It is a rare and sacred opportunity to interview a legend; a legend in music who lived a life orchestrated by God.
There is no doubt James Gardiner had a destiny to fulfill. Divinely inspired lives are lived into perpetuity with the same purpose driven passion that created the first note and the first composition.
If you have ever asked yourself where does music come from, you are about to find out.
In a rare and candid interview, you will discover the birth of creativity, the
conditions that make it grow and how to cultivate the seed of creativity into a
productive and lifelong career. This interview reveals the secrets of a composer
who knows exactly where his gifting comes from and why he dedicates his life to giving that gifting to others.
In the hornets’ nest referred to as the music industry, an authentic soul reflects the light of divine creativity and how it became his power source. Discover the magic behind the composer and how music became his life.
Born in Louisiana, James moved with his family to Seattle Washington when he was just a little boy. Unaware of the magical musical path God had chosen for him, James began an unexpected musical destination that culminated in his featured role in the premiere of the most anticipated HBO original documentary film of 2021: “Listening to Kenny G”.
This young grade school student began his magical musical journey with a
conscious naiveté as he had no idea what music was, how to write it, how to play an instrument and certainly knew nothing of how to write music- let alone
transcribe sheet music! Yet he wound up being touted as “The composer most
likely to affect music in the 21st century” in a cover story about 50 gifted youths published in LOOK Magazine!
James entered sixth grade in Seattle as just a regular kid, when out of nowhere his cousin suggested he get into the band program. James: “I looked at my cousin and said what is an instrument? All of this was completely alien to me. I was given an old broken and tattered trombone and set out to repair it with glue and duct tape. I didn’t know what good or bad music was, but I started to practice, and I just couldn’t stop”!
“I was just this normal kid who had nothing and all of a sudden I found music or maybe in retrospect- it found me”!
“Either way, music became my best friend. The instrument literally talked to me.
With each note I played, it kept saying try harder you can do this. Music became my purpose. The more I put back into the music, the more I got out of it. I soon discovered that music had notes, rests, and intervals. My passion was found on the trombone and soon I started writing music for the beginning class. I asked my teacher how to transpose for all the instruments in the band.”
“I had to write out at least 40 individual exercises for each instrument! I realized music had become my entire life and I just couldn’t get enough!”
“Out of nowhere a sponsor Lulu Fairbanks, President of the National League of
American Pen Women, entered the picture. She was looking for a young minority kid to sponsor. My bandleader told Lulu Fairbanks he had the perfect person- and that just happened to be me! I started taking music lessons and got into the youth orchestra, which was the feeding orchestra into the Seattle symphony- I became a child prodigy. I went to school all day and was accepted into to The Cornish School of the Arts, which is like The Julliard of the Pacific Northwest. I had the best education and was living my music. My whole life was music, music, music. I put together a 17-piece professional band “LifeLine”, wrote all the music, and sent a cassette recording to Downbeat Magazine”.
“One day my friends asked me if I had seen the current Downbeat Magazine
issue. I was stunned to learn that they had awarded me a Downbeat Music Hall of Fame scholarship, a full presidential ride to attend the Berklee College of Music for composition! However, I declined the offer as I wanted an intimate insertion of music education. I wanted to learn music composition and interdisciplinary aspects of music theory and composing. I decided to stay in Seattle and study privately under the tutelage of the renown composer Bonia Shur. I wanted the intimate touch of music education and Bonia Shur was Heaven sent! My life became all about learning every aspect of music.”
“When you are in the zone of writing you aren’t thinking about promotion or accolades. It’s about real people, real life; not the Hollywood hype. Music is all about writing the next song, finishing it, then going to the next assignment.”
One of the most poignant turning points in my career was meeting and being
mentored by the brilliant composer Bonia Shur. He was a world-renowned awardwinning composer from Russia. He wrote for theatre, television, and film. In 1966, he collaborated with composer Johnny Mandel on the vocal score. Bonia’s “Mediterranean Arts Chorale” consisting of 35 singers performed on the soundtrack for the motion picture “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians are Coming”! The film was nominated for 4 Academy Awards, won 2 Golden Globe Awards and Bonia won an Emmy for his music for the TV special “Revolt in Mode.”! This relationship had to be God’s networking as I went to meet him and subsequently became his ONLY student”!
“You had to leave your life at the front door. He was Jewish and a major musical force in the Reform Jewish Movement in America. He was an authority on the religious choral works of Hebrew music. He encompassed liturgical music, chorale, and orchestral music. He was the musical director for the Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle. When You were in Bonia’s presence you were in the presence of greatness. As fate would have it, I wound up living with Bonia and his family. His wife and collaborator, Fanchon Shur – was a modern dancer and choreographer.
They converted the entire living room into a dance studio! Bonia Shur was a brilliant classical acoustic guitarist, and we would study in his den. One of my greatest learning experiences of humility was when Bonia instructed me to write a string quartet; It took me a month.I was so excited as I brought him my handwritten score and said, “Look! I did it Bonia. I did it! He looked at it and immediately tore it up in front of my face”! – Bonia felt here was a great difference in composition as a classical composer than writing for film.”
My heart dropped to the floor! He said if I can’t read it, it’s not music and it’s no good to anybody!
My composition was obviously not up to his standards of written music as I had written it in pencil, and he expected it to look like art! We immediately went to the University bookstore and bought special erasers, manuscript paper, ink, and quill pens. He began teaching me calligraphy; very much like Japanese calligraphy writing- with the quill pen and straight lines. He wanted the music to LOOK like art! His philosophy was this: If you were a violin player looking at beautiful writing, they would want to do their best because they were looking at art on paper. They would intrinsically appreciate seeing sound on paper as it was presented to them AS art!
It’s not only about all the knowledge of what you are writing but the manuscript needs to look like art to inspire greatness in the musicians playing it!
“To Bonia Shur, Humility was paramount to creating art. One day Steve Allen the co-creator and first host of The Tonight Show, (and a great musician) came to our door and asked if he could take lessons with the great composer. Bonia refused to talk to him or let him in his house! He refused to even talk to him! He then came to my room and scolded me for even looking up to Steve Allen. He told me I was much greater than he was and would be much more involved creatively than any of the Hollywood composers. Many European orchestras did not respect the Hollywood film composers and Bonia was no different. He told me when you are good enough, they will come to you as an artist- just like they would a director. He refused to even let Allen in his house!Bonia felt there was a great difference in composition as a classical composer than writing for film.”
He told me my composing had to be a painting of harmonics and no one had the right to tell me how to write.
“Bonia did not embrace the Hollywood illusion at all. And he was right, as
Hollywood would always try and change the composer’s work and forcefully
interject their own opinions! Consider this; If there is a flute or a clarinet part
playing in all the voices that are moving within your painting of harmonics, how dare someone come in and say I don’t want the violin there! Well, the violin is the glue that is holding up the woodwind section. But no one knows that creatively unless they have created it. Bonia gave me a lot of discipline, courage and directive decision making; the music not’s done until it’s done!”
Bonia defined discipline; just like Stravinsky, they were from the same class of teachers from Russia.
“Bonia had escaped Auschwitz; he showed me his bullet scars and told me the
history and where his melodies came from. So much of his music came from pain and suffering. Artists go through pain and suffering and then experience a rebirth. In this case you grab onto the piece of the soul that resonates the tone of harmony. When the sun is shining inside you, you can hear the tone much brighter inside. This has a lot more to do with the philosophy behind making
notes than learning the harmonics. What comes first are the notes, then the
harmonics, so we must make a melody first before we start having a block of
chords. Most people learn music from block to block… and they call it 8 note
scales… all the music is like playing one chord. But when Stravinsky came along, you’ll notice in all his scores, there are no chord symbols.”
With classical composers it’s all about the melody and motifs.
“It’s like when you get into the car and drive. I explain to my students that every new thing you see was not there yesterday and every person you see was not there yesterday. Each one has a personality and a sound- a vibration- and these are your new notes. Each note plays into the next note, and you don’t know what the next note will be”!
“God plays into creativity- with God you don’t know where it’s going to go or be. Once you learn melody, and the philosophy behind it, your whole mind and spirit is free all the time because you’re not working from one box or 2 boxes- you can’t learn music in boxes- melodies must be more linear. Your spirit has to be free to create.”
Art is born of its own desire. The humility taught you the discipline to apply to have a long-term career. You were taught the discipline of life to create and hold up your gift.
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