An astrologer told me I would benefit from traveling alone in a foreign country. I put my kitchen, books and blankets in a friend's attic, saying "I'll be gone for a year or so". I soon realized it was a trip I had been preparing for a very long time. Two and a half years and 11 countries later, my life was changed forever. I left speaking Spanish but returned home with Portuguese.

No big surprise, I guess - long before my odyssey through the Americas, I moved to Montana for the winter... and stayed 18 years.

Time passes. I'm still playing Brazilian music, and after 4 CDs in collaboration with the late Gaudencio Thiago de Mello, my DPQ +1 album "Pra Você" received 4 stars in DownBeat. I've just been notified for winning a partial grant (Pathways to Jazz) to record my Quintet again. I've been back to play in Brazil, even in Paris, and studied in Turkey. But the real journeys are inside, exploring internal landscape. I am more awed every day by music, and by life on earth!

Some things don't change fast. I played the same clarinet from teen-age til 5 years ago. After two years, the new one finally felt familiar. It took some time, but I recently noticed feeling better with the Egyptian ney every week. And then I "inherited" the bass clarinet from the late Jack Fredericksen, my childhood teacher. Another journey begins...come on along!

photo: April Renae