This month we will be featuring Charles Gerard as our Composer of the Month. Charles is also a saxophonist and director of the Broken Reed Saxophone Quartet (www.brokenreedsax.com), author of several books on jazz and Latin music and co-partner of Gerard & Sarzin Publishing Co., publishers of jazz instructional material. We asked Charles some questions and this is how he responded:

WSW: When did you start composing?
CG: I began composing as a teenager before I had any idea what I was doing. I understand that this is typical of many composers. In other words, it came before compositional studies that, perhaps, would have discouraged me by making clear my lack of ability.

WSW: Who do you think your composing style resembles the most?
CG: My composing style seems to be influenced by Thelonious Monk for harmonic sensibility and melodic lines, Jimmy Giuffre (my saxophone and composition teacher from the age of 17 to about age 25) for the idea of mixing jazz and 20th century compositional techniques, Frank Zappa and Cuban popular music for orchestration and rhythm, and Mozart for sonata form. My woodwind quintet, Hangin’ Out, makes clear that I was listening to a lot of Martinu’s music when I composed it. Currently I have been listening to George Handy’s music, a student of Aaron Copland who also played piano with Charlie Parker whose music was recorded in the 1940s and 50s.

WSW: What is your biggest challenge when composing?
CG: My biggest challenge is working over the material until I am dead-set convinced that the work is done. Even for a short piece this can take hours of work. Although years ago I wrote music by page and occasionally write a sketch by hand, I have found that the computer is the perfect composing machine. I use Finale to move a phrase around and then audition it. After I start with a sketch, I find myself inserting phrases and expanding by repeating elements later in the piece. It’s possible but needlessly difficult to do this by hand.