format?

Without realizing it at the time, I guess it was. I think what happened was that my fingers began to "learn” certain musical comfort zones from which to launch into the musical unknown.

This happened before your audition at the Indiana University School of Music?

By that point I had pretty well convinced myself that my approach to learning and playing the piano was valid. Luckily, I was also 24 years old, already had a music career of sorts and was married. So I was quite dismissive of some 18 year old freshman music student questioning the validity of my piano playing.

Did you study piano at Indiana?

No, my main instrument was the saxophone and I was pursuing jazz studies, but looking back the majority of my musical progress was actually taking place on the piano during my time at Indiana.

I took the required class piano course but I would go to the rehearsal building late at night and find an empty practice room and just start playing.

How did students and faculty react to your approach to piano?

The interesting thing was that I received a lot of encouragement from composition students. I’d do some “stream of consciousness” thing and get a reaction like “Did you copyright that? Are you going to publish it?” I was surprised at the reaction cause it never dawned on me that what I was doing would be interpreted as a legitimate composition.

You didn’t think you were composing?

No, at that time I was doing Jazz improvisation. In Dave Baker's Jazz improv class my main instrument was the sax. I never made the connection that when I was doing jazz I was doing a form of real-time composition all along. After all, Jazz is the real-time sequencing of musical ideas and attempting to connect them in a flowing manner within a pre-determined structure

So I was composing all along, but I didn’t recognize it as such. It was an epiphany for me to realize I was indeed a composer, but it took the recognition of this by other composers for me to finally “get it”.

Did you stay in the music school?

No, I did okay academically, but by the end of the third semester, personal financial pressures and a growing “dread” that somehow if I continued at IU my approach to creating music would become institutionalized led me to make the decision to end my stay.

Institutionalized?

I was afraid I might lose that free-flowing approach to piano. Look, at that point in time Jazz Studies was as close as you could get to actually learning anything about improvisation let alone "stream of consciousness" as a "legitimate" compositional process. I was worried that I would lose my personal resolve and settle into a more “accepted and conventional" way of composing and playing if I continued. I think things are different now days and that someone like me can find many avenues of higher learning that supports and nurtures improvisational based composition

For me, back then, I could read the writing on the wall: if I wanted a degree I was going to have to do it IU’s way. Which isn’t bad, it’s one of the best music schools in the world. It's just that back in that period of time I didn't see a simpatico with the musical direction I was determined to go in.

Did you explore any alternatives?

I looked into independent  study at a College in Michigan, but money was an issue and uprooting my family at that point just wasn’t a viable option.

So what did you do?

I made another critical decision. I was determined that owning a recording studio would allow me to continue to pursue my musical journey. Ironically it was that time my former wife and I discovered a vitamin, mineral and herb supplement that made us feel fantastic. It also turned out to be a “multi-level” business opportunity.

I will never forget reading the little pamphlet describing the business opportunity, and saying to myself “This is going to get me a studio!” Three and a half years later I had that studio.

What about your music?

During this period of time, my music was on a complete hiatus. For three and a half years I had a crash course in how the world really works. We built a successful business, I learned a lot about human nature and gained an expertise about marketing that would prove to be a powerful tool for me in the future. It was like getting an advanced course in marketing.

You even wrote a book about multi-level marketing

Yes, it was called “Multi-Level Mastery”. I self published it and sold around 33,000 copies over a two year period. I started a company named “Instructional Media Institute” and we became successful marketing cassette format training programs.

I remember my publisher in Australia, Business Education Institute, forwarded me a letter from Amway of Australia calling “Multi-Level Mastery” the bible of multi-level marketing...

What about your musical progress?

It became an after hours thing. I had purchased the remnants of “Ribbon Rail Studios” in 1981 in Bloomington. That physical space became Baran Productions/Skyline Studios and Instructional Media Institute. As the money came in slowly but surely I started to upgrade my recording equipment.

About four months after I published the book I bought a Steinway “M” grand piano. I always put as much profit back into the music as I could. In fact, I always considered my “business activities” as a means to support my music. You know, buying equipment and buying time...

What kept you from pursuing your music full-time at that point?

Every time I took a few days off to work on music I would come back to the business with a rude awakening. If I took my eyes off the “rudder” of the ship it immediately started running aground. I didn’t have anyone I could “turn it over to” even for a short while.

At the time I felt like I was punished every time I tried to jump back into my music. What I needed was a situation that would support me while I explored new musical territory.

And you didn’t have that?

No, and I couldn’t explain to anyone the incredible frustration it caused me. You see, my agenda had always been pure: To make money with what I knew so I could pursue my music and eventually just do my music full time.

What happened, though, is that I created this “machine” (the business) that ate up all of my energy and left very little forthe music. What’s the point of having all the equipment and no time to use it?

A feeling of dread started to build inside as time went on. I became afraid that if I didn't do something to change the direction of my life I would never see my music manifest it self. Over a period of three or four years the business just grinded to a halt cause I didn’t have any more “fire in the belly” for it.

And this was the period when you moved to Montana?

Yeah, I started having this fantasy of living on the side of a mountain and composing music. Somehow I believed that was my true destiny. I knew I had to get out of the mid-west. My former wife had roots in Montana so we pulled up stakes and transplanted ourselves... During a peak financial year I might add, good thing too.

But you do live on the side of a mountain and compose music

Hey, I thought it was going to happen a lot sooner. Within a couple of years after moving to Montana I was in a crisis, I was finally totally burned out with “the business” and went through several months of inner turmoil. It was just before this point that I bought the “Emulator ll” and began getting real serious about composing with the new musical palette that "cutting-edge" keyboard offered me.

It was an extremely tumultuous time and buying the keyboard was an agonizing decision for me. It was a substantial amount of money and seemed a frivolous thing to do within the context of my situation.

Looking back it was pivotal to my entire musical career. The fear, uncertainty and doubt I experienced was because I hadn't yet flipped the "inner switch".

What do you mean "inner switch?"

In retrospect, every new chapter in my life was the result of flipping the "knowingness" switch which enabled the personal conviction that everything was going to work out...Even if I didn't know exactly what to do, taking action within this mind-set always set in motion situations and opportunities which ultimately got me where I wanted to be.

What happened this time?

A few months after I bought the "Emulator" I received a grant to do my first album ("The Birds of Selenia"). The award was based on a piece of music I composed and performed using that keyboard. That was in April. By September I was building a new recording studio in downtown Helena.

Buying the "Emulator then being awarded the grant led to building a new studio?

Absolutely! It was like somebody threw on a light switch and I suddenly knew exactly what to do...I sold my house and used the equity to build a studio on the “downtown walking mall” in Helena. We even “house sat” for six months for a couple of snowbirds and subsequently lived in a rental house... two and a half years later I had my own building with a recording studio and was able to buy another house.

Looking back at it, I was “driven” to make it happen and had a lot of musician friends come out and donate time and effort constructing the studio...Kind of like a shared dream. When the studio was completed all that was left of the “equity” was enough to pay the bills for one month. The first jingle I sold made sure I’d be open for business another month and so on. I went out and “created”the deals...Thank goodness for all that sales training I had gotten....

Now you own your own building

Yes, and for the next few years I made a lot of progress with the production business gaining a national reputation, even being chosen by the National Association of Broadcasters's Radio Advertising Bureau to be on their list of "Recommended Creative Resources" which brought me Clients from all over the country. You can find out more information at: www.baranproductions.com

What about your music?

The musical progress I made during those years was directly integrated into the production business. For example I was able to compose, perform and produce, news theme packages for television stations, custom music for several documentaries and short films...And many custom music beds and jingles for various businesses and organizations.

So you were earning a living as a composer?

I was indeed, but it was music I was composing for the needs of a Client. Not music I was composing for myself. That was still relegated to"research and development" status. It did keep me on the cutting-edge stylistically however.

What do you mean?

A good example is a production concept I developed for a small business out west which was the same production concept I later used for a Client back east, The Kroger Company, five years later. It was new and fresh to them and exactly what they were looking for at the time.

Didn't you get some recognition as a "new music" composer?

Yes, it was the "New Music Across America Festival" which featured Composers and Performers of new music in several cities. They actually transported my Steinway grand to the stage of the Myrna Loy Center, here in Helena. It was the first time I performed a live stream of consciousness improvisational composition in front of an audience. There's a book by Iris Brooks: "New Music America" published by the California Institute of the Arts which has my name in it (Robert Baran) as a participant.

Another nudge?

It reacquainted me with that part of myself which had been placed aside as I had become more immersed in "commercial music". I look back at this event as another positive reinforcement which ultimately led to the "place" I'm in now.

Thank goodness for the arts organizations around the country that support and nurture Artists. My own example is a case in point. I was able to receive both monetary and emotional support at two key points in my life which had a powerful effect on the direction of my musical career. For that I will always be grateful.

Would you call your life at that time one of quiet desperation?

That would sum it up. I was having "outer" success with the production business but "inside" I was a volcano and it,was just a matter of time before I would erupt. I was suppressing an enormous amount of anxiety and frustration.

Why?

I came to realize that my life at that time was in direct opposition to everything I knew I should be doing. I felt I was cheating my dream, wasting time and had a sense that my life was being wasted.

Wasted?

I think this may be a universal thing with Artists. If you are denying yourself "communion" with your creative process, you know the focus and nourishment that comes from being in the "zone", one of two things will happen: You begin to build layer upon layer of justification for that denial or you ultimately "explode" forcing dramatic and unalterable changes in the direction of your life.

Which happened to you?

Frankly, both. I had reached a point where I was so far away from the truth of myself that I literally created a dramatic and unalterable change in my life. When I look back at that time, "who" I had become was very different from who I am today. That change forced me into a new path of retrospection which caused me to peal away layer after layer of that "person" and once again find my center and my heart.

What was the most profound thing you learned about yourself?

All things being equal, throughout my life I had been seeking true love. I had to finally get to the place inside myself where I could face it and not be afraid of what it meant and how it would force changes in my life.

This had an effect on your music?

I began to grow artistically in direct proportion to the degree of transparency I was able to achieve between my heart and the outer world. It's as if breaking through a barrier within myself was simultaneously creating artistic epiphany. My album, "Bridge To An Open Heart", was largely created during this period and documents my inner struggles and realizations.

Is this why "Bridge To An Open Heart" is your only "vocal" album?

I guess I had to "invent" what was for me a new musical style in order to more fully express the complexities which served to inspire the album. "Immersion" was the first track I recorded on the album. A matter of days later my first marriage was over. The rest of the tracks came one by one over a period of three years as I struggled through those inner layers. The very last track I finished, "The Power of Love", was completed a few weeks before Gwen and I were married.

Didn't another aspect of your music go through a radical change during this time?

My stream of consciousness piano performance was once again ignited! I remember the day something changed when I played. From that point on a part of myself that had been diminished for years began to assert itself.

I understand you recorded every time you played the piano

I made a conscious decision to record every time I played. It allowed me to critically examine what I was doing by giving me a constant reference. I literally have hundreds of hours of recordings of live stream of consciousness piano performances spanning several years.

Are you going to release any of those recordings?

Actually, "Sound Paintings" is my 5th solo piano album, but the first national release. My first solo piano album was titled "Ballerinas" and serves as a benchmark of those first weeks after "the day of change". Swans", "Cosmic Wind" and "Cloud Dancing" were the other albums. Each one different in feel and artistic proficiency. They are the "chapters" of my early years as I was developing my stream of consciousness compositional process.

It might be an interesting exercise to revisit these recordings and maybe at some point release a compilation of the four previous albums...Time will tell.

Marriage brought another change?

Along with a new piano we built a "dream studio" and what was to become the future home of Gathering Wave® LLC on the side of a mountain...

And then came Gathering Wave?

Yes, the label launched with 6 cd releases and a sampler. We spent the entire year before the launch working on every aspect of the business. We still consider ourselves in the start-up mode because everyday brings new challenges and quite frankly, a lot of trial and error. For me, Gathering Wave® is the ride of a lifetime...