WATCH THIS FIRST
Paolo Conte, “Via con mi” (1981), joined to a clip of Ginger and Fred dancing
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What is this about and why I’m writing it?
When I was a child, music was all around me
The sound of radio was ubiquitous
I was thirteen, maybe fourteen
Extended play and long play records had just hit the market
I started buying jazz and never looked back
I purchased Johnny Ray’s records as fast as they appeared
Further proof of how undeveloped my taste in music was
I headed off to college in 1954
In a fit of insanity, I signed up for voice lessons
I had one great musical experience my sophomore year
I had my own radio show my first year and every year after that too
By the time I went to college, my enthusiasm for Dave Brubeck had waned
All the way through college, I worked at Freddie’s Grill
My sophomore year, I settled down a bit
I got into hot water with my girlfriend over buying so many records
When my friend John said he was applying for the Showboat, I did too
My signature song was “My Funny Valentine”
My senior year I met Bob Criswell
“I only play piano but tonight God is in the house”
I went to Cleveland not often, but often enough
My senior year, I had an epiphany
Why I liked the music I liked and where it pointed
I bought my first classical record. Then my second, then my third
I sang in quartets from the age of 14 until 28
I met Esther for the first time at the read-through
Imagine if you can a 468.6-mile each-way courtship
Esther had been singing since she was a little child
1965 wasn’t a bad time at all to live to New York
“Ode to Joy.” Willie “the Lion”
You don’t have to parse music to appreciate it
The jazz fusion movement was just starting
Bill Evans had a concert at Town Hall
My conversion to rock was a two-step dance
Let’s hear it for Screamin’ Jay
A Whiter Shade of Pale seemed always to be playing on the jukebox
Music wise, ’69 was a heck of a year for us
I felt Jeremy move for the first time
Jeremy was born on May 11, 1970
I traded it in for a record by Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Interlude before returning to my story
From an early age, we took Jeremy to everything.
We saw Weather Report and Mahavishnu when Jeremy was three and a half
Another interlude: Let’s hear it for Haskel Adkins
I was forty-one before I discovered that all country western music wasn’t bad
My friend Anton introduced me to Music for Eighteen Musicians
“Our son missed school this morning because we took him to a concert”
Desert Island Music: Classical
Review of Sam Stephenson’s Jazz Loft Project, 2009
Jeremy said, “Dad, why don’t we do a Blindfold Test?”
“They’re holding auditions for Fiorello!” Esther said
“Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd…”
“Tragedy tomorrow, Comedy tonight….”
“See, I really couldn’t sing…”
Churches have never been my thing
A favorite song of mine in sixth grade was …
Gradually, by painful steps, vinyl was superseded
I had promised to take Jeremy to a jazz club when he turned eighteen
I wrote a song once ….. well, part of one…
My many, many close and personal relationships with countless jazz greats
Here’s a poem for Sun Ra. Coltrane, too
The day before my birthday, I cam back from a job interview in Corpus Christi, TX
Jeremy had his own musical enthusiasms
I bought my first James Brown album
You need to appreciate the amount of processing going on inside my head then
A side advantage was the CD sale (part 1)
A side advantage was the CD sale (part 2)
We celebrated Jeremy’s 21st birthday late
Desert Island Lists: Mark R. and Jim L .
Matching Music to Plays: Readers Theater at the Prospect
Killorglin … town of 1650 people and 35 taverns
In 1938, jazz, like our nation, was rigorously segregated
Instruments that shouldn’t be in jazz combos and why
Here are some things that have changed in jazz since I was twenty
The Beach Boys and the Beatles in 1965