A lifetime. Music and me. Fan. Educator. Recording Artist. Performer. How’d I get here? Why am I still living the Dream? Well, enjoy the ride with me as I’ll get you to why Take Your Time is both the culmination and the beginning.
My Dad Louis was a music lover. He worked as a commercial artist out of our home…the Sears logo, Whitman’s Sampler Box, toy packaging, including design…in other words, he seemed to have his hand in a lot of things I didn’t understand at the time. Lover of science fiction and Westerns, the guy was eclectic, and so was his taste in music.
The garage had been converted into my Dad’s office, which I had to pass it by on the way upstairs or downstairs every day. We’d often talk music. Stravinsky and Debussy, Miles and Trane, The Animals & The Kinks…his passion ignited my own. One night Dad called me to the den (do people still have dens?), which had been the porch to watch a band called the Blues Project. He felt this was a band that would bridge the gap between the blues and the experimental music of the day. We both had debated about the merits of the British Invasion and Motown, with his wisdom often trumping my exuberance, yet we seemed to come together with the Blues Project…
Sometime during this period of time I felt that playing the guitar would be a good idea. Was it the one of those British bands that turned my head around? There were so many, yet seeing countless young acts Sunday nights on the Ed Sullivan Show making this incredible, feel it down to my toes sound was almost too much to handle. For a young, awkward teen, witnessing screaming, crying girls just because there were guys in a band had to have been the clincher. The natural progression was to get a guitar and take lessons.
Mrs Axelrod was my first guitar teacher. She was a short, stout woman who lived in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, spoke broken English, and always gave me a warm welcome when we arrived at her home. The apron would come off, I’d get fresh chocolate chip cookies, and then we’d get down to business. When I say “we”, Lou & I took lessons together. He committed to the guitar for three months, while my commitment and passion lasted a lifetime.
2 Comments
Pretty amazing “coincidence” on the Blues Project with Eddy and Lou L! On Monday 12/12 I will be performing at Butterfields, in Hauppauge, Long Island, with my band … “Malpractice.” I was blessed to have met your Dad in 1977 on my way back to Brooklyn from Arizona. Until I read this, I had no idea that you and your Dad had a connection through the Blues Project!
Al Kooper was in the Blues Project from 1965 to 1967. In 1967 he formed Blood Sweat & Tears which he left after one album – Child is Father to the Man. On 12/12 – Malpractice will be playing 2 songs from that Album…. “I Can’t Quit Her” and “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know.” I don’t think we will be playing any of the songs we played together in our short-lived band… “Fred and Ethel Mertz!” But I will be thinking about our Kooper Konnection. Rock on!
That’s pretty cool…I love those songs…Have fun at the gig. Between school stuff and my own playing, it seems that I’ve been in concert every other day for the past couple of weeks. I’m absolutely comfortably numb…some day we play together again!