Local composer keeping busy in retirement

What a year it was for Gary Edwards.

Born in Spokane and reared in Coeur d’Alene, Edwards began professionally playing in bands when he was 16 years old. He graduated from the Indiana University School of Music in 1964 and has been composing music since 1972.

Now 79, the Inland Northwest composer is keeping busy in retirement. He created and released four new music CDs: "Wataino," inspired by Puerto Rican Taino native music; "Sing-Along With Ellie," with eight children’s songs he wrote sung by 10-year old Ellie; and "Gary’s Classical Vol II and III," CDs with his original classical music. He also transcribed all the music of the "Wataino" CD performance and orchestrated all of the "Wataino" songs for Eastern Washington University’s big band jazz concert, directed by jazz professor Steven Friel, which is scheduled to take place this fall.

The "Wataino" album is an instrumental CD of Latin/rock/Taino-inspired music co-written with Orlando Sanchez, who produced music for Disney World for many years and performed with stars like Stevie Wonder, Donna Summer, Emeril Lagasse and many other famous stars. The live musicians on all the tracks are from around the world and centered in the Orlando area.

Edwards has also created a box set DVD called "Echo of The Tom Toms," a 21-episode video of Joe Lyons reading his grandmother Frances's journal about the history of the Spokane Tribe called "Echo of the Tom Toms" about the love story between LeBret’s grand-mother, Bluebird, and Dr. Fred Perkins.

Edwards wrote the music for a murder mystery movie filmed in Las Vegas called "Mistaken Moves" by Jimmy Cullors. The film has been plagued by sickness, death and other obstacles including the COVID-19 pandemic, but Edwards said the goal is to have it released on Amazon Prime or a similar venue soon.

A Mildred Bailey show performed in November at the Coeur d’Alene Casino was produced by Edwards, complete with a four-piece band he recruited. Bailey was an American Indian jazz singer in the 1930s, famously known as "The Queen of Swing."

"It was highly successful," Edwards said of the show.

Edwards prepared a DVD, "A Tribute to Mildred Bailey," which he said he hopes to release "if and when" he can get the license to use the copyrighted material, in partnership with The Coeur d’Alene Tribe.

"This DVD shows 15 songs made famous by Coeur d'Alene Tribal member Mildred Bailey in the 1920s, '30s and '40s and is performed by Cece Curtis, a current Coeur d'Alene Tribal member," Edwards said. "Now I am writing the screenplay for a movie called 'Mildred Bailey: Rockin’ Chair Lady,' along with some of my friends at The Coeur d’Alene Tribe and am looking for partners to work with me on this project."

Edwards recently produced a songwriting and marketing class and created a series of six 15-minute videos on meditation exercises. Visit www.EdwardsMusicSite.com to view the free "Visualization for Success" videos as well as 120 short, funny vignettes from his life story. A new one is added every Thursday.

"I hired Wade Lutz this year as an intern to take over my company, EdwardsMusicSite.com, when the time comes so that my 13 music CDs, 184 videos and books might live on," Edwards said. "Wade and I do a weekly broadcast on Twitch.com where we have a type of computer internet TV show called 'Hey Baldy,' where I tell jokes and play my original music and Wade draws illustrations on the computer screen and we interact by chat in real-time with viewers and feature guests occasionally.

"This is turning out to be a lot of fun," Edwards said.

The week before Christmas, Edwards composed music for a "Stealing Mona Lisa" musical. The book was written by Claude Solnik of New York City. Edwards said he attended a table read on Zoom with actors reading the dialogue and a husband and wife team performing the music.

"Afterward, we discussed the musical and people suggested changes and made comments," he said. "So, hopefully the pandemic will be over and I will get a musical produced in New York City."

In 2021, Edwards will continue to be active with his music as he heads toward his 80th birthday. As he says, things are looking up.