"I'm a freelance musician, professionally," Sharp said. "I travel a lot."
Sharp is a jazz musician who moved to Ottumwa 10 years ago to accept a position teaching music at Indian Hills Community College, and leading the school's jazz band. But he's never taken a break from playing professionally.
He reached for his calendar. The small writing in each square works together to tell a story: Classes and rehearsals Monday through Thursday, playing professional "gigs" with dance bands and orchestras Friday through Sunday. He's played music ranging from pop to classical, and considers himself more a "musician" than a "jazz musician."
"I say there's only two kinds of music. Good music and bad music. There's good jazz and bad jazz. There's good hip hop and bad hip hop. There's good classical and bad classical."
His record collection - in many cases, actual vinyl records - covers a broad spectrum of music. But it's hard for him to listen to music just to relax. It's rarely background noise for him.
"You become very active in your listening. That's one of my [goals] with the music appreciation class (which he teaches): How to listen to music," he said.
It's not his goal to force music down the students' throats; he wants them to graduate with a true appreciation for music, and an understanding that different doesn't necessarily mean bad.
As for young people already interested in music, they get to meet an instructor who plays professionally. This week, he's scheduled to go to another in a long line of high schools to listen to their jazz band, critique them and then work with the students.
There's a mutual benefit: Kids get the chance to improve and Sharp gets the chance to remind them that if they attend IHCC, they'll be able to continue their musical training with him.
Besides sharing music with a new generation of musicians, he feels satisfied in a personal way, too.
While he has spent 22 years playing with the Bobby Layne Orchestra out of Lincoln, Neb., he still gets to perform with national bands with names like The Woody Herman Orchestra, The
Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and The Glenn Miller Orchestra. He's backed individual musicians, too, like Mel Tormé, Rod Stewart and Bobby Vinton.
And while he mostly plays or fills in for absent musicians when these bands come through the Midwest, his influence has been felt around the globe.
"It's kind of nice. With all the technology, I got an e-mail from Switzerland. Someone had heard one of my arrangements," he said.
The Swiss musicians contacted him on a Thursday, asking if he could write them an arrangement for a festival they'd be playing on Monday. He sat down at the computer and began arranging a piece specifically for that band, then e-mailed it out to them in plenty of time for their performance.
And he did it, he said, from his home base of Ottumwa.
"I'm doing everything I want to do: I can play, I can write and [our family] is in a safe community with a low cost of living."
Mark Newman can be reached at 683-5358 or by e-mail at mgnewman@mchsi.com.
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