I have been playing the piano since age six. Some of my first professional experiences were playing in clubs starting just before my 16th birthday. I played in bar bands all through undergrad school days and after graduating in 1982 started performing in NYC. I have spent 30 years being involved performing in some of the biggest Broadway shows. Parallel to this I spent 16 years playing jazz piano in the late artist/musician Larry Rivers’ band. Since 1998 I started to transition my focus into composing music for films and TV. In that time period I have scored over 40 films and written over 2,000 tracks for TV broadcast. I have music on air hundreds of times daily. My current plans are to start releasing an album of original music every twelve months or so for the next few years as an adjunct to my TV/film work and Ashokan Memories is the first release in this series.

Not sure, but I would not be a haberdasher (laughter)

Too many to list here but, as a pianist, many of the pianists from the Miles Davis musical family circa 1955-1970. As far as composing I love the music of Debussy, Copland, Bernard Hermann, Jerry Goldsmith as well as some ambient music, roots music and world music.

Unfortunately many of my non-piano musical heroes are not alive. Living in NYC I get to play with great musicians often. I do think however what would be more interesting to me is to keep an eye out for younger musicians to work with who create and perform in a way that is different to me. This is a great way to keep a fresh, open minded approach to creating music.

That is not a question that can be answered in an either/or fashion. If you are a touring musician that earns most of your living playing live performances and people record your gigs to share online, I can see how that would boost your fan base and bring more people to your gigs. If you are someone like myself who is an independent artist self-funding recording projects and not touring, illegal downloading takes money away from the budgets I have to keep doing this work.

I do not wish to have adversarial relationships with other artists. That being said, the arch nemesis to many creative people is a system that takes advantage of artists’ work to generate more income for suits than the artists and also a culture that values youth over wisdom.

There are and have been many interesting ensembles out there. Some examples to me would be The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Medeski Martin and Wood, the current Keith Jarrett trio, the Flecktones and many others.

One interesting thing about FM radio when I was younger was the eclectic nature of programming. One minute you would have a track by the Beatles, then a track by Miles Davis, a track by the Dead then Billie Holiday then maybe Muddy Waters, ELP or even Glenn Gould. Today that kind of freeform programming is largely relegated to some public radio shows and Internet radio. The same holds true for festivals. Bands and artists playing music that is in the same marketing category are playing festivals. Why can't there be an eclectic lineup with all sorts of just great artists performing. Segregation of music like this tends to lead to much less creative possibilities as styles and artists get put into a little box only to be used with others of similar thinking. This musical inbreeding is pretty stifling.

I spend quite a bit of time reading and learning about recording music and music technology to stay on top of new developments. A couple of months ago I read Pete Townshend's current autobiography Who I Am. He is a fabulous story teller and while he probably got some editorial help writing the book, he is very articulate and was involved in all sorts of incredible scenes in the 1960s and 1970s that make for an entertaining read.

Went to Pete Seeger's Clearwater Festival in the early summer.

I love playing blues rock electric guitar as well as slide guitar and can spend hours just playing along with albums.

Not sure of the biggest but here is one that stands out: I played in the pit orchestra for the very last summer show at Radio City Music Hall. The orchestra would seat themselves in their chairs on the “band car” that was stationed at the very bottom of the pit. At five minutes before the show, the car would be lifted up about 20 feet so that it formed the orchestra pit just below stage level. One of the “highlights” of the performance was the band car rising up out of the pit onto the stage and motoring around the stage on tracks while we were playing. On opening night in front of a packed house, the band car lifted up onto stage level and started moving and got stuck in place. So there was this scene where the house was crowded with several thousand people, the stage was filled with 60 or 70 performers including the stars of the show, the Rockettes and ensemble singers all attempting to do a very tightly choreographed number that was supposed to fit around the path of the band car that had 45 musicians on it. The hydraulics that moved the car broke and we were stuck and could not move and finished the show in that spot. To say that created quite a confusion would be kind. It was a harbinger for the rest of the summer as business was so bad there were performances with more people on stage than in the house.

John Coltrane, Ravi Shankar and Igor Stravinsky

100% vegan, non-animal harming food.

There are many paths to a successful and enjoyable music career and you do not have to be a household name to have one. It does help however to really love what you do.

Another thought for anyone younger considering a career in music is to not only study and learn your instrument but learn how to think critically about music for the purposes of being able to dissect it and find out how a piece of music works. Finally, learn music technology like you would learn your instrument!