Occupation: I'm a music teacher at Turn of River Middle School in Stamford, and I'm a performing musician with Sa Reel Project, a quartet. I play flute and percussion and I do vocals. We perform alternative world music. We also have a dancer who
Occupation: Iâm a music teacher at Turn of River Middle School in Stamford, and Iâm a performing musician with Sa Reel Project, a quartet. I play flute and percussion and I do vocals. We perform alternative world music. We also have a dancer who dances with us; she interprets the music and improvises with us. Weâre really excited that our group will be performing with modern dance troupes Pilobolus and MoMix in the near future.
Family: My wife, Sophfronia Scott, and Tain, my son, who is 16 months old.
Pets: No pets, but we have the wild deer and the turkey out back. But then, everyone in Newtown has wild deer.
How long have you been in Newtown? Almost a year. We moved here form the Upper West Side of Manhattan. We had lived there for 13 years.
What do you do in your free time? My what? My free time is spent in my studio downstairs. I have a radio show broadcast from WVOF at Fairfield University called Unsigned Underground, which started this past October. Since Iâm an unsigned musician, I had this idea for a long time about the radio show. My podcast site is www.unsignedunderground.net and my studio site is www.bluecavestudios.com and it is open for business for people who want to record anything from full CDs to commercial music to voiceovers. I also run, and Sophfronia has season tickets to, the Jets, so we go to sports events and we go into the city. We just saw [the play] The Color Purple.
Do you have a favorite musician or band? I grew up loving Bruce Springsteen. He was my inspiration in high school. As I get older, I donât have a favorite musician or genre. I donât like dishonesty in music. I like music that speaks from the heart, that is honest and real.
Do you have a favorite travel destination? I guess it would be Los Angeles. We go there and visit friends. The cool thing is, we stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Itâs our splurge and itâs worth every penny. We met Al Pacino the last time we were there. Tain was running around and went underneath his table by the pool.
Whatâs the best thing about Newtown? The quiet. I love the quiet after living in Manhattan. People are extremely nice. We were welcomed right away into the neighborhood.
Do you keep anything interesting in your pockets? Actually, I do. I have a ticket stub from the Paul McCartney concert in 1992 at the Ed Sullivan Theater right before they gutted it for the Letterman Show. It was a great, great performance.
What is your personal philosophy? The thing I constantly say to myself is âthe only thing that is permanent and real is that nothing is permanent and real.â I embrace impermanence â things change and I accept that.
Where would you like to be in 20 years? I hope Iâm still doing music. It would be nice to still have a loving family around me. Twenty years is a long time.
SNAPSHOT: Darryl Gregory