Roi Lives

The blog is returning, finally, with a change in format. This space will be devoted to discussion and analysis of LeRoi Moore’s massive musical output. It will begin its change with an in-depth look at Live Trax 14 - 6.28.08 - Nissan Pavilion. LeRoi’s last show with Dave Matthews Band.

After the dissertation was written I felt a great sense of relief, but disoriented. I had put a massive flag in the ground for his legacy, his place in history. Now what? How do we keep this thing churning, how do we keep preaching the gospel of Roi?

One such Herculean task is to rewrite the dissertation. That I plan to do, but now I have the luxury of time. This space will be my corner of the world to talk all things LeRoi, where I can take what I know about his musicality and how deeply I connect with his music on an emotional level and combine them into a digital homage. Un musée numérique pour le roi.

I will provide musical examples, historical context, and coherent analysis but I will not be citing sources. If you want citations, read the book. If you’re that interested in a source (and I will always have them) then ask, or dig yourself. This is where I will come to build a reservoir of knowledge beyond the book. It is where I will, over time, pay back the enormous debt owed to him.

This is a long overdue update. I am finished. The dissertation is finished, defended, and I graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts in Jazz Studies from the University of Nebraska. At the commencement, the program included my name and my dissertation. It was a shock to see my name next to LeRoi’s.

Below you will find a link to my website where you can download a PDF of my dissertation. Avoid the ProQuest upload, it was somehow mangled and they want money to reupload.

A few things about this dissertation:

- it is not exhaustive; there simply wasn’t time to include every little thing, leaving a lot of great stuff out of the interviews

- it is intended merely as a strong foundation into further research into his life and works

- the story is not finished; I will be researching him probably for as long as I live

So while this leg of the journey is over, for now I feel at peace with the nearly two years I spent with this document. The story of LeRoi Moore and his place in music is off to a good start, and I will resume it sometime in the future. But for now, a respite. For now, goodbye.

Hello all, I’ve been neglectful of this blog because things have been crazy busy. BUT - tonight is my lecture recital and it is being webcast for anyone to check out!

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated things, so here it is. News, news, and more news - some I can be specific about and some I can’t.

It’s been a few weeks but my trip to Charlottesville was very fruitful. Got some cool pics from LeRoi’s old high school yearbooks, did some interviews.

Management is supposed to be hooking me up with a band member over the phone. So that’s cool. One of the many people I interviewed ran across another band member around town, told him what I was doing. Said band member gave him his number, said have the guy call me. VERY COOL. Still waiting on a call back but hey, he’s busy and I’m patient. I’m just glad he digs the project.

As for the upcoming schedule:

On March 13th I will be giving my lecture “LeRoi Moore - the Unknown Titan of American Music” at the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference at Texas Tech. More info here.

My lecture recital will be webcast by NET and the Glenn Korff School of Music on March 16th, 7:00 CST. Link to the webcast is here.

It’s been awhile since a proper update has appeared, but things have been very busy. I’m in Charlottesville, have been for a bit, doing archival research and talking to some more people. Some of LeRoi’s old JMU colleagues, and with any luck some of his more famous colleagues.

The lecture I gave at the International Saxophone Symposium was very well received. The audience wasn’t huge, but hey, there were some folks genuinely interested. My good friend Gary drove up from Kentucky to see the lecture as well. With friends and family in attendance, it was a good warmup for the lecture recital.

I ended up staying longer in Maryland than I intended but hey, two feet of snow will do that for you. Still it was a good time hanging with family.

From the Dec. 9, 1961 edition of The Carolina Times (Durham, NC):

So, where do I start?

First, I feel like a huge jerk. After my last post lamenting no contact from the DMB folks I received an email from Red Light Management. It looks like they are going to try and arrange a phone interview with someone in the band. If I wasn’t so drained from travel I’d probably be shaking a little. Here’s a huge opportunity to find out more about LeRoi.

Yesterday I lectured at the International Saxophone Symposium about LeRoi. It went very well. Not a huge crowd, but some questions and the people seemed really interested.

Tomorrow morning I leave for destinations east. Back to Charlottesville, with a brief stop in Winchester, VA to lecture about LeRoi at the International Saxophone Symposium.

In my years of playing and teaching I’ve often taken it upon myself to preach the gospel of LeRoi Moore. Many people are just unaware of his talents, and I get that. There are thousands of players out there; if you’re a jazz musician you spend your life checking out a never-ending avalanche of records. Others are outright dismissive. He suffers from being popular and creative - you have to invest yourself in LeRoi’s playing. It’s a stock a lot of people think is below them.

Still I would gladly take the time to talk to those who would listen. The saxophone community at large has been pretty supportive, if my lecture schedule is any indication.

But if I’m being completely honest, I’m feeling a lot of disappointment. And part of me feels like I’m being selfish and I shouldn’t.

Let me explain - I didn’t start this project to meet the band. I’ve never been one to worship at the altar of celebrity, and you can call bull if you like but if Dave Matthews was the local host of singer/songwriter night downtown, jumping up there to play Lover Lay Down before thirty other guys/gals with guitars play their stuff, I’d be just as moved. The same with LeRoi, and I said as much to people who would listen. Had LeRoi Moore never played beyond Charlottesville I still would have been smitten with his playing. Now, you could argue that my odds of hearing him decrease quite a bit if he’s not achieved that level of fame. I can concede that.

I guess my point is that my motives are pure. I don’t want a free t-shirt. I’m not making any money off this thing (quite the contrary). This is a passion project. I’m doing this because if not for LeRoi who knows where I would be right now. When he passed there was an obligation I felt to honor his inspiration, but I didn’t know how until this opportunity came around. So I jumped on it.

Let me say also - I have talked to a lot of people, and I have more information than I could have ever dreamed. I know so much more about a person who I idolized than I ever thought I would, and I am incredibly grateful.

I guess I thought, once the project got out there and people knew about it, that I would get to talk to someone who played with him for nearly twenty years. I went into this with no expectations but I was fooling myself I suppose. I thought if my motives were pure, people would talk to me, no matter the fame or celebrity. I was wrong. It’s crunch time now, and my chances are fading. Repeated interview requests have been met with silence. One of the guys I interviewed, Sal Soghoian, told me to ask other musicians to reach out on my behalf. I told him I was VERY uncomfortable trading on personal relationships I had just built. He said “No, you have to. Sometimes you have to and now is the time.” So I did, briefly, and I’m feeling really self-conscious about it.

I guess my point is this - I have been lauding the works of LeRoi Moore for years, and defending his place as my favorite saxophonist. I’m used to pleading my case. The silence feels like a judgement, maybe not an outright condemnation, but that it’s not important. And you know what? Maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s only important to me.

Working on a post about the Charlottesville music scene that LeRoi (and DMB) came from, but it is turning out to be quite lengthy. I’ll get it out there...there’s just so much to write about!

As I mention in the opening, a lot of DMB histories gloss over this point. Cville was a heavy, heavy place. Carter and LeRoi were huge players on the jazz scene, and every genre there ran deep. Funk guys, rock guys, bluegrass guys. And the beautiful thing was - they all helped each other out! It wasn’t strange at all to see jazz guys jump in with prog rock outfits, or free jazz players to mingle with funk guys. It was and still is a really supportive musical community.

I hate to be “Mr. Insider” but you have to understand what it’s like to operate in a musical community to understand how wonderful that is. And to understand how much more intimidating and unlikely it was that DMB ever came together. This was a place with serious cats.

I’ve been part of a lot of scenes, and most are at best neutral and at worst a cesspool. I can think of some places I’ve been where if the bartender came up to two of the most killing jazz guys in town and asked them to play on an amateur demo, he’d get laughed out of the room. Lots of ego to go around. But these guys said ok, let’s do it. I’d rather make music than not make music.

And it was pure and honest! Just talking to people there you can tell, there’s no bull. They want to make good music that enriches the soul. Most places view that as an afterthought. A nice side effect, if the money gets right and nobody acts like a jerk.