Former Great Neck resident Michael Blum said he wanted his upcoming album to speak to audiences on a deeper emotional scale.
With the album scheduled to be released on June 17, Blum, a singer and guitarist, said he thinks it can lead him to a long, illustrious career.
“My goal is to reach people emotionally and make some sort of impact in that way,” he said. “If I can do that, I will be successful.”
Blum, who graduated from Dartmouth University in 2015 with degrees in music and neuroscience, said his experiences at the Ivy League institution influenced his upcoming album, “Chasin’ Oscar: A Tribute to Oscar Peterson.”
He said he would often make the two-hour drive from his school to practice with his musical mentor, Jim Stinnett, a Berklee School of Music professor.
“I used to listen to a lot of Oscar Peterson records when I was in the car,” Blum said. “I listened to it so much and I just started to love Oscar Peterson. It’s such beautiful music.”
Peterson was a Canadian Jazz pianist who won eight Grammy awards during his career.
Blum, who is currently living in Boston, said one day he arrived at Stinnett’s home and said he wanted to play the guitar just like Peterson played the piano.
“He didn’t blow me off like many teachers probably would have,” he said. “A month later we got to work and he recommended I get some new records of his and learn a lot of his solos.”
To try and emulate Peterson’s sound, Blum said, he practiced anywhere from six to eight hours a day for 18 months.
Blum, who was born and raised in Great Neck, said his parents were his “biggest influences” in music.
His father, he said, is a classical guitarist and his mother is a singer.
“Music was always around in my house,” Blum said.
He said he began playing the piano at a young age, but when he was 10 years old, he started to play the guitar.
Having grown up and gone to school in Great Neck, Blum said, he was exposed to a number of musical opportunities.
He said he remembers performing as a sixth-grader in a Great Neck South Middle School rendition of the popular musical “Anything Goes,” which he said was his first time “performing on a legitimate stage.”
After graduating from South Middle, Blum attended the North Shore Hebrew Academy.
It was there, he said, where he got his first taste of what performing solo felt like when he performed in a school talent show.
Despite his talents as a singer and guitarist, Blum said, he was unsure of what career path to take heading into college.
After performing for money, he said, he decided that playing music would be his calling.
“I thought it was so cool that I could be paid for something that I love to do,” Blum said. “I decided that was my path from then on.”
Blum’s talents as a guitarist and singer have seen him be named the “Rising Star” guitarist in DownBeat Magazine’s 63rd Annual Critics Poll last year.
He said the distinction was “pretty cool.”
“It definitely gave me motivation to keep going,” Blum said. “It gave me proof that it was working, that I should keep going with it.”
He said in his future, he sees himself continuing to perform and make music.
“The genre of music I play is not as important to me as reaching people,” Blum said. “Whether it’s jazz or rock or pop or whatever, I definitely do see myself reaching people.”
The impact he could have on listeners as a musician is why he enjoys playing music so much, he said.
“I think it’s that I have this designated time and space that I’m kind of gifted and during that time I can impact people and I can move them and make them happy or sad,” Blum said.
