By Gordie Murphy
GMurphy@ashevill.gannett.com
ASHEVILLE:
For Richard Shulman, music starts as what he calls an “inner inspiration” that he channels for his work. “I have since the early '80s developed listening to the inspiration, to listening to what's in my head and have created a relationship to that inspiration,” Shulman said. Shulman specializes in jazz and for meditation and healing music, devoting an equal amount of time to both styles. The pianist intends to share his gift of music with an audience Sunday in a concert at the Jubilee on Wall Street.
He studied jazz at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music, where he studied with composer Chuck Mangione and jazz pianist Marion McPartland. He arrived in Asheville in October 1998. “I had been very much involved with doing meditation music at the time, and when I got to Asheville I sat in with a jazz band and suddenly I was playing jazz again,” Shulman said.
In the late 1990s, he met bass player Mike Holstein and drummer Sonny Thornton. Shulman said that at a 2007 concert he realized “this trio is magic.” “There's something that happens when we play together. It's a combination of an inner listening; we're all tuned into our inner inspiration, and listening to each other,” Shulman said. The trio recently released an album, “Sky Jazz.” “The theme is about combining the rhythm and the energy of jazz with kind of an open-hearted feeling and a healing,” Shulman said.
The album has a very introspective eye. “It's really kind of a journey… (the) first tune is like free-flowing and enthusiastic, after a few songs it goes into a more pensive kind of place.
“It's a journey of spiritual growth or emotional growth… (one of the) last songs is ‘Still Young at 95' which is a song that came out of a very dark period of my life where I finally had to write something happy… it has become a very joyful expression. It's really about celebrating life,” Shulman said.
Sunday's concert will include many selections from “Sky Jazz.” Shulman said that he also intends to include an improvised piece he refers to as a “musical soul portrait.”
“I tune into the audience and I ask my inspiration for music of the highest good for the audience. I listen and I play what I hear,” Shulman said.
IF YOU GO
Who: Earth & Sky, Richard Shulman Trio.
When: 7 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Jubilee at 46 Wall St.
Admission: $10.