Michael Gillis “People Are Dying For Good Music, Even If It’s Not World Class. If It’s Just Organized, They’ll Love It.”

 

By Ralph Depalma

 

John Michael Gillis was born in Hudson, New York. He spent his childhood in Atlanta, Georgia and Grove Hill, Alabama. “I became obsessed with music by the time I was 10 years old.” Gillis said, “Even when I really loved a woman, my first love was music.”

 

 

 

For the most part Gillis was self taught on guitar and bass, and had a few piano, trumpet, and drum lessons in grammar school. In the early days, jazz studies were not formalized or codified. Michael listened and copied the best jazz musicians. He never really worried about sounding like whomever he was copying because musicians are all individuals. What appeals to the copier emotionally may not be exactly what inspired the player being copied. It was not important to sound the same. It was more important for Michael to learn the language.

 

 

Gillis first came to Key West in 1965 after he had already accomplished a great deal in his career. The long resume of John Michael Gillis includes guitarist, bassist, arranger, composer, and educator. He played with the big bands: Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson, and the Count Basie All Stars. He made appearances on at least eight major television programs, including Steve Allen, Merv Griffin, and Johnny Carson. Gillis played most of the major jazz festivals, including Newport, New Orleans, and Monterey. He performed to packed houses at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, The Apollo in New York City, Al Hirt’s Club in New Orleans, and a list of other clubs that would take up pages.

 

 

In 1972, Gillis started teaching music in the jazz department at the University of Miami School of Music. He taught harmony and theory, composition, guitar theory, and improvisation. Most universities could find jazz players but had difficulty finding jazz players who could speak and teach music with the academic language and traditional European classical terminology. Likewise, the schools had difficulty finding academic teachers who could really play jazz. Gillis, along with a small number of other musicians, filled that niche.

 

 

Gillis loves all music but, as a professional musician, he enjoys jazz because he feels it’s the most interesting and difficult of the performing arts. He says jazz originated in either New Orleans or Kansas City. It came out of the fields, worked by slaves, from their blues and tears, coupled with simple European music. Gillis views Larry Baeder as the “real deal” as far as a jazz guitarist in Key West. Gillis thinks standards for jazz in Key West have become lower over the years but he still feels “People are dying for good music, even if it’s not world class. If it’s just organized, they’ll love it.”

 

 

 

As the consummate teacher, Gillis gave some insight into how to write a song. You have to start with an interesting story. A musician then needs to put together a piece that is harmonically interesting yet not too abstract. All best ways of saying “I love you” have been done. The great composers take you on a magical mystery tour. There are two ways to approach the creating of lyrics and their musical accompaniment: the mathematical approach and the organic approach. Basically, if you learn the tools, both ways of creating music are deceptively easy, similar to learning a new language and becoming fluent. Gillis has recently been mentoring a young Key West vocalist, Rock Solomon, who is becoming a very good jazz singer.

 

 

 

Gillis also gave a cool definition of art: “The phenomenon of art is a selective re-creation of reality according to the artist’s metaphysical value-judgments.” He even gave a tip on the photography of music and musicians: capture the intensity, the sincerity, and the conviction of the performance.

 

 

A favorite Key West music experience was with his big band, Michael Gillis and Company, at the old Havana Docks Bar in 1982. Many in his six-piece band were his former students from the University of Miami. Gillis insists he has enjoyed all of his “playing jobs” because he was accepted as a peer playing with many musical idols. He said ” None was more fantastic than any other. They all have been like dreams come true.”

 

 

When asked, “What should I tell people about John Michael Gillis?”he quickly responded, “My career has been wonderful. I have got to do just about everything I ever wanted. I never worked a day in my life. I’ve been able to do what I love.”

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