Music - IS and IN - My Life

My buddy Gabby's recent blogpost re: music teachers and playing in bands while growing through adolescence has filled my conciousness with many memories and images, so I thought it appropriate to document some of my personal memories.....this is easily an entire chapter in my lifebook, since I am a musician of sorts still, and pretty much have always been one....

My life with music began somewhere around 2 or 3 - in the mid 1950's, before child safety was mainstream. You see, back then, cars mostly had bench seats in the front, and kids of all ages rode in the front seat with their parent(s). For me, the memory is STANDING next to my mom while she drove - often to/from Sacramento-San Francisco (2+ hours). She taught me to sing with her; and eventually, taught me to sing melody while she sang harmony. Her patience with me as she taught me to focus on my own sound and not on other sounds (her voice) were pivotal as my musical life took off.

At 8, I came home to tell my folks I wanted to be in the band. The band teacher - back then, music was part of the curriculum, wedged in with real school subjects and PE, yet done by - needed brass, so he handed me a peck-horn - a small Eb Alto Horn, a smaller baritone-like brass instrument. This lasted maybe a week, as I struggled to figure out that mouthpiece and how to get a sound out of the instrument. Traded in the peck-horn for a saxophone, and the rest is history.

My dad had played sax when he was a kid, so I was motivated to not only follow in dad's footsteps, but to master this instrument. Started out on alto sax, and by 5th grade, moved to tenor sax, where I stayed through highschool and for 3 years of college as my primary instrument. Did my first solo in 5th grade at the Alice Birney Elementary School Annual Talent Show - played the Washington Post March (John Phillip Sousa) - all four stanzas, with repeats and the button at the end, while sitting in a chair at a 45-degree angle to the packed audience, with this massive black music stand in front me. A year later, I did it again - only this time, doing two numbers - a Sousa march (Stars & Stripes, I think), and then the Pink Panther theme, both done by memory (no music or music stand). Learned early about stage fright - have no clue what I sound like, but do remember I played right through every mistake, no matter what, just like I was taught, and something I never forgot.

At Sam Brannan Junior High (Sacramento's ed system then had grades 7-8-9 separately) , I got through 7th grade pretty safely with the teacher, Tom Johnson, and older man with all the passion and knowlege to impress upon his students - at least musically-speaking. This was the year that JFK was assassinated (I'll create an entirely separate post some day on THAT topic), and discovery of the opposite sex (which is also a separate post some day). But in 8th grade, the musical spirits shifted, and Larry Tyrell came into teach band that year; Larry was an exceptional jazz trombone player, and brought me my first experience into other musical styles. Larry created a jazz band, playing a lot of big-band charts,and my sax talents merged with other sax players to create a section, and I was never the same. Dorsey, Gershwin, Ellington, and others began to touch my inner fiber, and I was hungry for any and all experiences. This continued into 9th grade, where I now found myself embracing musical groups outside of school - in particular, the Sacramento Youth Band and DeMolay.

It took me a couple of years to actually joing DeMolay and SYB, after watching performances by my classmates in the groups. But in my sophonmore year at CK McClatchy HS, I joined SYB, and took my music to a whole new level. SYB game me marching band, concert band, jazz band, and even singing (!). This continued through my junior & senior high years at JFK, where I graduated in 1969. Many, many parades and football games (marching band) and basketball games (pep band) and concerts (concert & jazz band), and even competitions (jazz band) and festivals (marching bands from multiple schools on the same field at the same time). Which all led to the pivotal point of my young life, the summer of 1969.

Following HS graduation, my best friend Ron (a Jewish Cantor's son, which worked perfectly for me, the "proper" Catholic boy) had enrolled at Sac City (junior, community) College, and about two weeks after enrollment and class selection, I got this call out of the blue from a girlfriend (Margie Ferguson) to come to dinner and meet her sister's boyfriend Bill Nicolosi. Bill was the asst. band director at San Jose State University, and was "recruiting". That dinner led to a similar meeting at Ron's house, and the next week, Ron and I found ourselves driving to San Jose. Literally, we (a) filled out admission forms, and watched them stamp "ADMITTED" in red ink on the forms, (b) filled out dorm housing forms, and watched them stamp "ASSIGNED TO MARKHAM HALL", and (c) tuition scholarship forms, and watched them stamp "PAID". In about 3 hours, Ron and I were in San Jose State as 17-year old freshmen on a full-tuition-paid scholarship - just so we could march in SJS's marching band!

That's it for now - because college-age music took on an entirely unique "bent" - for we were hardly ever "straight" - remember, this was 1969 (!)......suffice it to say that music in my youth set the table for the feast I have enjoyed throughout my life. And I haven't even shared the music that influenced me - and entire generation - the music from 1964 to 1976 (right up to the Disco age)....