It doesn’t take a long visit to RichardWarrenField.com to discover that I am, for lack of a better description, a creative eccentric. In recent years, my focus has been on writing. My novel about the confrontation between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, The Swords of Faith, was published by Strider Nolan Media earlier this year (2010). Dying to Heal, a novel co-written with my friend, Dr., Alan Fluger, D.C., is also now available. Two of my essays, “Demonizing Islam is Both Wrong and Foolish,” and “Exporting Freedom and Democracy—Three Factors Necessary for Success,” have been published in the Opposing Viewpoints series.

But in the last three years, I have undergone a personal rediscovery. In my adolescence and early adulthood, I was a serious musician. During high school, I wrote jazz band and concert band pieces; a number of these were performed. I have to thank Paul Bostwick, the band director at Los Gatos High school, who sometimes seemed a little uncertain of what to do with me, but who willingly read through scores produced by his precocious, sometimes obnoxious first chair trumpeter. He took on most of the pieces for performance at band concerts. He allowed a 17 year old high school senior to conduct one of the pieces, “Parthenon,” to a standing ovation, one of my favorite musical triumphs.

In college, I was a music major (I graduated from the University of the Pacific in 1976 with a double major in Music and Political Science). I had a concert band and jazz band piece performed there. I also need to thank David S. Goedecke, who scheduled these pieces for performance, pieces written by an incoming freshman. Unfortunately, his open attitude was not shared by the man who succeeded him, but this turned out to be a blessing. It led me to schedule two composition recitals, in my junior and senior years. The senior year recital was a multi-media recital offering a unifying theme, and art, drama and other writing in connection with the music. (Craig Ing provided the art effects, including his invention, the “visual instrument,” which actually had a scored part during my piece for wind band, “The Three Moods.”) Thanks to my father, the brilliant now-retired orthopedic surgeon, Joseph H. Field, M.D., and his mighty stereo Teac reel-to-reel recorder, recordings of many of these performances still exist. I will be attempting, over the next year or two, to get these on CD to offer to the public.

As a young college graduate, I moved to Los Angeles to try and find a spot as a professional musician—as a composer and/or songwriter performer. Since my early teens I had been writing songs. Tapes of over 300 songs exist as guitar voice or piano voice demos, recorded over many years. I learned, over some years of disappointment, that there were only so many slots available for composers and performing songwriters, and thousands vying for those slots. Despite many different angles of approach, I learned that I was not destined for one of those slots. (Did I take on too many angles of approach? Was I too unfocused? Was I simply in the wrong place with the wrong material? Who knows. At this point—who cares!) I drifted toward writing, something I had always shown an interest in, throughout my music adventures.

From my young adult years, a lot of tape exists. I have started to sort through it, to see what is worthy of release to the public. As a youngster, I was ambitious. I wanted to reach the entire world, hit the big time with a “hit song,” or a prominent film-scoring assignment. At this point, I simply want to reach whomever wants to be reached by me. If that is just a handful of people, fine. Of course, I hope it is many more than a handful. But a few people at a time is satisfactory to an unfocused, multi-interest, creative eccentric like me. The internet allows me to put my creative offerings out there, in nibbles, in small samples, inviting those interested to wade in deeper. I love this new technology with this wonderful capability, and I am going to make use of it!

So here is how I am going to get started:

• First offered will be a series of jazz/rock/world-music/classical fusion pieces, Issa Music, produced from 1988 to 1990. These represent one of those weird combinations of music and writing that reoccur in my life with regularity. They represent “Exhibit A” in making the case for my designation as a “creative eccentric.” My intention right now is to offer 14 of these 23 pieces in an 80 minute CD, available for sale some time in the near future. Please click here for more details.
• I have reconnected with my performance side. I can thank my brother Chris and his wife Terry for inviting my daughter Michelle and I to perform at their wedding on Memorial Day weekend. That simple guitar-voice duet reminded me how much I love playing the music. And I have discovered a love for covers, something I did not enjoy in the past. I have prepared seven sets of over seventy songs for live performance in small venues. I perform them on a digital piano with a drum bass-machine providing rhythm tracks. Full performances of these songs are available; just click the links at the Playlist. Feel free to contact me about performing at your event or venue.

Richard Warren Field (aka Rick Field)
10-24-2009, updated 6-12-11