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Real name: scott mcclure

Birthday: 12/15/1950

Location: portland, oregon

Occupation: computer dept manager

Information: i’m another old guy (54) and a complete amateur.  about 33 years ago (lord!) when i got out of the service i was beginning to develop an interest in, maybe a passion for, jazz.  i also had some gi bill and nothing else very fun to do so i became, for a couple of years, a music student and very bad trumpet player at a cc that had a great jazz program (lcc, eugene, or).  i looked at some really good musicians around me and decided a) i’d be lucky to ever be anywhere near that good and, b) i wanted more money than they had.  given that, i got myself a career in computers.

not a bad decision all in all but i never lost my passion.  i didn’t play anything for 20 years or so but took in lots of great live music and continued to feed the beast in other ways.  shortly after a divorce the family upright grand came to live with  me.  now, back in the school days i’d learned a basic ii-v-i on the keyboard so i could entertain myself pretty well.  after a year or two that gets old however so i talked a local (portland, or) keyboard master (eddie wied) into giving me some lessons.  what fun!  now i could sort of play a few songs.  well, another marriage and several job changes consumed the next 15 years or so.  i only worked with eddie for a year and life interrupted.  a year ago we had the piano  moved from the living room to the family room – i thought i might play a bit more.

yeah, i did!  about 2 hours a day for the last year with good weekends adding 10 or 12 hours.  a few months ago someone suggested i’d best get a teacher sooner rather than later so i contacted one of my local favorites and began taking lessons from randy porter.  i am very lucky to have someone like this living close by, let me tell you!  what fun!

my goals are modest.  first, i’d like to be able to easily get through a tune without dropping a beat or losing the form.  that would be a good start.  someday i dream of playing with people – just for the joy of it.  i think it will happen but sometimes it’s sure hard to understand how.  


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