Jeffery Almond takes a break from his musical ambition to teach English at TJ.
by Jasmine Kabera
photo by Manny Perez
Did you know Thomas Jefferson Teacher Jeffery Almond has always been musically inclined? In fact Almond’s love for the craft carried him all the way through high school, his college education at CU boulder and finally into his teaching career.
It all began in elementary school. Almond, then living in Colorado Springs where his parents moved when he was two weeks old, picked his way through his first instruments. He took piano lessons, studied the recorder and also learned how to play the guitar. After his introduction to instruments, Almond decided to further pursue the guitar. “The guitar was one of those things that was accessible,” said Almond. “You can play many different songs and there are a lot of different ways to play the chords and notes. It was fun and it looked cool.”
During his freshman year of high school Almond went to a Rush concert at Fiddlers Green Amphitheater and immediately loved the idea of playing in a band. “In high school I really pushed it. I started taking piano lessons again and playing guitar again,” Almond recalled. “It wasn’t until I was approached with the idea of playing in a band that I joined one.”
In 1995 Almond joined his first band, the Minders. He was introduced to his soon to be band-mates at the Esquire Theater where his former roommate worked. He was hired as a second guitar player and sometimes played his Rhodes piano when the songs required it. The band mostly played 60’s bubble-gum pop music reminiscent of the Beatles, and always toured with other up-and-coming musicians. “It’s easier to sell yourself as a package rather than by yourself,” said Almond.
Still in college, Almond took some time off from work to tour more with the band in a tiny, rented mini-van. “We toured anywhere from a week to three weeks at a time,” Almond said. “The first time we toured we went from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington then down to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles.” With the Minders, Almond would do five different shows per week. Traveling wasn’t easy, especially with hotel and food costs, but the ambitious young musicians drove on from city to city doing what they loved to do best.
It wasn’t until 2000 that the Minders got a big break, opening for folk/punk singer/songwriter Elliott Smith. Smith rose out of his underground status in 1997 with the success of his critically acclaimed hit Miss Misery, featured on the Good Will Hunting film soundtrack which was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards. “It was great. Every show was sold out,” said Almond.
Almond, along with the Minders, had a chance to taste success, especially when performing for crowds of thousands in sold out arenas and theaters and traveling in Smith’s giant tour bus. “I mean usually we were lucky to play for 100 people let alone 1, 000,” recalled Almond.
With his adventures with the Minders ending after the tour, Almond went back to another band he’d joined in 1998 called Breezy Portico. Almond finished his college education at CU and started teaching and settled down. “After the birth of my daughter – every moment since then all the happy and frightening things centered around her,” said Almond.
Although he no longer plays with them (they went their separate ways after seven years together in September of this year), Almond still hopes to pursue a career in music later in his life. “In ten years I see myself as the father of an 11-year-old,” said Almond. “And hopefully I’ll be a professional musician who personally produces and writes his own music.”
