Where “Music Moves My Mood” Began

A behind the scenes reflection on the inspiration for my first spoken jazz recording.

The reflection begins here.
You can listen or read below.

Music has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Long before I ever wrote a line or stepped behind a microphone, music was already shaping how I felt, how I remembered moments, and how certain memories stayed with me.

One of the very first songs that left an imprint on me was Hey Jude. Even as a child, there was something about the sound and the emotion in that record that stayed with me. I didn’t fully understand it at the time, but I felt it.

Music has a way of doing that.

Some of my earliest memories are tied to songs. I remember my first childhood crush and the shy little kiss on the cheek that came with it, all while Betcha By Golly Wow by The Stylistics was playing. I remember the feeling of learning how to dance, and later teaching someone else how to dance, and how the music in those moments set the tone for everything that followed.

Music doesn’t just play in the background of our lives. It frames the moment. It colors the memory. It becomes the emotional thread that connects one chapter of life to another.

When I sat down to write Music Moves My Mood, I was thinking about all of those moments. The songs that shaped my memories. The way a melody can instantly transport you back to a particular place, a particular feeling, a particular person.

That’s what this piece is about.

It’s a reflection on how music doesn’t just accompany life.

It moves with it.

It moves through it.

And sometimes, it moves us in ways words alone never could.

And for me, it always will.