Jon Gordon is an American author and speaker on the topics of leadership, culture, sales, and teamwork.
I remember Art Blakey saying to me, "Just remember, we're blessed to do what we do. "
I had made a couple of records in Europe. One as a leader, and one as a sideman before that. It was what it was. I started to work with Maria Schneider around that period and some other people, I started to get called to sub at the Vanguard in my mid-20s.
We [with my mother] listened to music when I was a kid. We listened to a little bit of Bob's [Gordon] music, but just a little, I think it was too painful for her.
I have worked in the homes of many successful people and have seen firsthand that everyone fails in life, but failure can be a gift if you don't give up and are willing to learn, improve, and grow because of it. You see, failure often serves as a defining moment, a crossroads on the journey of your life. It gives you a test designed to measure your courage, perseverance, commitment, and a dedication. Are you a pretender who gives up after a little adversity or a contender who keeps getting up after getting knocked down?
Connection to the music and the history was very powerful to me. I think that's what I feel the most blessed about.
If you want to make [your own way in music] it as a player, which is very difficult, as Art Blakey said to me, "We're blessed to have the opportunity to do this. " So just keep that in mind.
You can’t be a great leader if all you are serving is yourself.
A man goes to the village to visit the wise man and he says to the wise man, “I feel like there are two dogs inside me. One dog is this positive, loving, kind, and gentle dog and then I have this angry, mean-spirited, and negative dog and they fight all the time. I don't know which is going to win. ” The wise man thinks for a moment and he says, “I know which is going to win. The one you feed the most, so feed the positive dog.
The more energy you spend worrying about the people who didn't get on your bus, the less you will have for the people who are on your bus. And if you are worrying about the people who didn't get on your bus you won't have the energy to keep on asking new people to get on.
The Monk competition did open some doors. And I was thankful for that.
Negative people often tend to create negative cultures whereas positive corporate cultures are created by positive people.
[We need] someone like Don Sickler, who is an amazing trumpet player and who is also a publisher and amazing producer and composer and arranger. There's a lot of ways you can make a contribution.
We had been thrown out of a couple of places that we had lived in when I was a kid and all the family photos and records and toys were long since gone. But I think somebody had given us a couple of records.
There are a lot of people that impacted me. I remember hearing Oscar Peterson live at the Blue Note, which was very expensive, but. . . $50 in the '80s. . . hard to come up with. But it was amazing.
Teaching has definitely become a big part of my life in the past ten plus years. As it often does for many dedicated players. Because you can have some great gigs.
Bob [Gordon] died young tragically.
Earlier that year [1996], Ronnie Scott came to Visiones when I was playing with Maria and he hired me to come and play in his club in London, which I was gratified by. That allowed me to make some more connections.
Don't waste your energy on those who don't get on your bus.
Another classical music teacher from Performing Arts that I've stayed in contact with is Jonathan Strasser.
My life is a gift not an obligation and I Get To make the most of it.