Soul Music:  Interview with Mark Small 

Mark Small is probably best known for playing saxophone with Michael Bublé’s amazing band.  Mark’s list of talents also includes his upcoming CD, arranging and composing music as well as paying his gift forward by teaching music to others.  Join in on a conversation I recently had with Mark about his creative inspirations and fascinating life as a jazz musician. 

TR:  Growing up, at what point did you know you were meant to play music for a living? 

MS:  I just feel like I don’t have the inspiring story that I hear from most people where they were six or their parents listened to music the entire time and they had all these records and stuff – mine was pretty different…I wound up getting into jazz band when I was a (high school) freshman, which if I hadn’t done that I probably wouldn’t have ended up doing music today.  I always thought I would do something in science or something like that.  I really like math and I believe that math is tied to music, so I always thought that I would end up doing that.

TR:  Were there people who told you that you would never be able to make it as a musician?  Were you able to keep your beliefs strong despite any negativity surrounding you?

MS:  No one ever came out and just said, ‘you’ll never make it as a professional musician’ but I always got the impression that you can’t make all your money doing that…So I think I was always prepared for that…But I haven’t done a job that wasn’t music related since being in New York, which from my experience talking to people is fairly unique.

TR:  Did you have your own doubts that you could do this for a living? 

MS:  I thought that I would give it a shot and see how long…I guess I am still sort of wondering how long I can go on playing music before it just is not feasible - before it doesn’t support me anymore.  And I think that I am still kind of amazed that it is.  Because I don’t think I had in mind the things that I am doing - playing with Michael Bublé, or things like that.  It’s just I really like playing music and if I can actually make a living doing that, it will be pretty amazing.  And that was the reason I didn’t pursue public education – because my band director said, “well, you can’t just make a living playing, you should really get a music ed (education) degree because you can always fall back on that.”  And then I thought if I spend so much time working on the thing to fall back, I won’t really have given a shot to actually trying to be a performer.

TR:  So why you?  Why do you think you are where you are today? 

MS:  In this case, it’s definitely being in the right place at the right time…I’ve had so many different experiences and can’t say that I’ve directed myself towards them… It does feel like being in the right place and being prepared for when you are in that place.

TR:  As a songwriter, I get inspiration from things people say or something I heard on TV – the spoken word is all around us.  As a composer, where do you get your inspiration to write music?  Do you hear the music inside of you or does it come from outside influences?

MS:  …The songs themselves come from inside of me and anything outside of me is going to influence (them)… I don’t think that I have songs that are very specific to an exact experience or something I heard someone say… I feel like when I write songs they have a shape that’s a story, but because they’re instrumental I want to leave people’s imaginations open enough that they create the story

TR:  Part of the focus of Kelly’s Spirit & Creativity column is to teach people how to live what she calls ‘your dream come true life’.  Touring with Michael Bublé, traveling around the world playing music –do you feel that you are living the life of your dreams? 

MS:  It’s funny – I feel like I didn’t set a real dream in having this one specific picture… I think in general when you have an impression of what you’d want your life to be, it’s more of a feeling in the direction that you feel like you’re moving forward.  If you feel you’re moving forward, it’s when you are going towards whatever dream is more the dream of the subconscious – maybe it’s like going home or something…It’s like when the wind really dies out – this is what I just learned in sailing – and you have to tack (cut back and forth to catch the wind from a different angle).  You’re not charging ahead, you’re kind of doing this back and forth slowly, but you’re still moving forward.  I feel like that, to me, is what the idea of living the ideal life is – you want to be moving forward.

So if you are wondering if now is the time to start living your own dream come true life, use Mark’s story as your inspiration and know that the answer for you, like for him, is a resounding YES!  You just have to be willing to listen to the song in your heart and play the music of your Soul.

Check out samples of Mark Small’s CD, along with fellow tenor saxophonist Walter Smith, at www.bronzemusic.com.  Mark can also be heard playing with Michael Bublé’s band and Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society   Find out more about Mark at www.smallmusic.com as well as on his MySpace page.

Trisha Richardson is a writer and lyricist who has written several songs for the world, as well as for herself, to sing.  She is also blessed to be Kelly Carroll’s sister.  Contact Trisha at teajazz@msn.com

Photo credit:  Mark Small 2007

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