Passenger Profile: John Mazzei

John Mazzei

Are you self-taught or did you study music?
Both. I learned to read music around age 10 as a result of playing trumpet in the school band. Not long after that, I started taking piano lessons. On my own I started reading music theory books, trying to figure things out. When I was about 14 I had a trumpet teacher that turned me on to a book called Improvising Jazz, which had a whole section on chords and I would sit in history class and write out all the chords in all the keys instead of doing my history work. I would quiz myself: What is the 13th of B? and so on. I studied with a Jazz piano teacher through high school and in to 2 years of community college. I also played in Rock bands, sang and played piano in the Jazz choir, and continued to play the trumpet.

What was it that attracted you to the trumpet?
It was partly a family thing. My grandfather played trumpet (among other instruments) and my father also played. I loved the sound and I'm sure the family influence was there as well. When I started the piano I had a feeling that I'd have more opportunities in music as a piano player so gradually the trumpet began to take a back seat.

Did you play music through high school and college?
In high school I was in every band and choir and also in a "garage band." Our band did play at a couple of school dances which was fun. In college I also played in all of the bands and sung in the choir as well as playing with a Rock band that played one or two gigs a month as well as rehearsing regularly.

What was it like playing the Holiday Inn circuit? Are there lots of restrictions and rules? Do they pay well? How does someone get a gig like that?
The bands at the time were called Top 40 bands. We had to play the top hits of the day and make them fairly close to the recording. We would generally play six nights a week (Monday - Saturday), five sets a night. We would be in one place for one to three weeks and would have to travel on Sunday, sometimes a few hundred miles and be ready to play in the new room the next Monday.

At one hotel, the Sea Tac Airport Red Lion in Seattle, we weren't allowed to sit down with the patrons. We could stand at the table and talk to them but we couldn't sit down. They wanted the musicians to schmooze with the patrons but not get too familiar. Also, the Red Lions had a basic dress code and you had to look like you were having a good time, even on Monday night when the only people in the place were a couple of drunk traveling salesmen trying to have a conversation.

The bands would play showcases for the entertainment director of the chain or a booking agent would come to hear the band at a gig and then recommend the band to the hotel or corporate entertainment director. Then they would try us out in some out of the way place like Wenatchee, Washington, to see how we did. If we did well as far as keeping the crowd, looking good, sounding good and selling lots of drinks, they would work us in to the circuit.

What first attracted you to Jazz and New Age music?
My grandfather had some Downbeat magazines laying around when I was a kid and I started reading them. Also, the local community college had a Jazz choir and I used to go to their concerts. During that time there were a lot of Big Bands touring around. They were experiencing a bit of a resurgence in the early 70s. Since the town I grew up in, Weed, California, was about halfway between San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, the community college would be able to book the bands for a night since they had to stop to sleep anyway. I saw Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton, and Don Ellis. My piano teacher had played with some greats in LA like Warne Marsh and Gary Foster, amongst others and he was a big influence on my jazz studies.

As I was learning to improvise, I began to realize that, when the music was really flowing, a group of Jazz players would generate a connection that was beyond verbal communication. To me that was a revelation and also seemed totally natural. I began to explore improvisation outside the context of jazz.

Your bio says you performed at the great pyramids in Egypt and at an extinct volcano. Who booked those gigs? What was it like?
I met some of the early practitioners of New Age music and also met a woman who was writing New Age books. I started doing music behind her speaking and guided meditations so she could sell the tapes to people at her gatherings and seminars. At first is was just a studio gig but she convinced me to come and play live at one of her events and the next thing I knew, the next event I was booked at was in Egypt!! I was there for three weeks, including a five-day ceremony at the pyramids where I played my brand new Korg Wavestation, improvising for many hours a day. A few more events in the US and I was off to Ecuador to play in an extinct volcano crater in the Andes mountains. Then a week in Australia. All of these trips were all expenses paid and the frequent flier miles were pretty awesome for a while.

How did you first hear about TAXI?
In a magazine ad when they first started advertising. I was pretty skeptical, mostly because, looking back, I was ignorant as to how the music business worked. I thought that musicians made money from gigging and only a lucky few managed to get "discovered" and I wasn't living in LA so that was never going to happen to me. My interest was piqued for sure by the ads, but my silly ego wouldn't let me believe that it was possible to make money from music in any ways that I didn't already know about. Fast forward about 15 years and it finally dawned on me that I might be able to compose some music that could be submitted through TAXI, so I took the plunge and joined.

How have they helped your career?
Being a member of TAXI and meeting other members at the Road Rally, and the Road Rally itself has really given me a boost of confidence. That's been a huge help in my career. Also, I landed a gig composing for a popular daytime TV show by handing my demo to a fellow TAXI member at the 2006 Road Rally. My goal at that Road Rally was to practice my networking chops and I achieved my goal and then some! I now have well over 65 pieces of music in the show's music library and have been getting more and more placements every quarter (those checks are sure fun to receive and deposit!!). Also, from a Dispatch forward I became involved with a publisher in LA and they were able to place one of my elevator music style pieces in HBO's True Blood last November. I've also signed contracts with two music libraries through TAXI forwards and I've signed around 20 pieces of music with these libraries as a result.

Has TAXI taught you anything about the industry that you didn't know?
Tons!!! I didn't really know how licensing, publishing, performance royalties, and music libraries worked before I joined. Five years ago I didn't know any of this stuff and now I have music on TV regularly and have made a few thousand dollars in royalties. I attribute a lot of my growth as a music business person to my membership in TAXI and the connections I've made and the things I've learned as a result.

Would you recommend TAXI to other writers and if so, why?
Yes I would, because I think that, even if they don't have a lot of success directly as a result of TAXI, what they will learn from writing for the listings, the critiques, the returns as well as the forwards and the Road Rally, will serve them well in their career.

What are your plans for the rest of 2009?
I'm in the process of organizing and upgrading my studio and that project is near completion. I'd also like to write and produce a CD of library music in a specific genre to pitch to libraries, compose 50 pieces of music above and beyond those in the pipeline for the daytime TV show. Also, writing to specific TAXI listings is always a great way to keep the catalog flowing. I also intend to write a business plan and begin executing it. And finally, spend a little time every week sitting on my deck having a nice glass of wine (or two!).