In this episode, Jolie speaks with David Bixler, a composer, musician, and Director of Jazz Studies, about demystifying the process of music creation, composing through the pandemic, and the many hats he wears in the jazz scene.
Announcer:From Bowling Green State University and the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society. This is BG ideas.Musical Intro:I'm going to show you this with a wonderful experiment. Jolie:Hello and welcome back to the BiG Ideas podcast brought to you by the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society and the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University. I'm Dr. Jolie Sheffer, Associate Professor of English and American Culture Studies and Director of ICS. Due to the ongoing pandemic, we are not recording in the studio but from home via phone and computer. As always, the opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of BGSU or its employees. Bowling Green State University, and its campuses are situated in the Great Black Swamp in the Lower Great Lakes Region. This land is the Homeland of the Wyandotte, Kickapoo, Miami, Pottawatomie, Ottawa, and multiple other Indigenous Tribal Nations, present and past, who were forcibly removed to and from the area. We recognize these historical and contemporary ties in our efforts towards de-colonizing history and we honor the indigenous individuals and communities who've been living and working on this land from time immemorial. Jolie:Today, I'm talking to composer, alto saxophonist and Director of Jazz Studies at BGSU David Bixler. In 2020, he released the album Blended Lineage with the David Bixler Bixtet and Inside The Grief with the David Bixler Trio Incognito. He is also the host of the podcast Liner Notes with David Bixler. In addition, David is a former ICS Faculty Fellow. David, thank you for joining us today to talk about making art during the pandemic. David, would you begin by talking a bit about your many different roles within the world of jazz? You're a performer, composer, educator and now a podcaster as well. How do you think about the relationship between these different positions?David:They definitely inform each other. And I think more and more, this is just kind of where we are right now, and everyone is doing it. And I think in the arts, being an educator, I believe, is part of it. There's always kind of a mentorship or giving back. And I think sometimes what that looks like is different. Going back to the history of jazz, it wasn't in an institutional setting. The way that the jazz scene has changed, academia for better or for worse has been a place where the community gathers, where some of this information is passed on. Because I think at one point like, "Why is jazz in the institution?" I think because as music becomes less popular in society, being able to gather at BGSU in the Northwest Ohio, we have a community there, we bring in people. And in this way is still incubated and passed on.David:With the podcast, this actually came about maybe five, no six, maybe seven years ago. I have a high school friend whose cousin used to work for PRI. They were looking for content. And so I met with him. And this is never anything I ever thought about. And I thought, "Well, I'll check it out." I have a friend, a former neighbor, that was a producer at 60 Minutes in 2020. So I reached out to her and asked her if she could help out, she's retired now. And she said, oh, she'd love to. And so I showed up at the place where we were going to interview the first person and she had hired a film crew and I walked in there and I said, "Man, there's no way I can do this." I just froze. I didn't know what to do. But anyhow, she put it together and made me look halfway articulate.David:It was cool. And then, since she had come from television, she was looking for a lot of money to try to get this going. We didn't get it. And then four years ago, I just tho
