Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Fowler.
Hi Steven, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
First let me say that the Trumpet chose me, and I’ll explain why. My journey in music officially began in Jamaica Queens when I was eleven years old. I was attending P.S. 48 at the time and the music program Midori & Friends came to our school to introduce a short-term music program at out school. We were asked to write down the instrument we were interested in playing on a piece of paper to get started. I remember writing down the trombone because at the time, it was the only instrument I could remember the name of, and I thought it looked pretty intriguing. Nevertheless, the time came to go to the music classes we signed up for respective to the instrument we said we wanted to play a week later.
As the class time is going by, we start nearing the time to be introduced to the instrument and I’m very excited at this point. The instructor put his case on the table, and it struck me at how small and short the case was, but I didn’t think much of it. As he begins to take the instrument out of the case, I realized that I wasn’t in the trombone class at all. I was in the trumpet class.
Sitting there feeling like I had made a huge mistake, I raised my hand in confusion and asked what instrument he was holding and proceed to tell him that I was in the wrong class, and that I wanted to play the trombone. The trombone class was downstairs in the cafeteria and there only about fifteen minutes left to the class. So, I quickly packed my things and headed for the classroom door. Would you believe that just before I put my hand on the door, the instructor stopped me and said, ” Hey come back over here and sit down. You’re going to learn how to play the trumpet today!” It was at that split second moment that my life changed forever, and Jerome Austin became my first trumpet teacher.
From that point on, Jerome saw promise in my ability to play and took me to Wynton Marsalis’ house to meet and play for him. Like most musicians know, no visit to Wynton’s house was ever truly complete without the game of basketball. Thats where my tutelage started with Wynton that day I went to his house for the first time. He took a liking to me and offered to teach me more about music and trumpet playing and the Wynton essentially became my second trumpet teacher and life coach. He always imparted more the just trumpet wisdom. I would later be invited to travel with him Jazz at Lincoln center Orchestra that same summer and my music journey really evolved and grew from there. I knew without a doubt in my mind that I wanted do be a musician like Wynton and the guys in the band. I went on to play in the borough wide symphonic band, studied at the Harlem School of the arts with Cecil Bridgewater and studied classical music at Juilliard Pre-College, my junior and senior year of high school.
After high school, I was accepted into the Juilliard Jazz department for jazz trumpet studies. While I was there, I studied with Dr. Eddie Henderson, Joe Wilder, Chris Jaudis and so many other greats. I decided to go in a different direction after my second year there and transferred to The New School jazz department and studied with Charles Tolliver, Jimmy Owens, Kenny Barron, Reggie Workman and Billy Harper to name a few. This inspired me to start writing and composing my own music in 2014 so I started what have been many versions and variations of my bands. I did a little bit of touring with Jon Batiste in the early part of his career when he was still getting started out and the life took me in a different direction after I became a father at 22 years old. Now, a wife and three children later I graduated from the historic Miles College at the top of my class, moved to Georgia, toured with r&b legend Kem for several years post covid, started my Jazz Orchestra up again and debuted a suite I wrote for the Historic ” Seneca Village” in New York city’s Central Parker in 2023. I’m very excited about what the future holds, and I can’t wait to finish creating so I can release all of this music growing inside of me.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road hasn’t been smooth at all. Aside from the typical struggle of what most people think about when they hear that someone is a musician, there was a period of time that was particularly difficult for me. When I was 22 years old, I became a father to my first boy Isaiah. That put a lot of pressure on me because I was still in school and now had to figure out how to make money for this new family I created. I did my best, but it was very challenging and that was only the beginning of the struggle. Shortly after becoming a father, I was the victim of an attempted robbery at gunpoint and was subsequently shot in my left leg as I tried to escape. From that point on I became deeply depressed and suffered from ptsd so severely that I couldn’t step foot outside for several months without having a panic attack. I wasn’t able to handle going to school and when I tried to explain what happened to me to my administrator, looked me in the face and said he didn’t believe me and that he thought I was just lying to him. This obviously made things worse and so I continued to spiral. I found myself hanging out with the wrong crowd and ultimately ended becoming homeless for a while. I’m not really sure how I made it through all of that but I’m glad that I did.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m primarily a trumpet player and that’s really what I specialize in. I think what I’m known for really depends on when and where you met me along my journey so far. I’m known as lead trumpet player to a lot of my musician colleagues, but to other I’m more closely associated with being a music teacher and educator. I’ve done some composing in the last five years that would esteem me amongst the composer ranks. There was a time when I was closely associated with Jean Michel Basquiat because I was one of the first people in my network to compose music completely inspired by Jean Michel Basquait so I became known as the Basquiat composer. But with all that taken into account I would say I’m certainly more closely associate with being a family man that instills music into his family. All of our children play multiple instrument and that’s just a normal part of living in the Fowler household. For me as a man and musician, that is one of the most significant things I can do. Passing everything I know and love about music down to my children and other young minds is the greatest testament to whatever my legacy will be when I’m laid to rest. So, teaching my children music and helping them find their voice of expression and other children like them is what I’m most proud of and it’s also what sets me apart from others. My musicianship has been inherited and bequeathed directly to my children and subsequently other young aspiring musicians all over the world.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
To be able to take care for and provide for my family and to give my children access and opportunities that I didn’t have growing up so that they can reach their fullest potential. I believe very strongly that my children should be improvements upon my design, so if I can get them to be greater than me at whatever they decided to do, then I will have succeeded in life. I’m just going to make sure I set the bar as high as I can so they can have somethings to strive for and surpass.
Contact Info:
- Website: Iamkhemestry.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamkhemestry.trumpet/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/Khemestry.music
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCz01XJ5sHpJWe2Y5dc6kdw
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/iamkhemestry
Image Credits
KJ Glover
