Kirk Deeter

In jazz music, there are notes, and there are “bombs.”  Notes are simply tones.  Bombs are when the right tone lines up with the right tempo in the right place, in the context of a moving melody.  Bombs are statement notes, and when they happen with effect, that’s the stuff that makes the hair stand up on the back of the listener’s neck.  When...

Mark Sides photo, Coyahique, Chile THIS MAY BE “Fly Fishing Jazz,” but no matter how you slice it, jazz is meant to be played after dark—or at least after the evening hatch starts. The morning—before sunrise, when you’re rumbling and fumbling, looking to set the personal gyroscope on a new day, and ultimately making your way to the river or boat...

I’VE BEEN TO A LOT of great concerts in my life. I believe that the live performance trumps any recording one might hear through speakers or earphones. It’s one thing to hear it; it’s an entirely better experience to see it and hear it at the same time. One of the best live shows I’ve seen happened many years ago (mid 80s) when I dragged my...

I had dinner with my good friend John Merwin the other night. John has written 15 of the most read, most quoted books on fishing, his career as a magazine editor is legendary, and he’s a co-editor-at-large for Field & Stream. In a nutshell, when Merwin talks, Deeter listens. So I was happy to hear him say that he not only enjoys “Fly Fishing...

The factor that connects a truly great angler and a truly great musician is that both would concede that there is no such thing, actually, as “truly great.” For both the angler and the jazz artist, no matter what they do, and how they play, there is always room for improvement.  Always something they wish they could re-do differently.  Something they...

WHEN PLAYING ANY KIND of music, hitting the right notes is only part of the challenge.  You also have to be in sync (on the beat), especially when you’re playing with others. For example, if I’m playing a sax solo in the key of “G,” I’m going to noodle around many different notes, but I know I’m going to be back on that G, or sometimes a D, at...

THE MUSICIAN OFTEN finds himself (or herself) fending off demons on two fronts. On the one hand, there’s the solitary challenge. Truth be told, this is (as it should be) the ultimate test. No musician, and no angler, can really aspire to true greatness until they find themselves in a place where they become their own greatest critic. When you can...

THE PERMIT CRUISED into the shallows, and I knew right away it was big, because it glimmered under the surface like a shiny trash can lid. Florida flats guide Bill Curtis was on the poling platform; he just pointed to make sure I had my bearings, not saying a word. I made what I thought was the perfect cast—a 60-footer that plopped the crab fly two feet...

"Jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with."  Duke Ellington AND I'M PROBABLY the guy your Federation of Fly Fishers “Certified Casting Instructor” doesn’t want you associating with either.  Because as much as I think clean, perfect casting loops are fun to make, and pretty to look at, I don’t...

I RECENTLY took a trip to Argentina, and it had nothing to do with a fancy lodge, or massive sea-run brown trout.  Yet it was the single best trout fishing experience in my life.  Why?  Because it was all about sight-fishing.  For me, sight fishing is top of the fly fishing game.  I don't care if you're talking tarpon or bonefish, steelhead or brown...