
Jazz will be flowing freely like a tasty bottle of wine from Colorado's Western Slope during our live Take 10 performance on Friday on our Gazette Facebook page in the noon hour. Jazz musician Tony Exum Jr. will be performing live in the Gazette's video studio in downtown Colorado Springs.
Tony has been playing music since he was 11 years old. His passion for his saxophone craft went into the stratosphere when he had a magic "a-ha" moment at almost 17 years old. Tony says it was the Summer of '91 when he saw David Sanborn play at Fiddler's Green, a performing venue in the Denver area. Exum told me that concert changed his life and made him want to make music his life-choice as a career.
Exum says his own style of jazz infuses the contemporary with rhythm and blues, funk and hip-hop. If he had one word to describe his link to his music he says it would be "passionate."
Albert Einstein once said, "If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music." Exum took a different tack on the "what if" of his life, "If I wasn't a musician, I'd be an insurance agent and own a couple of agencies." Insurance was his first day job out of college. He told me he had a passion for the insurance industry - and particularly helping others.
Exum will show off his jazz expertise live on Friday on our Gazette Facebook page.
If, like Exum, you are passionate about live performances and want to show off your stuff for the Gazette Facebook audience, email me at eric.singer@gazette.com. Whether you are a musician, magician, poet, playwright or whatever you can do live to wow an audience, I want to hear from you so the Gazette can continue to promote local arts and entertainment.