Ronnie Matthews discusses his decision to become a professional musician

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Ronnie Matthews discusses his family's reaction to his decision to leave med school for a career in music

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Ronnie Matthews discusses composing and performing

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Q: “You were actually in pre-med school before you even decided to be a musician, right?”

A: “Right, right, that must be. Yeah, that's true. I started rather late in life. I was already a sophomore in college. I was seventeen years old when I started playing the piano. When I found a teacher who could show me something about jazz, which is something I had always wanted to play. You know, I was surrounded by the music in my house, of course. But I never really knew how to get into jazz because I didn't know anything about music then. I was turned on to a gentleman by the name of Hall Overton who, he's dead now, but he's just a superfine musician. He was teaching jazz privately and he was also on the faculty of Julliard. A very fine, well-rounded musician who loved people like Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell and sort of showed me the way as it were.”