I remember that day like it was yesterday. Well, I guess it was more of an era, really. But I still think of it as a day. The day the music died. They called it the Digital Age. It happened around the time of the New Millennium, the dawn of the 21st century. It was the time when everything we had ever created prior to this day, using only the limits of our imagination, our human ingenuity and our own human hands to make things, this was all we ever needed. They were the things you had to build with …

I found myself walking in Central Park the other morning, setting in from around East 69th Street, having just dropped off my daughter at kindergarten and continuing further South down Fifth Avenue. The rain from last night made it more sparse of people than would usually be there on a nicer morning. It also gave the added benefit of making everything so deliciously, incredibly green! It's so amazing how you can walk not fifty yards into the park and suddenly leave New York City completely …

Today my daughter was getting ready to set off for kindergarten, armed with a pile of Valentines for her classmates and teacher. WBGO jazz radio was playing in the background, as it has every morning since moving to Harlem almost eight years ago. They are a public radio station and as far as I'm concerned the best in the world by far. Check out their Saturday morning Rhythm Review. It's the greatest soul and blues programming I've heard anywhere. They were in the middle of their Winter fundraising drive …

Last night my band mate, Mike Leslie, shared with me just an awesome, inspirational quote from celebrated filmmaker, James Jarmusch, who directed the film, Coffee and Cigarettes . It now hangs on my studio wall where I can see it and be inspired every day but it needs to be shared. So this goes out to any and all creative spirits: "Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, …

There is an unspoken proverb among "serious" artists and musicians that says once you get married and have a kid, you can kiss your freedom and your dreams goodbye forever. Your young, free wheeling, devil-may-care life as you knew it is over, Charlie. Time to get a real job. Responsibility. Time to grow up. I too was a firm believer in this universal law. Lord knows I held out for as long as I could. I made it to 39 before I got hitched and didn't have my first kid …

It's only fitting on the eve of Aerosmith's guitarist, Joe Perry announcing to the world that Steven Tyler had finally quit as lead singer for the legendary rock band (with Tyler subsequently denying this two days later) that I should make a personally monumental archeological find in my own closet: the tour program from the very first rock concert I ever attended. As it turns out, that was Aerosmith in 1976. It was at the New Haven Coliseum (now a parking lot) and I was …