Why I Created EverybodyLovesMusic After 50 Years in Music

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Music is not about separateness; it is about unity.

There have been many chapters in my life as a musician: performer, educator, promoter, organizer, student, traveler, and bandleader. But after more than fifty years in music, I have come to believe that the most important lesson music ever taught me has little to do with scales, chords, styles, or even performance itself.

It has to do with connection.

Back in 1984, I was living in Amherst, Massachusetts and performing regularly at the historic Lord Jeffrey Inn. During that time, I successfully applied for a grant from the Massachusetts Council of the Arts to present a concert series featuring African-American musicians living in New England. Through that project, I met trombonist Charles “Majeed” Greenlee, who introduced me to the Hartford Jazz Society in Connecticut.

Inspired by what they were doing, I used their structure as a model, wrote new bylaws, and founded the Amherst Jazz Society. We launched with an outdoor concert featuring the legendary Slide Hampton, Ray Copeland, and the University of Massachusetts faculty ensemble led by Dr. Frederick Tillis. At that stage of my life, my mission was clear: promote the great American art form known as jazz.

Soon after, I moved to Cincinnati, where I continued performing and helped book a regular jazz series at Doc’s Place in College Hill. Not long after that, life took me overseas, where I eventually built a successful career throughout Asia as a performer and entertainment contractor. I spent years presenting music, organizing programs, and working in major hospitality settings where I saw firsthand how music could transform an atmosphere, lift people’s spirits, and bring strangers together.

But over time, another side of music became increasingly important to me: service.

I found growing meaning in teaching and helping others develop. I taught English in Japan, taught music in Singapore, mentored students, and helped artists bring their own projects to life. As I grew older, I began to understand that success is not only what we create for ourselves, but what we help others create.

When I returned to Cincinnati in 2017 to be closer to my mother, an old idea resurfaced: start a nonprofit organization. At first, I considered launching a jazz society. But by then, I had changed.

Years of graduate study had introduced me to ethnomusicology and music therapy. I had learned more deeply what I had already sensed throughout my life: music’s value goes far beyond any one genre. Music can heal. Music can comfort. Music can energize. Music can help memory, mood, and connection. Music can restore something in people that words alone often cannot.

That realization changed everything.

I became increasingly interested in giving back, not simply through performances or recordings, but by building something that could continue doing good long after I am gone. 

Even the most dedicated performer can only reach so many people alone. But an organization with the right mission, leadership, and heart can multiply that impact for generations.

I began thinking about sponsorship and community support. If I walked into a company and asked, “Do you like jazz?” perhaps half the room might say yes.

But if I asked, “Do you love music?”

Almost everyone would say yes.

That simple thought stayed with me.

Because music belongs to everyone.

No one owns it. No single genre owns it. No one community owns it. Music is not about separateness; it is about unity. It is one of the great gifts human beings share across cultures, generations, backgrounds, and beliefs.

That belief became the seed for EverybodyLovesMusic (ELM).

Why ELM Exists

ELM was created to help bring people together through the universal power of music. Its mission is to support music education, wellness initiatives, community programming, and access to meaningful musical experiences for youth, seniors, underserved communities, and anyone who can benefit from what music offers.

I have seen the effect music can have on people who seemed disconnected from life moments earlier. I have seen seniors respond to a song when little else reached them. I have had a seriously ill friend tell me my music helped him feel better. For an artist, there may be no higher compliment.

At the same time, I have also seen how many organizations operate in narrow lanes: jazz here, blues there, folk elsewhere, each doing worthwhile work but often separately. I have seen how expensive ticket prices can put great music out of reach for ordinary people. I have seen how much more could happen if collaboration replaced fragmentation.

ELM is my answer to that.

After a lifetime of performing music, I now feel called to help music serve others in a broader way.

Music has made a profound difference in my life.

Now it is time to help it make a difference in the lives of others.

And if this work continues long after I am gone, then perhaps that will be one of my most meaningful performances of all.