NLE: Presuming the corona virus pandemic caught you in mid-stride, like everyone else, what was your immediate reaction and your thinking, especially as gigs began to be cancelled?
JD: At first, I was confused, then when all my performance and recording work was canceled: I got into a panic mode! I was filling out applications for financial assistance grants everyday. That became a big part of my “new normal.”
NLE: How are you moving through quarantine? Are you composing, taking advantage of live-streaming, other? And does being a composer compensate somehow against a loss of gig work as a performer?
JD: Being a producer, composer, and arranger are helpful now. Since the pandemic, I have been doing a lot of work from my home. I have a midi studio ( computer music studio ) in my home. I am currently working on a duo project with saxophonist Harry Allen.I am making these lush orchestral arrangements and Harry adds his beautiful tenor saxophone. I will be doing a project with an Austrian singer, Simone Kopmajer who I have been recording with for many years, and also a singer from Japan. With technology, it’s like we are all in the same room!
NLE: Your new CD is all about the music of Billy Strayhorn. What is it about Strayhorn’s work that called to you?
JD: I have always felt very close to Strayhorn’s music and to his spirit. Ironically, I became very intimate friends with folks who knew him: Bobby Tucker (accompanist to Billie Holiday and Billy Eckstine) was a mentor to me and to Eckstein, of course. I also got to hang a bit with Herb Jeffries (who was a vocalist for the Duke Ellington Orchestra and worked with Strayhorn). I am really happy that the Strayhorn family has supported the project. They are advertising Passion Flower on their website!
NLE: What music best gets you through the uncertainty and unreality of these times? What would be your “pandemic playlist” and why?
JD: I often return to music that had a profound influence on me when I was starting my journey. Too numerous to mention, but the music ranges from Bartok’s Contrasts to John Coltrane’s Expression.
NLE: Quarantine has caused many theater (and related) entities to move to streaming online. The music business was radically transformed by this phenomenon years ago, with physical product taking a back seat to an online presence. Do you see a similar paradigm shift happening in the visual arts?
JD: The paradigm shift is already upon us—it’s a digital download market.
NLE: You’ve had a long, successful career playing a range of music. What’s next for you?
JD: I would really like to do more film scoring work. That’s my other passion, in addition to music. I scored a series of travel documentaries a few years back. Recently they have been edited into a feature-length film: A Glimpse Of Paradise. I am now putting the finishing touches on an upcoming CD of Yiddish Songs reimagined, with Janis Siegel and cantor Daniel Krammer: Mazel!
Let’s all be well and emerge stronger as an ever-advancing global civilization. “The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”
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