It must have been an unusual request. Most little kids dread piano lessons, but when one little boy's parents requested that he begin lessons in first grade (two years earlier than usual), the instructors were convinced. From St. Francis DeSales grade school on the south side to Bourbob Street in New Orleans, Richard Carr ('80) has pursued a uniques and indepndent musical career.

During his time at St. Louis U. High, the former five-year-old prodigy was in the band, and naturally, he played French horn. In the pep band, he played the cymbals. Granted, there may not have been much glory in the cymbals, but that has never been Carr's motivation. "If youre going to play music, have a good time. If you're not going to enjoy it, don't bother." Despite his enjoyment, says, Carr, "I was never much big on practicing."

SLUH may have proved an inauspicious beginning to a career in music but for the influence of one man - former band director Dr. Jack Milak. In the late 1970's Doc Milak split his time between SLUH and the Clayton Academy of Music. As part of a work-study program, Carr spent considerable time organizing the band's library of musical scores. It was during those endless hours of sorting that Carr really got to know Milak, who would be his friend and mentor for the next two decades.

Carr never fully left the piano (not even for the allure of the cymbals), but it was not until he was a business major at Benedictine College that he began to think seriously about his music. During a particularly fertile period of composing - many of his current songs began to take shape in colege - Carr decided to enroll at SIU-Edwardsville, where he received a degree in music.

In pursuit of a graduate degree, Carr ended up at the University of the Pacific. Out west, the winds shifted yet again; this time his interest was sports management. After getting a degree in his new profession of choice, he drifted down to New Orleans, where a career in sports management awaited.

But wherever Carr traveled, whatever interests he pursued, his music was never far behind. One night a musician neighbor asked him to fill in for her at a bar on Bourbon Street. At the end of the set, Carr recalls, "The manger told me to 'Come back anytime you want to play." As fate would have it, Carr was fired from the sports management job on January 10, 1995. He started at the bar that same evening.

Primariy playing clubs and hotels around New Orleans, Carr recorded his first CD "just to get some extra money". When he began recording, he "didn't go off looking for a label - I made my own." His own label, Rec'd Music, preserves the highly personal quality of his albums, while avoiding the expensive bureaucracies of the conglomerate recording labels.

Carr readily admits that in high school he "was a fringe guy." In many ways, that still holds true today. His musical style is mainly improvisational; if you were to hear him in a live performance from one of his CDs, Carr says, "Chances are you would recognize it, but I won't play it the same way." In fact, much of his best work has come out of spontaneous improvisation at the end of his recording sessions.

Response to his soothing, jazz-influenced New Age style has been varied, but five years and five albums later, Richard Carr is high on the charts for New Age airplay across the country and around the world. "They love me in Romania!" he chuckles.

The U. High has recently become a successful market for Carr's two newest albums, When Soul & Heart Collide and a Christmas compilation called Christmas Fire[side]. OEC moderator Patrick Zarrick has gone from giving Carr rides to school (as a senior at SLUH) to selling his CDs as a club fundraiser.

When Soul & Heart Collide features a dual-piano improvisation with composer/pianist Alex Utterman, another former pupil of Doc Milak's. Milak, who "was like a father to (Utterman)," brought the two musicians together. When they began to record shortly after Milak died last November, Utterman said, "Jack is here. He's keeping an eye on us. Don't kid yourself - he'll be listening." The album is dedicated to Milak and contains the one-time improvisation "In Memoriam," which Carr has not been able to recreate since.

Carr recalls fondly his time at SLUH and considers it a valuable musical experience. Says Carr, "SLUH gave me the wherewithal so that when I'm scramblin'I can scramble." To our current musicians, Carr says, "Don't quit your dream - it's not an easy road, though."