The student files
JD Erickson jazzed about the saxophone
BY DANI CLIFTON
First-year student JD Erickson is a talented and
passionate musician; as an up and com ing artist in
the world of jazz, he has a certain sax appeal.
The Clackamas Print: Take us back to that moment
much as I evolve, and when my ears develop as to what
I’ m listening to^Jils playing ^eems to follow that. So
I’ve always had a reasop to keep listening to him. He’s
just followed alpng with 'me. It’ s really cool and I’d love
to meet him &>meday. £
w hen you first realized that jazz w as your future.
TCP: Knowing what you know thus far in life, what
JD Erickson: It was my freshman year at band
nugget o f w isd o m w ould you tell your fiv e -y e a r
cam p, actually, as lame as that sounds. M y ✓ 'oTdself?
director had hired a really funky sax player t6
come in and play and he brought a whole band, JE: Find what you love to do,varly, no matter what it
and they just rocked the house for the first night
is; that’s what I would recommend.
I was there. I told my friends, ‘That’s what I want
to do. That seems like so much fu n .’ And that
TCP: Flash forw ard four or five decades. Y o u ’ re
sitting across from an author who is penning your
was the inspiration I needed to get myself going.
TCP: Loo k in g fo rw a rd fro m there, w h o
memoirs. W hat a r e s o m e o f the highlights o f your
career that you w ant to be revisiting?
were your musical inspirations, your jazz
mentors?
’I m C i JE^PteVing at the Village Vanguard would be awesome,
JE: W ell, I ’ve had a few m entors
throughout the years. I’ve studied with
multiple different jazzw asters if
you will, and not all saxophone
players ... Derek Sim s, he’ s a
trumpet player... John Nasto,
a sax player... Renato Caranto,
a
sax player... Clark Blondy, he’s
a sax player. I’m currently studying
with Gary Harris, w ho’ s another sax
player. Charlie D oggett, I ’ m looking
forward to starting up with him real soon;
he’ s a drummer and then Clay Giberson,
he’ s on piano. I’ve studied with all kinds
of people.
TCP: I f you could spend an afternoon
w ith anyone, alive or deceased, w h o
would it be?
JE: W ell, he’ s still alive today and my number
one idol — jazz — anything, he’ s just evolved
as my listening has evolved; his name is Tucker
A n tell, h e’ s from Boston, M ass, and h e ’ s a
tenor saxophone player and he evolves just as
GN TNf COVER: Design editor Brandon Chorum tributes David Bowie, who died Jan. 10.
Itheclackamasprint.com
w ith a jazz quartet featuring me. That would be
something; something definitely on my bucket list. The
Village Vanguard is the venue that everyone’s played at:
Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane — it’ s just the jazz place
everyone’s gone to; kind of like Birdland or Blue Note.
The Village Vanguard is a very, very famous jazz club.
TCP: As an up -an d-co m in g jazz artist, the world is
quite literally your stage. W hat is it that you wish to
convey to your global audience through your music?
JE: I like to think of myself as a very happy person and
I try to always be in a good mood. Normally I am, and
I like to put that through my music. I like to have it go
somewhere and I just want it to be inspirational for
someone else, to have someone listen to me and have
that same — what if 1 was that someone’ s ‘freshman
year at band cam p.’ So when I play, I’m trying to think,
what can I do to make a happy story out of how I’m
playing? What ideas can I play that go off of the previous
one? So I try to tell a story throughout most of it while
also trying to play to the best of my ability because I
feel everyone who comes out to hear you play deserves
to hear the best you’ve got and that’s something I’ m
really passionate about, that every moment is a chance
to give it your all, no holding back.
OOBI
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