About Me
Singing Nursery Rhymes. Dancing on Coffee Tables. At 2 years old I remember loving all music. Church singing. Car trips singing with the family, Mom on ukelele, campfire singing, it all was part of being happy and connected. At 4, I discovered piano thanks to my musical Mom and soon started lessons which I walked to after school. At 9 years, drum lessons and my own kit! Singing and drumming with Mom as she played the Beatles and Mamas and Papas. What a lucky kid, and such great times! Choir for 2 years in Jr. High, and then guitar and flute. Music theory for a couple years at 16, and college band, and jamming with friends. Even building my own instruments out of junk and experimenting with bits of bagpipes and old tape recorders. Dad, who was also musical (sax and clarinet), was also a somewhat reserved supporter. I got the message from him that it's important to find something worthwhile to work toward.
How then, did it happen that I didn’t have a career in music since it was so meaningful in my life, instead of construction work followed by corporate engineering, followed by exploring the education field and my subsequent tech consulting business? Not being a prodigy, I was “encouraged” to get skills that would support a comfortable lifestyle, saving for retirement, and the rest of the “American Dream”. I was making a good living and putting aside as a hobby my true love, music. There came a time after 15 years of this when the lack of “soul satisfaction” came back to haunt me in stress, poor health, and depression. I was lost in a limbo of trying to reinvent my lifestyle for several years, trying various things that drafted off my sale-able skills with limited success, while always continuing musical pursuits in fits and starts.
Finally came a stroke of good fortune and a strong re-connection to my musical roots. A friend called who was vacationing in Mazatlan, and made it sound so great: warm and friendly during one of our cold, dark Northwest winters. A spur of the moment decision to go check it out resulted, which a reawakened the dormant loves for Mexico, surf beaches, and music. These passions became central facets of life again. About 11 years ago I attended a jazz jam with my flute at wonderful Pedro y Lola’s restaurant in the Plazuela Machado, and was warmly received by the band and the crowd. I was thanked for joining in and told: “You’re good, you should keep doing this.” Music to my ears, and a healing balm for a soul that was brought to this life to make music!
I resolved to fully focus on music as my primary interest. I downsized, folded my consulting business, and calculated how to extend my small retirement by moving to Mexico where costs were much lower. I picked up several more instruments, including a couple of saxes, and a bunch of good books on jazz and technique, and settled into a daily regime of study and practice. I started hitting all the jams, performing regularly, and composing a wide range of material looking to connect with my original voice. I made a vow I would let nothing distract me from accomplishing the most I could with my skills and abilities, and that if my destiny was to follow this path the means would be provided. I made a ‘bucket list’ of musical goals and set milestones marking progress toward realizing them.
What a journey it has been since that fateful trip and decision! I have collaborated and played with such a cast of characters, to each of whom I’m so grateful for opportunities and lessons learned, and the many wonderful friendships. I’ve battled my ego, self-doubt, and destructive habits along the way. Music has healed me when I felt beaten and wounded. It has carried me through and connected me to a creative force that is amazing and inspiring, igniting mystical energies that have flowed around and through my life as long as I have stayed true to myself and this calling. The greatest feeling is sharing this with others at every possible opportunity, and bringing more joy and sense of beauty into their lives through my art.
Today I offer listeners my first professionally produced album of original compositions reflecting the breadth of my musical journey, and have achieved a major “bucket list” item. I intend this to be a new beginning and tapping into the flow of all I can accomplish musically. Once again I rely on the consciousness pervading all of life to show me how to keep it happening and provide the spark and the fuel that brings art into being. I pray that in hearing this music it will work some magic in you, opening doorways that were previously hidden, soothing and energizing what is distressed or exhausted, and leaving you in a better space with a strengthened spirit, while also being just plain fun and even a bit quirky. Let’s take the journey together, share some laughs and tears and love, and become closer through the experience!
R. Scotty Auble, Nov 2021