I can remember as far back as 5 years old getting started in music, thanks to my father(Rip). He had bought me a Christmas gift that would plant the seed forever in my mind...an Organ. Even at that tender age, he must of thought, oh the kid seems to have an ear for this sort of thing. Little did he know it would be the obsession & first love of my life. A few years later, at about age 9 I received an upright piano-ironically the piano was made by the Emerson company. You may ask, so, what does that have to do with anything? Well, in my teenage years I had been over a friends house(thank you Pete Smircich, where ever you are!) and he said listen to this. It turned out to be the first Emerson, Lake & Palmer album in 1970. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A band that had no electric guitar. Instead, the keyboards(mainly Hammond Organ & Moog Synthesizer) were the driving force in the group. The musicianship was astounding. From that point on, I would never be the same. It's funny, during my senior year in High School, I worked in a record shop across the street from the school. It was really cool to have a job like that where you could be exposed to all the great new music at the time. In my case, I discovered a plethora of groups that were unknown to me & my friends. I would look at an album cover & if it looked cool or unique, I'd take a chance on it. Several of the bands that I listened to, even to this day, are in my humble opinion the best bands that came out of the Art Rock era. I'm talking about such legendary artists as Genesis, Gentle Giant & of course, ELP. Right around that era, circa 1973-74, I was studing music theory & started taking private instruction from a very good teacher. This went on for several years into my college days at BCC in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While there, I was accepted into the Jazz Ensemble & President's Quintet(a band to perform functions on campus for the benefit of the College President). My main course of study was Orchestration. I was most interested in creating layers & textures in music. I also studied composition, which would ultimately shift my focus completely. To be able to compose, has to be one of the most satisfying things to do for any musician, second only to performing live.
Since my major was piano, I chose acoustic guitar as my minor. It was around this time that I started to learn guitar & bass as well. Learning those instruments has proved to be a great asset in my writing & overall communication / interaction with other musicians. At this point, there were many opportunities in the area where I grew up to start a band, practice & put something together. But my first real professional band(The Joe Rush Band) actually recorded a 45 single(Please Love Me Tonight) at the famous Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida. That was an exciting time for me & I have many fond memories of that period. I also got quite a bit of experience early on of what the Big time would be like. I remember when we did the session, Eric Clapton had just finished his 461 Ocean Boulevard album in another studio room down the hall from us! As you might imagine, I was only a young teenager in awe of it all. I think the impact of the experiences I had back then, are still driving me to achieve even to this day. Sometimes, it is as though I am actually in competition with myself. Another project in the works, is a book I am working on. It will be an ambitious undertaking, however, I find the challenge quite stimulating. The tentative title for the book is Counterpoint & will attempt to guide the novice musician in a more productive direction. Preliminary outlines & materials for chapter selection have already been written. I would estimate the completion of that project in the fall of 2010. As I look back to the early years of my career, I realize how fortunate I was to have so many fantastic & exciting experiences, including one of my favorite things to do...Road Trips! Most musicians dread having to hit the road & find it just a big drag. I really enjoy getting out there and seeing it all. Sure, there are problems to deal with, but for me it is still fun, even though I have alot of equipment to move & set up. I suppose using one or two keyboards these days is fine for many people. I actually prefer using a multiple keyboard setup whenever possible, if space permits. Indeed, it is alot more work. However, the benefits include not having to make as many program changes while performing & I believe it looks better cosmetically for not just myself, but for the whole band as well. My current setup also allows me additional possibilities to explore while performing live. Around January of 1980, I had an opportunity to go west(as they say) to Las Vegas. This came about as an invitation from my distant relatives. Of course I was very excited about the idea, and couldn't wait to go. It didn't take long before I hooked up with an agent & went to audition for a show band(Raw Honey) in one of the Hotels on the strip(Flamingo Hilton). Like Doo-Wopp.com and The GoodFellas bands, this was a big group; including three dancing girls. We did alot of road work all over Nevada and parts of Western Canada(Calgary, Alberta & Victoria, British Columbia). This was at a time when Disco had taken over the music scene & nearly knocked out Rock & Roll all together. But eventually, it gave rise to a new kind of music that was emerging as punk & new wave as they called it in those days. In 1981, it was brought to my attention that there was a very good band playing at the legendary Troubadour night club here in Las Vegas & that I should check them out. Interestingly, the band was called LeJump & they were looking for a keyboard player. To this day, I am still amazed at the timing of all these events in my career. Anyway, I was impressed with the band & after one of their shows, I went to introduce myself to see if I could set up an audition. Now this was a band that had a very good shot at being extremely successful. They had all the elements you would associate with a professional band(Pro Lights, Road crew, Sound, Gear & Management; Mark Callas-son of the famous comedian Charlie Callas) whose direction was obvious to me. The band had a burning desire to go Big Time & in the four years I was with them, we were on the roller coaster ride of our lives. From opening concerts of such mega groups as Cheap Trick & Quite Riot, to dealing with state of the art Producers like Roy Thomas Baker(The Cars) & Cris Lord Algae(Bruce Springsteen / Dancin' in the Dark), we were on our way. On the local level, the band won four consecutive years in the Review Journals Best Rock Club Band category in 1982-85. In all honesty, that band should have made it. But the powers that be took the leader / main writer of the band away & it broke up shortly after that. For me, that was sort of an end of an era. I went into a long introspection, thinking about what direction I should take. I actually didn't play for awhile or even try to join / start a new band. I think I just needed a break from the circus my life had become.
So after several weeks literally doing nothing, I had decided to start composing my own music & recording demos in my home studio. In 1986-87, I professionally recorded 3 original songs in a local studio. They got radio airplay on the college station KUNV 91.5 when Ken Jordan(of the now famous Crystal Method band) was the program director for the station & a friend of mine. That was pretty exciting to hear your own songs being played on the radio! Getting that little bit of exposure really boosted my self esteem at a time when it was kind of low, to a point where I questioned my own abilities. For the next several years I continued my writing & performing in several local classic rock bands. I was a founding member of the group XVI, circa 1991-95. That band had achieved some moderate local success with steady work & playing in places like the popular Club Rock concert hall at that time. By popular demand, the band recorded a live cassette that was sold along with t-shirts at our shows. We also had a newsletter that was sent out to all our fans. Remember, this was all done before you could e-mail everyone on the internet. It hadn't come into existence yet. When the technology did become available later that year(1995), it really changed the face of the music business & I suppose all other businesses as well. From 1996-1999, I decided to concentrate on composing music & took a break from performing live with a new band. It was during this time that I also started to work on the book mentioned above(Counterpoint). All this was very refreshing to be able to focus on other projects that I wanted to set in motion. However, I discovered that you can never really leave the music scene for to long. Once you are bitten by the music bug, it seems that nothing else matters! Some of the tunes that are on my Cd(Venus De Milo-Critical Mass), were actually written & developed at that time. In the year 2000, it was time once again for me to continue on my musical journey, if you will. It was a time of new & fresh beginnings & I was feeling optimistic about going forward with an ad in the various music papers. I wanted to see what was out there & who was available to work on my music. This is how I met the original bass player(Jim Martino) for Doo-Wopp.com; although at the time I didn't know about the band or the fact that he was in the band until much later that year. He had responded to my ad & we got together & quickly hit it off pretty well. He liked my music and we both had simular influences. He also introduced me to John Miner, who is the producer of my Cd & the owner of the Tributary Music Label / Recording Studio. It astounds me how one thing can lead to another. I guess it all has to do with the concept of networking. Anywho, the story of how I got involved with Doo-Wopp.com is interesting & about to unfold. Meeting John Miner has been one of the most pleasurable & gratifying experiences I have had in many years. When Jim Martino brought me over to John's place, they were still working on the latest Art Rock Circus double Cd, "Tell A Vision"(now internationally released). I was really impressed with the methodology in which he approached the recording of his music. We both had an afinity right from the start! I think initially, we had jammed a bit before he actually asked me to compose some music for his album. Immeadiately, I liked what I heard & was excited about the colaboration. So after a few weeks of recording sessions, I appear on several tracks of his Cd including an original piece of music called String Theory #1, played on Harpsicord. John liked my technique on the keyboard & seem to be very happy with my contributions to his music. I think it was a few weeks later that I learned Jim was in a relatively new working band called Doo-Wopp.com & were playing at one of the Hotels in Sumerlin. So he called me one day and asked me if I would be interested in sitting in for their keyboard player who was out of the country at the time. Apparently, he was having trouble getting back to America for some reason unbeknownst to me. After asking a few questions, I found out that the band had some important gigs lined up within a two week period. So I had to learn virtually all their material(over 100 songs!) in under two weeks! It was quite a task when you consider the time element & the fact that I was unfamiliar with most of the material. However, the timing was right. But remember, I was only to be a substitute until their original keyboard player returned from abroad.
To shed some light on how this all transpired, we have to look at a few basic traits of mine, Persistence, attention to Detail & the relentless pursuit of Perfection. When I started to learn all those songs, I quickly realized that this wasn't going to be very easy. Even though most of the material was not a major challenge for me to play, the main problem was everything sounded the same & had similar chord structures. Another difficulty was the band had transposed quite a bit of tunes from their original key signatures. For a keyboard player, this can be a nightmare! It is not like playing guitar or bass where you can just move up or down a fret. When you are in a key signature that uses alot of sharps or flats, it changes everything(especially the fingering). To compound things further, we had only one short rehearsal that I can remember, before the actual gig. Anyway, the band seemed to be impressed with my ability to adapt under the pressure. I think they liked the fact that I was energetic & had a positive attitude. But I was wondering what was going to happen to me when their original keyboard player came back. I'm sure most people would feel a little intimidated with a situation like that & I was no exception. Funny though, a decision had already been made by the band members long before he had returned. I remember expressing my concern over this matter with the bands manager. He was in an awkward position & I believe he wanted to remain neutral on the issue. However, the way he would smile whenever I brought up the subject gave me the impression he was thinking- Don't worry about it kid, you'll be fine.
I suppose by now you may have guessed what happened. I must have made a pretty good impression on them. I remember getting a call one night & that there was going to be a meeting the next day and I thought, wow- I guess this is it. Finally, after months of wondering if I was officially going to be in the band, a decision was coming to fruition. And so there I was, standing outside the door of the rehearsal room. I was waiting for the band members to call me back in with their decision when suddenly, the door opened and they said come back in...as I walked in, there was total silence! And I thought, how strange. Then, as if on cue, everybody started laughing! And I said to myself, what the heck is going on? Well, like kids playing some sort of game, they said you're in! And I thought, at least they have a sense of humor! Later that night, I remember going out with some friends to celebrate the news. I had a few drinks & they tell me I did the happy dance! Why was I so happy? I knew that Doo-Wopp.com would be a consistantly working band & that was a good thing. I'm sure most people are aware of the intrinsic nature of the music business...as not being steady work. Well, I enjoyed a nice 5 year run before it all broke up. Do I regret the break up of the group? Yes & No. I have mixed feelings when it comes to answering this question. Mainly because it gave rise to a more musically challenging reformation with the short lived band, The GoodFellas. It is unfortunate that The GoodFellas only lasted about a year, with so much potential, since the band won the 2007 Review Journals Poll for Best Local Band in Las Vegas!
As with any opportunity, I joined another short lived band called RPM. We actually were the house studio band for the popular Las Vegas show, "LunchTime With IRA". The show was recorded live at the Hilton Hotel, which aired National & Local Entertainers every week. The forum was hosted by Ira David Sternberg. Some of the recent guests included famous Rock Star Guitarist Denny Laine (from the original Moody Blues and Paul McCartney/Wings)! Working with Denny was another great experience for me that I will always have a special place for in my mind...That was like the closest I have come to playing with a Beatle!
Further details are on the way, so stay tuned for the close of this portion of the never ending story in the Milo Bio.
To be Continued... |
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