After falling off of Substack posting (and most everything else; see below) for a good while, here is a try at something; nothing too edifying but at more a personal update. I’ve been basically off of all socials since the spring, but resurfaced the week before last on the usual suspects. Here’s what I posted, with a little tweaking to keep it in present tense:
Hello All,
Greetings! I have basically been off the grid all summer, but now that Labor Day has come and gone, I’m (interestingly) feeling the prompt to re-emerge and connect. It was an “eventful-uneventful” time, staying close to home in a way that I haven’t experienced in many, many years (perhaps in all of my adulthood). That in itself was eventful, and quite meaningful.
The main event of the season has been my continued treatment for and recovery from what is customarily termed as a “health challenge”, euphemistically speaking. For those who aren’t already aware, I was diagnosed with tongue cancer in mid-February, undergoing surgery in mid-March (an incredible job by the team at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee) followed by radiation treatment from early May through mid-June.
Since then, I have remained in my home town of Milwaukee, and I’m currently continuing treatment with physical therapy and other good things while on medical leave for the fall semester from my professorship at the University Of Miami’s Frost School Of Music.
Incredibly, the surgery preserved my ability to play the trumpet, and I’ve managed to keep my embouchure together through six weeks of radiation therapy. As expected, I’ve had to recuse myself from performing for a while, but I’m now at the point where I’m able to play an occasional local gig with my wonderful Midwest musical colleagues, and to go into the shed to work out the full rehabilitation of my chops. I’m happy to report that things are going well. I will be making it back, and maybe even better than ever.
I can’t predict what is in store for me in the long term. I’ve had more than ample proof of how formidable of an opponent recurrence can be from my colleagues and loved ones (such as the epic battle my brother Ralph Peterson fought over the decade that I was a part of his projects). What I can say is that I’m coming out of this stage feeling blessed, and determined to focus on what really matters, in my life and in my musical practice. I will continue to converse at the highest level I’m able with the cornucopia of wonders that come from a devotion to my art form, and strive to peel away the layers of whatever, inside and outside, gets in the way of continuing into the heart of the music. Accepting my limitations while pushing boundaries and cultivating a beginner’s mind, I hope to continue to grow.
I turned 70 years young on September 12th – yes, a bit unbelievable but true! I hope to celebrate throughout this milestone year by cultivating every opportunity I can to share my music, the aggregate of over a half century of hard work and incredible bandstand experiences, with audiences new and old. I’m now confident again that I’ll be able to present my music and do it justice whenever I have that opportunity.
I want to thank again everyone whose help and expertise has contributed to my getting through this time, but in particular the one who did and is doing everything to make all the difference in the world: my wife, “Love Ninja”, “The Sheriff”, my incredible warrior Marissa Gonzalez.
More soon,
BL
A lot of folks reached out (and continue to) with kind words and support after I posted this – I really thank all you for that and making me feel like you all might be pleased to hear me back in the game. It’s been a fragile time picking up the pieces and working on what needs to be refurbished. As I noted above, I have hopes of returning not “good as ever”, but more like “better than before”. I’ve been spending a lot of skull time on modeling what a more streamlined approach to what I want to do on the instrument would be like, as well as examining my overall intentionality as a performer at this point in my career .
I’m still hashing it out, along with getting the chops back in shape. I’m about 85-90% there, with slow but steady progress on the last 10%. I’ll have a few opportunities to test things out over the fall.
Coltrane’s 100th: Remembering My First Coltrane Album
It’s John Coltrane’s 100th birthday this week (tomorrow, as I post this)! Approximately 55 years ago, when I was 15, I purchased my first Coltrane album, indeed only the second “real jazz” album I had ever bought (the first was Miles’s “Live-Evil”). I was starting to play in “horn bands” (rock bands with a horn section ala Chicago, Buddy Miles, and BS&T), and getting jazz content filtered through that as well as on “free-form” FM radio, which was subject to play what they call “spiritual jazz” these days alongside psychedelia, prog rock and funk. That’s where I probably heard a Coltrane track first. I might have even read about him (through Jones/Baraka’s “Black Music”) before I heard any of his music knowingly. I probably went into the store and asked for the “latest” Coltrane record (yes, I was aware he had passed on) and here was what I was presented with:
Took it home, put it on my parents’ Sears console hi-fi (amazing cabinet) and life changed. The title track was what got me – to this day it’s been an exemplar to me for what to reach for in music. I can put it on now and feel exactly the same as I did in ‘71; on the composition “Sunship”, when Trane enters for his solo at the peak of McCoy’s amazing symphonic construction, the top of my head blows off every time. Try it for yourself:
The Complete Sunship Sessions set that came out a number of years ago has the alternates for this amazing piece of music, and it’s fascinating to follow how the piece takes form through the takes.
I’ve listened to, and been influenced by, a whole lot of music since I bought that record, but Coltrane and Miles are still the heart of it all for me – it’s how the journey started.
Happy 100th to you both!