Welcome to Flute Unscripted, a podcast dedicated to gaining insight into the lives and minds of some of the most famous and influential flutists from all over the world.
Here’s more about me, your host, Caity Massoud: First and foremost, I’m a flutist. I grew up in New York and was the first to pursue music as a career. I studied flute performance and earned my doctorate in Texas at the University of Houston. I eventually came back to the big apple, with a husband and two dogs in tow. Since then, I’ve joined the team at the Flute Center of New York as a resident flutist. When we first started the podcast at the FCNY, we had no idea it would grow into an archive of important conversations with all the talented artists that walk through our doors. Getting to know these influential musicians is a real privilege and I feel lucky to share their stories with you!
What an enjoyable interview! Hearing Ebonee Thomas play (in person) was a fantastic experience, and this interview just showcases that she is a lovely person plus an amazing flutist!
I am going to say maybe Mr. Baker changed as he got older? I took a job in CT and lived pretty close to him. He was retired at this point and I took him out to lunch to ask him to do a concert with my orchestra. I got all dressed up and thought I would take him someplace nice. He answered the door in jeans and a flannel shirt and insisted I take him to a mom and pop deli. He got an egg salad sandwich and that was about it. During the lunch he invited me to a concert that the Ives Orchestra was playing that evening. When I arrived he said, "I have someone I want you to meet, you will like him and maybe he will like you" it was Jeffery Kahner. So maybe at that point in his life, Mr. Baker accepted gay musicians.
This was a great interview. I’m late to the game of learning and hearing about you Aletha. I’m so impressed, and loving your music. Thank you for pushing on, and not letting your early set backs detour you. I myself am a retired LE officer, and now knowing you were as well, I have a special place in my music favs for you. I am looking forward to a day you come back to the Detroit area to perform.
He is so germphobic that I can not spend any more of my germ infested money to see him. Sad to see people become this afraid. Still is my favorite performer. But needs to live in a bubble.
The end of the interview gets back around to some very important points that affected my musical experiences (and still does). I originally became a flute player precisely because this Jethro Tull guy I heard on albums borrowed from friends was being so interesting, expressive, fun, creative and convincing. I'd only heard a few musicians do that regularly, such as Jeff Beck as an instrumentalist, and with creative and evolving songwriting, Gordon Lightfoot. The end results reached great accomplishment, but the styles varied a great deal. I also like Gamelan, Thelonius Monk and Carl Stalling music, so there ya go. But Ian Anderson's point about reserving some time to play much more spontaneously, to discover your own performance and creative possibilities, makes utmost sense. It works wonders for performance ability and for expanding the musical awareness and imagination. And there are ways to explore that with some structure around when helpful. For instance, once I'd played flute along to every Tull song recorded, many times, I found myself some years later much more experienced on the flute and then I would use Tull flute music parts as a launching pad, and I'd play invented riffs and harmony parts made up in the moment, along to the Tull music. Then I did the same with Herbie Mann, Renaissance music, Moe Koffman, the Chieftains, and music from others. I wasn't "as good" as those performers, I was just avoiding "repetition". It was improvisation, but trying to make it feel worthwhile. But then time came to sometimes run my playing at 100% invention, pure creativity, spontaneously. And that kind of playing, I'm convinced, opens the imagination up clearly to start trying new playing techniques, imagine new riffs, new senses of music, new dimensions, new instruments, new purposes, and certainly, my own playing techniques explored many kinds of possibilities. I never could get circular breathing going, but out of all that exploration, I rediscovered simple spontaneous whistling as another method of extensive, natural and free-flowing creativity. Things I've whistled and recorded in a little portable digital voice recorder at the time, I take everywhere, I've then turned into some new music. Create content first, arrange much later, at a 10/1 ratio. Here's to avoiding analysis paralysis. Thanks for the interview, and best wishes for a great 2023 to Ian, the band and flute players everywhere.
Although I promise I wish Ian Anderson many, many, many more years of health and happiness, I must admit, my true hope is to outlive him ( I am 10 years younger than him). I have been a studious fan for over 50 years and I simply don't want to miss out on any of his music.
Very interesting. I actually posted on your back up Piccolo video and asked why you didn't test the pearl. I hope this didn't came up as hate. I am based in Europe and here the pearl was in the mentioned budget and it is very famous so I was not aware of prices in the US... Maybe it was the same with some other commentators? Please don't take it to heart. Cheers
What a humble and kind young lady woman who, under limited time and space, gracefully achieved her flute playing support for friends. Very well done. I can imagine the technical maneuvers that had to be made being that she was not in the same room as her accompaniments. That's wild. Thank you kindly for sharing your time and interview.❤️💝💖 p.s. I miss my flute badly. I began learning how to play it in 2008. My dad was an amazing musician who helped me with lip embouchure exercises. He left for heaven on July 1, 2011, the year when I had a big stroke in winter 2011. Music died for me. ❤️💝💖😇⚘️
I got the chance to meet Nestor Torres at this past NFA Convention and it was a dream come true! I’ve been listening to him since I was 10, I saw him in concert for the first time when I was 15 at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium and it so happens that he has known about me and my sister for the last 2-3 years because of some of our mutual friends and colleagues.
Miss Boyd once sent an album of her teacher Maurice Sharp. To an unknown woman in Georgia. That was me. I cannot ever thank you enough for that precious gift. It is so good to see an interview with you. I have told so many people about you. I met one of your students many years ago I won't even name how many years ago named Eileen Choi and she showed me what was really possible on the flute. God bless you Miss Boyd
