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Thrilled the other night at Jazz Standard to see keyboardist Jim Beard! I heard him in several different Wayne Shorter groups around the time I moved to New York, between 1984 and 1989 or so. Beard played all of the Atlantis material with Shorter, as well as playing on the album Phantom Navigator and in subsequent live performances. Since writing about Shorter's new work for The Talkhouse, I have had several interesting conversations about it, and Jim Beard had some observations that hadn't occurred to me.

Jim asked me to pick 5 recordings to share on the occasion of my 50th birthday. Difficult to do as compositions are like children -- how would you pick your favorite? Also like children, they grow and change over time. I would certainly play all of these pieces differently today. Recorded music is an excellent document of a moment in time, but even this fixed medium changes as we perceive things differently. The exhilarating thing about playing music is that as you play you have absolute freedom in time. Move forward, move back, the more the merrier.

Recorded & mixed by Joe Ferla at Avatar Studios, April 2012 at the same sessions that yielded the album Be Still [2012] which Stereophile called "one of the best sounding records we've heard by any one in quite awhile." This all-instrumental album features Dave's new Quintet with Jon Irabagon on tenor saxophone, Matt Mitchell on piano, Linda Oh on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums.

Watch a 60-second teaser of the forthcoming album "Time Travel" by Dave Douglas featuring Jon Irabagon, Matt Mitchell, Linda Oh, and Rudy Royston.

I heard an interview some time ago with an author who listed the “Ten Most Harmful Novelists for Aspiring Writers.” Is there a record or records you think have the effect of changing artists to a degree that may be detrimental?

Six nights of Sound Prints Quintet at Village Vanguard. Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano, Lawrence Fields, Linda Oh, Joey Baron.

The Many Voices of Trumpeter and Composer Dave Douglas

Download a free 5-song sampler from our 2012 releases.

As the tenth Festival of New Trumpet Music drew to a close I found myself sitting back enjoying the challenging new piece Tom Harrell wrote for the festival. Tom put a lot of work into the suite. He and the band, with Mark Turner, Ugonna Okegwa, and Adam Cruz dug into it with relish. It was such a pleasure to witness the birth of a new music so ambitious, heartfelt, and totally 'lived.' On reflection I realized it was a feeling I was blessed to have many times during this year's events.

You can't deny the power of raw talent in music, but it is possible there is an even greater strength in the human capacity for ...