Hello everyone Kirk Hamilton here and I am excited to welcome you to the first ever

Strong Songs Patreon-funded bonus episode. This is going to be a little bit different than your

average episode of Strong Songs. It is actually an interview with a very

special interview subject that I'm excited to get into. We're going to talk about a bunch

of different music and we're going to listen to some music too.

So sit back, turn up the volume, and enjoy the show.

If you take someone who's passionate about something, like really passionate about it,

passionate enough to make it their life's work, you know, could be music, could be art,

could be computer programming, there's a very good chance that that person has an

exceptional teacher in their past.

I've been very lucky in that regard.

I've had a lot of good music teachers over the years.

But one teacher kind of looms above all of them,

and that teacher is Janice Stockhouse. How do you just become a jazz musician overnight?

You don't.

And my principal said, absolutely not.

You cannot resign.

Who am I going to get to fill your job at this point in this semester?

We don't always have the perfect band, you know?

We just don't, you might think we do, but there's always a weakness.

The word improvisation is the most beautiful thing that we should be teaching our students

if we can in the public schools.

...