It’s said that adversity often leads to artistic creativity. Here’s a true story that bears that out.

One month before my son Russell was born, an ultrasound scan revealed serious physical problems that had not been previously detected. He was given only a 5 % chance of surviving birth, and eight months of joyous anticipation was instantly transformed into one final month of agonized preparation for the worst.

At the moment of birth, he was laid on a gurney, skewered with multiple tubes and contact wires and rushed away to surgery. He must have been born with a fierce fire in his belly, because he not only survived major surgery that day, but many more in the coming weeks.

We had been advised not to look at his face when he was born, so as not to form an attachment that would almost certainly be tragically severed. The fact that his mother and I both ignored that advise and gazed fully at his tiny form may or may not have had any effect on what was to come, but Russell survived, and eventually thrived, despite ongoing challenges.

As his first birthday approached, we decided to throw a big party, complete with a moon bounce and a petting zoo. Multiple generations of friends and relatives shared in the joy of the celebration.

When daylight had faded, all the happy well-wishers had gone and the dust had settled, I breathed a sigh of relief and immense gratitude, sat down alone at the piano and waited in the waning light. It only took a few seconds before the music began to flow out of me. It was 99 % complete at the first playing, with only a few notes changed to finalize the piece.

It’s called Russell’s Healing. With technology that was not available thirty years ago when I wrote it, I just recorded a version of it that I’m quite happy with. The recording is rendered in such a way that you might imagine yourself sitting next to me on the piano bench, at the keyboard of a nine foot concert grand, alone together on the stage of an empty concert hall. As you listen, see if you can visualize the moment it was created, and see if you can hear in the music the circumstances that led to its creation, thirty years ago.

Slowly but surely, I’ll be expanding the library of music here, to make more music for music lovers to enjoy, and to earn a living. Just like my late boss, Frank Zappa, although some of the lyrics and ideas might not work for you, the bar will always be set uncompromisingly high in terms of musical quality.

Russ continues to enjoy his life, and will celebrate his thirtieth birthday next month with friends and family, as he celebrated his first against all odds twenty-nine years ago. He and I will be getting together again when the King Crimson - Zappa Band tour goes out next summer.

The picture is Russ at age ten with his favorite pet growing up, the coolest dog I’ve ever known, a Samoyed-Malamute mix named Louie with a huge personality and a vocabulary of vocal sounds to match. R.I.P. Louie.