Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ben Rosenblum. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Ben, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
Opportunities for creativity can be found in every facet of life. As a touring performer and composer specializing in jazz and other improvised music genres, my career revolves about keeping the flow of ideas open and as unfettered as possible. This outlook has influenced the way I live – every interaction is an improvisation that people engage in, and each situation provides chance for creative approaches and surprises. Embracing the unknown and inviting the unfamiliar, both artistically and in life, is a large part of what allows new ideas to take life and grow into creativity.
When I feel creatively stifled, I try to surround myself with people who inspire me. In New York City, many of the greatest jazz and world musicians perform on a regular basis. If I don’t have any new ideas, going to see a performance by one of these masters of the music is always a fresh start and a new outlook towards finding my own voice again. In my own band, I’ve surrounded myself with similarly open-minded musicians who are always striving to be better and learn more. They push me to be better every time I perform with them. Even apart from music, reading a beautiful short story, appreciating a great work of art or even watching a particularly well made work of animated fiction can be enough to spark the beginning of a new song. Many of my compositions are inspired by art, writing, story-telling or locations that I have traveled to. I try to find the connections between these things, and the struggle to express them musically leads to so many beautiful places.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I have been working professionally as a jazz and world music performer since before I went to college. As a pianist, accordionist and composer, most of my career centers around touring, performing locally in the New York area and writing music, either for my band or for other ensembles that commissioned my work. It’s a lifestyle that has its challenges – I run the business of my band while at the same time participating in a creative capacity, and both of these facets of the work are like their own full time job. But the feeling of performing on stage alongside incredible musicians to an appreciative audience is so satisfying that for the moments I’m on stage, I forget all of the difficulties and experience the magic of something greater than myself. I’m incredibly grateful to be able to do music as my career.
The primary interest of my musical journey recently has been incorporating various world music genres into improvised jazz through my original composition. While piano is a common jazz instrument, accordion is much more rare, and it brings with it influences from so many cultures where the accordion is celebrated (Brazil, Eastern Europe, Ireland, the Balkans and many others). My six-person ensemble, the Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project, explores the intersection between these disparate cultures and ties them together through the fundamental elements of music – rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, space. The goal is to find commonality through music, but also to fully appreciate the unique and rich cultural heritages that each element comes from. Through these processes I feel like I’m able to express my perspective musically.
The Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project has released two albums: Kites and Strings (2020) and A Thousand Pebbles (2023). The third album is set to be recorded this year and released next year. We’ve also been touring regularly – our next tour is through the West Coast in April 2024, with shows from LA to Seattle.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think the first quality I would advocate for in any field is self-awareness. When we are young, sometimes it can seem like there is only one path to success and we force ourselves to try to pursue things that aren’t actually important to us. In reality, there are many ways to be successful and many different definitions of what success is. In jazz, for example, performing at jazz clubs and venues is one avenue to having a career in the music, but many of my closest friends have found great success going down other paths. Some stream and create content on online platforms. Some have found homes for their jazz experience in other music genres like R&B, hip-hop, world music, classical music or pop/singer-songwriter. Some have found different spaces for performing – instead of classic jazz at a club, they might perform anime or video game music in a jazz style at an arcade. How this relates to self-awareness: instead of molding yourself to what you think is going to be successful, first ask yourself what you really enjoy, what moves you the most and what you would want to spend your life doing. Then find the communities that allow you to do that, or even create the community if there isn’t one.
The second quality is an appreciation for the fundamentals. Whatever you want to do in life, if you have a strong foundation, you’ll be able to build off of this to accomplish whatever you are hearing. Having good technique will always lead to a stronger realization of your creative vision.
The third is to remember the first love you had of whatever you’re doing, and why you were drawn to it in the first place. In a creative field, sometimes as we progress on the journey, it’s easy to forget the first feelings you had when you first started or experienced what you’re doing. There are so many things that one has to slog through in order to achieve your vision, and in the process of that, always keep your mind open to the magic of the thing itself.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
My parents have always been incredibly supportive of my decision to pursue music, and in fact, my mom was the first person who introduced me to jazz music. There are so many things my parents helped with, but I think the most impactful was to trust me to make my own decisions and deal with the consequences myself. From a young age, I feel like I learned how to take responsibility, and I realized the importance of making decisions yourself so that you never feel regret that you let other people control the direction of your life. I really appreciate this, and as a bandleader who has to make decisions every day, I feel like this has given me the perspective to be a better director of the band.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.benrosenblummusic.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/benrosenblummusic
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/benrosenblummusic
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/benrosenblummusic
