We are given native gifts whether we chose to access them or not. If we access these gifts then it comes down to doing the right thing, timing and some old fashioned good luck.
My guest was one of the artists that put me on this path of interviewing musicians in the business of melodic invention. He started in upstate NY where he had the perfect balance of mathematics and love attending ESM and backing up Billy Holiday and Roy Eldridge. Stints in New Orleans was followed by a move to the left coast as he honed his chops with a west coast Titan in Harold Land and Leon Pettis and Donald Bailey and became a fixture in the percolating west coast scene where the clubs were flourishing and improvisational music was listened too.
He came from a brotherhood of musicians that craved an original sound, original rhythms and original music. My guest came from the school of Bird, Dizzy, Duke....swing the band and adapt...to electric instrumentation which my guest did with ease as he played the slick sly funky fender Rhodes with Gene Cherrico and Dick Birk, Sam Most and Don Alias. Somehow he also found time to play with Elvis for 3 years.
Right place and the right time with the right stuff Frank Strazzeri welcome to the JFS