Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m jealous of Kyle Eastwood. It’s not because he’s an accomplished musician and composer with five discs to his name, and who’s written music for films like “Million Dollar Baby” and “Gran Torino.” And it’s not because he’s younger than me, or better looking than me, or lives part of the year in France. I’d been to France twice before I was seven years old; the “young” thing is happening more and more lately; and we’re talking about movie icon Clint Eastwood’s son and actress/singer/film director Alison Eastwood’s brother. To put it mildly, my genes don’t stand a chance!

Nope, I’m jealous of Kyle Eastwood because he grew up with the Monterey Jazz Festival basically in his backyard, just a few miles up the road from his boyhood home in Carmel, CA. For non-jazzheads, that’s like having Bonnaroo or Glastonbury happen in the town next to yours – every single year! To put it mildly, that thought just… BURNS! Even so, I overcame my personal issues and asked Eastwood for an interview, which he was kind enough to give me:

Q: People may not know this, but you come from a pretty musical family: Your father plays piano, and anyone who saw “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” knows your sister Alison is a singer. Is music something you gravitated to naturally, or was it something your father put in front of you and said, “Here, give this a try”?

A: Music was something that I gravitated to very naturally. There was always music around the house, particularly jazz. My mother and father both play, so I got interested at a young age.

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