TED Community » Brayd Jazz
About Me
I was raised by an art teacher mom and a scientist dad in a small university town. I spent my early years drawing and painting on the living room coffee table while listening to my father’s record collection (mostly jazz and film scores.)
I began performing and singing in Elementary school productions, trying a bit of writing as well.. Then, in the midst of junior high school’s angst, I began to write songs on a regular basis, making fairly good imitations of the pop and indie landscape of the day. At 15, I traded one of my paintings for local sound studio time and was introduced to audio production and multi-tracking.
A few short years later, I re-discovered my father’s record collection and also began tuning in to all sorts of world music and urban radio stations for multi-dimensional nourishment, and masterful examples of composition, arranging, lyricism, and melody.
I continued writing by ear throughout college, but took the idea of a well-rounded education very seriously... struggling with subjects way outside of my field, and against a learning disability or two. It wasn’t until after graduation that I realized how much musical education and discipline was still ahead of him. I switched from guitar to piano in order to understand theory better, and began the daunting task of editing, cutting, and re-writing several album’s worth of his material up to that point.
If there is any main theme to my yet-to-be released library, it might be about my struggle to not be one dimensional... to balance between art and science in life, and to balance the moment-by-moment personal dilemmas of growth with universal experiences of a world full of people suffering with simlar.
We all feel the struggle to keep our center amidst the sensory assault and demands of modern living. When we re-connect with universal principles in life, science, and art, our perception rises above the fray into a place where “The fundamental things apply as time goes by" (--Cassablanca) That is the sort of classic transcendence that I want to build into my songs.
- Location:
- United States, Howard, PA
- Gender:
- Male
- Areas of expertise:
- Vocal Jazz and Blues, Illustration & Design, Writing - anything; editor; proofreader, Out of the Box Thinking
- I am:
- Artist, Brainstormer, Educator/Teacher, Idea generator, Inventor, Life mentor, Musician, Performer, Potential employer, Writer/Editor
- Associations:
- Penn State University, TED
- Languages:
- English, Spanish, French
- My website links:
- My music website
- Universities:
- Penn State University
More About Me
I'm passionate about
I'm Passionate about the basics. Most of the world's problems stem from missing out on essential, foundational concepts, usually at the grade-school level.
An idea worth spreading
Replace the seventh or eighth grade with a year of tutoring elementary school students.
Talk to me about
Restructuring organizations, Human resources problems, Impossible situations, Product design, marketing, and promotion. Script doctoring, saving collapsing film productions. Consulting.
People don't know that I'm good at
Jungian-style analysis, Painting, Multi-media, self-education.
Comments
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