Bassist, guitarist, and educator Mike Facey was introduced to jazz by his parents’ vinyl records, including Kinda Blue and Blue Train.

Mike began playing guitar around six years old and later made his primary instrument the bass.

“I picked up the bass out of necessity,” Mike said. “There was a local band [who] needed a bass player. It fell on me and I fell in love with it.”

Mike studied jazz and classical upright bass at the University of Colorado Boulder. Today, he describes his style as blues with harmonic liberties.

As an educator, Mike finds it deeply gratifying to pass jazz on to the upcoming generation.

“Jazz is so beautiful and so foreign to what you [normally] hear on the radio,” Mike said. “It’s such a breath of fresh air when you see a kid hear jazz for the first time and dig it.”

For Mike, jazz and music are a constant.

“There’s kind of no separation between my life and music,” Mike said. “In some way, music is always happening.”

To celebrate 30 years on the air and invest in the future of jazz, KUVO interviewed 30 local musicians under the age of 30. These features will be released on-air and online June 29-October 31.

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