Congratulations to music student Aidan McCarthy for winning an Outstanding Musicianship award at the recent Santa Cruz Jazz Festival where both O’Dowd’s Advanced Jazz Band and Jazz Combo performed.
How long have you been playing/singing? I started playing guitar when I was 8 years old, mostly rock music and the blues. I shifted my focus to jazz when I was 13. I was inspired by another young bass player I played with during a 1-week summer camp. The bass position suited me in the jazz group better than the guitar, so I made the switch.
How were you introduced to music? My dad introduced me to music. He’s a classically trained percussionist, who played jazz and rock as well. When I was three years old, he gave me his childhood turntable and his boxes of records. I remember listening to only those records for hours and hours and hours. From then on I was enamored by music.