Today we’d like to introduce you to RJ Spangler.
Hi RJ, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started way back in the late 1970’s. I learned from older musicians here on the east side of Detroit. I’ve been a band leader for most of that time. I’ve played all sorts of types of jazz from traditional to pretty avant guard. I’ve also played soul music with people like Sir Mack Rice, the man who wrote “Mustang Sally” to blues and world music as well, specializing in performing the music of South Africa.
Performing this music has taken me through 48 states, eight provinces in Canada and 15 countries in Europe.
These days I’m happy to stay closer to home!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The first 15 years of my career or with a 10 piece band and for the last almost 20 years, I’ve been with a 10 piece band. Now I’ve been at this for not quite 50 years but pretty close but as you can see a good chunk of my career was spent in 10 piece bands. Nobody gets in a 10 piece band to get rich. Hell, nobody plays blues & jazz to get rich! So I’ve lived a modest life, one might say.
In the middle, when I was with smaller blues bands, back then, folks bought music from touring artists. So I did a little better.
Detroit has always been a good place to live as far as real estate and I’ve made a few good decisions in that regard. Home ownership is a good thing when living a modest lifestyle.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
For last 19 years, I’ve had a band called Planet D Nonet. It is a 10 piece swing band. We play music by Fletcher Henderson, Count Basie, Fats Waller, and we specialize in the music of Duke Ellington.
In the band are two of my oldest friends, James O’Donnell on Trumpet and John “Tbone“ Paxton on Trombone. I have known them since my very first band, the Sun Messengers, so that goes back to the very beginning for me. It’s very gratifying to still be making music with two of my oldest friends in life. Our pianist, Michael Zaporski, is also a veteran Musician and friend of mine and my neighbor. Most of the other fellas in the band are between 25 and 35 years old and are magnificent players, in my opinion. I am blessed to have all of these great musicians in my band.
I have been taking in younger musicians and showing them much about the music business and band leading for a long time now and I’m proud of my relationships with the guys whom are my band currently and some of the musicians whom have moved on and are doing their own things now.
What makes you happy?
I like working on various recording projects. It is very fulfilling to me to document what I’ve been working on for my entire career.
I very much enjoyed spending time with the musicians that I make music with.
I also very much enjoying my private time. My home is my sanctuary.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rjspangler.com/
- Instagram: RJSpangler.detroit
- Facebook: RJ Spangler
- Youtube: @rjspangler1488
