When Jawanza Kobie leaves his job every day as a manager of a trolley body repair shop for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, he goes home and spends his evenings at the bench of his Yamaha Clavinova digital piano in his extensive home studio in suburban Wilmington, DE. “I spend a lot of time in my studio,” he says. “Sometimes three or four hours a night, more on weekends.”

His studio, converted from a spare bedroom, is fixed up with state-of-the-art samplers, mixers, synthesizers and sound monitors. Kobie admits to being a techno junkie. “Because I’ve been so busy working on various projects, I had to take a week’s vacation from my job recently to reconfigure my studio,” he says.

A Yamaha Clavinova digital piano sits amid all the electronic gear and equipment. “I bought my Clavinova in the early 90’s, and I want to keep it forever,” says Kobie. “I chose it for the weighted keys and its sound, primarily piano and bass. It suits my musical needs, and I do most of my writing on it.”

Kobie received his degree in classical composition from Berklee College of Music. He got his musical start early in life, replicating his older brother’s piano lessons at age five. His mother, recognizing his ability, enrolled him in lessons as well. Preferring writing to practicing, Kobie began notating music at age seven, writing almost 200 songs in the years before attending Berklee.

Now 44 years old, Kobie has found that he’s been very busy with projects ranging from writing and composing music for independent films and television shows to doing music for cooking shows in Chicago. His music has been featured in commercials and on jazz albums. He says, “Right now I’m doing session work with a friend as well as composing CDs for local artists.” Kobie spent time in 1999 focusing on movie work, and scored an independent docudrama on the life of African-American actress Dorothy Dandridge and Barbershop Talk, a Philadelphia film on race relations.

Although he doesn’t perform much anymore, Kobie remains focused on composing and writing music. He says, “I’d give up anything but this.”

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