to everybody it's air can tell with another episode of talking jazz and i have with me today incredible guy david birmingham who is creator and founder of the pine plains jazz festival and we want to talk to dave a little bit he's got a great nonprofit organization and also want to talk about you know his upbringing in music and i always like to find out on the show like what is the main force that drives musicians and people to want to make music in jazz especially a career and move to the forefront of the public mindset so with me is david birmingham how you doing buddy hire thanks for having thank you for coming up on an early early morning here yeah and i had to be here so you know we were just talking a little bit you are you were born in raised in what part hill pine hill so that's sort of near mitford new jersey yeah can you tell me yeah south jersey and how long how you've been down in that area now well so i was born and raised in pine hill went to school in philly ok i want to be living in philadelphia for twelve so years ok so move back and start a family and now we reside in medford for the past eleven years so when you were in school how was the music programs there how were they like were they good at that point yeah they were your measuring musicians absolutely so we had you know from elementary through high school excellent programs and you know in elementary school they come in the show you the instruments and kids you want to learn an instrument and that's why i got my start on guitar and guitar and yes start playing the you know taken lessons studied you know pretty seriously i was very into it no one had to tell me to practice and so i just spent my time playing guitar got good and what up around what age was that that you probably about ten oh yeah you know it's funny because i find that people that have had made music a career it's usually around between that ten to fourteen fifteen year old time frame that they find music i know i was fourteen when i found the music of dave brubeck and was always at the piano trying to make up my own melodies and unfortunately we had we didn't have much but we had a piano in the house so it was nice to at least have that so i  a band ok gave us a passion for music got introduced to jazz through you know like major ferguson charts and fun stuff like that and if you get a chance to see any of the musicians jazz musician come to your school yeah yeah actually came to our school to have a concert and we've had people like that need blasio come in and give us master classes and so very cool through that you really start to get a passion for you know a different type of music that's something you're listening to and how wild is that dennis now was one on the festival a couple years ago so yeah yeah so so you're so you're around what ten fourteen now fifteen years old you know me music then you where did you make the shift then so obviously you're you know you're making music and then you get to be you know you at a high school what would you do when you get out of high school that you yes still in bands right so i was playing high school around my sophomore year i was sort of serious serious about it and i you know he was a teacher at temple university ok and when i went to it was funny he my dad called to set up lessons that i don't usually you know take you know high school kids and he's like well you know how do we know you're good enough for my son i mean it is the years later but anyway i got to meet tom in and we got we got along very well and nice and so you know it was kind of he threw his tutorship led me to study jazz guitar at temple university and so i got my degree in jazz guitar marines university also and then so then from that point you get the degree then you're in the world of music right right what do you do at that point what do you what are you doing at that point yeah you graduate like wow now well that's and that's exactly and one of the things i one of the talks i have at colleges and universities is being an entrepreneur in music and that's basically where you know students are taught phenomenal musical language and everything but not how to get a gig you know and write the business end of it yeah so that's been a lot of fun to be able to do that and that's unfortunately something that's midsts you know but but you know the other thing is you become you get involved in a network of musicians which is like that's how and that's how it all kind of works you know eventually so you're you're out of high school you're like you're out of college right now you've got the world staring you in the face yeah what do you do yeah you know what did you what did you do at that point well so i was the early ninety's ok yes so i play with joe from the early ninety's til he retired to manage two thousand and then now we're you already having a family at this point did you know near the and of yeah so  you're always in music it's not ever be it's never left you right it's always that part of you is always there you have the passion and desire it always been nabbed but from about two thousand you know five years ago or so really kind of took a backseat raising kids working in europe in different job and i t trying to you know make a living and raise a family and my only playing really was through church ok i played it at church every weekend and and you know it's kind of you know pat for about five years ago decide to get back into jazz thing so when you got back into the jazz you know you were you know for our viewers to the pinelands jazz festivals happening this year it's june june june ninth june ninth and it's at the flying w right flying w and that's and that's in medford new jersey so and we'll give you all the information at the end of the show but what i have to say i so you're in music you're and you got out of music like it's always there so you had this idea that you want to start this festival and how does that how did that germinate like what where did you first have the inkling like hey i could do a festival musicians these are just all guys from medford you know i have kids in school and we they all played a little here and there and so we started getting together and playing and play some local festivals and we were looking for you know a new venue to play and a friend of mine works for the metro historical society sell you should come play a concert at the dr still historical site and i said yeah that sounds like a lot of fun and it sounds clich but that night i went to bed and all night i'm dreaming the festival yeah like is the one of those dreams that you wake up and you go back to sleep and that picture back up exactly how up next i guess i should have a festival yeah well it's that right there is your higher calling for what you want to do because there's something that's always pulling us right as i find any way as a musician you're always kind of being pulled into something greater because you don't want your doing when we do gigs and stuff for me anyway and that's why i'm so great to have it's blessed to have the show is to be able to share our gifts with with people you know and share this great music jazz is just such a great positive art form and to give people a little bit more of an education on what we do is musicians is important because i don't think a lot of the public understands exactly what and how important a jazz musician is to society so you have this vision so you're like oh my god i got to do this i got to get up yes so what happened the next day what did you do well like what was your action like what did you write what kind of massive a action did you take yeah so this was this is paoli he april right or even later maybe may and i called my friend and they said hey you know the concert we talked about know you have no time for fund raising out you know trying to find sponsors so you get together little bit of money a couple sponsors came on board and then you call in your favors you know and i'm a big believer that you should pay musicians you know a fair  oh and his wife katie he will soon to come out and so it's really you know top notch musicians absolutely this festival and it was awesome you know it wasn't huge but the people that were there were well you  to start with anything i think you need to start at a certain used start small and grow you know where there's been a lot of organizations that start huge and then it just peters out yeah i think it's like you're building it's a building process you know like any career you know it's building building building so that was two thousand and fourteen right and so the next year so you're now you're like well i hate this you've got this idea hey yes working what can i do now to make the festival even right you know right so then fast for on the phone immediately the next day lining up sponsors and people for the following year making sure that that dates lined up and making sure people can do it yeah so it's that's a tireless i've got believe me i know because i'm in there and see for me to play at that festival and for people to come to the festival if you look at the audience you know while the music's being played it's like everyone smiling right yeah to me that's what i love about jazz it's just like people are really having a good time and they're taking a chance on like the music you know they're at it's a thinking music right so it's like people it's not that instant gratification you know people have to think hey this guy is really creating something interesting on the horn he's creating something interesting on the drums piano and and when people get that idea that it's like being improvised on the spot right that's it and all of those elements come together it's a beautiful thing you know and that's what any festival and any anything any concert festival should be like and you're creating that you know and that's this good so now you're you have it did you start a nonprofit too did you start a nonprofit group you know not profit actually or was always before the festival ok before the fest also a little back you know back up a little bit before the band formed right our hometown had gone through some budget cuts states pulled money in like a lot of school districts first only goes to music promote it right yeah so these are the the instrument music program that you start in fourth grade was now not starting until seventh grade and that impacted my kids personally and one of the reason i moved the mefford was for the awesome music group right right so a lot of our past got together and we formed a kind of a loose organization keep the beat right keep to be mefford and we lobbied and we showed up at meetings but well the end of the day the money wasn't there so the teachers were let go and the kids didn't have a program so we continued we formed a nonprofit to help keep the music going and so one of the first things we did was we as a band we invited these young musicians to play with us to give them some experience to pray and you know that they might normally never have an opportunity to play with zac right and in front of people's right to festivals and then any money we made as a band we put rain into the nonprofit so we were making a ton of money anyway but whatever we got we put into the profit and so we're working with the new jersey school music that she's awesome we came up this program to give kids summer music scholarships to study music over the summer great primarily geared towards beginner instrumentalist so one of the kids that we're getting you know introduc in school say hey listen you can still do this on your own right and we're going to give you ten free lessons over the summer to get good started to get to hope that it was the music to grab them and they would continue and so we've been doing now for this to be our fifth year now really you know hundreds of scholarships it's great in so they go to new jersey school music ok either in medford or in cherry hill and all you got to get they have to give an instrument but then they show up and they get ten lessons for free that is incredible so we're now where can people find this information so you know not profit is on our website s j p or south jersey music education partnership ok and so that's our nonprofit you find out information about the scholarship say that one more time just and we've we've never turned anyone away that's great so this house and this is exciting because i mean more people should take that lead because there are so many i know when we've gone on the road and we've performed in colleges universities even high schools and  mean some of the music musicians and high schools are incredible yet even or even in this general area right over know but it's incredible and so to have them have a nice outlet like that is a beautiful thing and i wish more people would take that lead to do that because to be able to sit and create that's a that is a beautiful thing and instead of being you know like on the phones all the time and this and that i think it's i think more people should be able to do that so so the festival this so you had a festival in of rethink and we also want to attract a wider audience who are getting you know jazz lovers yeah but then you get you know the people who might want to come out but then the kids in like out of the kids don't want to come you know and sit for five hours to listen to music so we started looking at options and flying w resort and airport was like perfect tool if they have all the amenities and so the festival this year your price of admission not only you hear the great music all day from twelve to seven but there's a beautiful in ground pool that you have really you know that's great so bring the family health and you think your music and still have fun you know splashing around with their friends stage is going to be set up where on the tarmac and at the flying w in medford new jersey so david we have a few more minutes here what do you what else would you what do you what's your visions for the festival what do you see it how do you see it growing in the next maybe five years yeah i'd like to see it grow into a multi day money and we can't we can't lose money we were trying to you know maintain keep you know keep it running straight oh absolutely this year it's a single day event but i can definitely see it growing into a multi day event and you actually make it a multi day event because medford yeah my my oldest is is a drummer he plays playing that tomorrow night at the shawnee high school jazz festival you hear they have awesome and the the kids you know oh yeah incredible unbelievable really proud of him real sponges for the music too you know what i find too is when we go on the road and we simply go down to georgia sometimes and we are playing down in georgia and a lot of times we go to places that don't get a chance to hear live music right specially jazz yeah they were absolute sponges for the music we wanted to know more about and wanted to play an instrument and write so that is very satisfying when that happened yes you know and that's and it's great to see that the musicians are really like taking to the music you know and becoming another voice right for this for this generation and and taking the music to different levels which is also nice yeah yeah you know you know so one son just one i have two boys and a daughter so my oldest son the drummer you know st believer you do not push yeah my you know if they want to do it great i am a huge believer in environment and vironment your kids are going to be a product of your environment if they're around music they're going to ultimately gravitate to that right thinks i'm crazy sometimes you know but no you spend a lot of time and that's all volunteer you know i don't make any money on this festival in the nonprofit not yet not yet i mean personally you know we put everything back into well you know i mean that that's i mean that stands to reason that's how things grow and that's what happened but if people get a chance to check it out it's the pinelands jazz festival it's june ninth and then there are web to your website is pilot she has pilot jazz dot com for the festival for the nonprofit organization so if anybody is interesting in interested in being a sponsor or you know feel free to contact david will have the information right here on the screen and so this is been great david i can't wait to play again and i know my guys are looking forward to it too and david i want to thank you again for coming thank you good luck to everything that you're doing and i think you're it's a noble thing that you're doing so just keep going don't give up on it just keep going because you're making a lot of people happy which is which is beautiful and by the way hopefully will get some talking into all we're replying but knife but listen ladies and gentlemen i want to thank you so much for joining tuning it in today and this is talking jazz with intel and we've got episodes on all the time we've got great