disclaimer: Many situations have been omitted to maintain privacy, (err... avoid embarresment)

My father was U.S. Navy for 30 years, and retired as a Captain from the service in 1954. After living on the east coast for the first eight years of his son's life, he moved the family, my mom and myself, to Sacramento, California.

My mother studied piano in her youth and loved to listen to her classical records. As a little boy, I listened to classical music along with her. That was my first ear training, naming the musical instruments on those recordings. The trumpet solos on those old classical '78 LP's seemed to stand out from the timbre of the other instruments. The trumpets bright, metallic sound was really sweet and Louis Armstrong was my favorite trumpet player. "Pops" was the first musician I heard that really could swing.

In the 3rd grade my folks bought their young son an Olds Ambassador Cornet to play in the school band. The cornet case was like a big lunchbox. I used to stuff sandwiches into the case and save my lunch money to buy comic books. A young Jackie Gleason on TV also comes to mind. This was the early 1950's. Music was fun and I played trumpet up to the 8th grade.

Jump to high school grade eleven. A friend Dan Kelly and I copied tunes from Ventures record albums note for note. Then we started a band called the Invaders, with two guitars, bass and drums. Then we started copying surf music from Dick Dale, "The King of the Surf Guitar", Surf Music and the Ventures. Our first jobs were playing dances at the local YMCA on the weekends. It was really fun for a while, then something wonderful happened, I discovered the Blues and Ray Charles. All the kids at the local dances wanted to hear surf music and they got it. But at home, back in my bedroom, I was listening to Rhythm & Blues from Motown and James Brown. I started throwing in some Motown hits along with the surf stuff and it went over. This little band was the start of bigger and better things to come.

Rhythm & Blues is music you can feel. Bluesman Freddy King really turned me around. His album "Let's Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King" was the coolest guitar playing I'd ever heard. I copied those funky solos of Freddie's note for note. So did thousands of other aspiring young guitar players, Freddie really 'got off' when he played. Today Freddie is considered one of the three great Kings along with B.B. King and Albert King, major blues guitar influences.

Having played the trumpet, Miles Davis caught my ear. I didn't have a clue as to what Miles band was playing, the music sounded way different from Louis Armstrong's trumpet and the Blues of Freddie King. Miles Davis's music is sophisticated and musically challenging. Thirty, fourty, fifty years later Miles music sounds up to date. Miles was far ahead of his time. What was attracting about Miles music was the element of cool that was always there. Miles was a genius.

Oh yeah, the band thing. In 1964 a friend introduced me to 17 year old Mike Clark. Mike was a child prodigy on the drums much like his comtemporary Tony Williams. At 14 years old Mike could play any type of music. Standards, dixieland, jazz, funk, anything. Most drummers Mike's age were still trying to develop a single stroke roll.

The band personnel shifted around for a while. I changed the name from the Invaders to the Del Counts. The Del Counts became a four piece group playing Top 40, Motown hits and R&B. The band was a huge success, far as I was concerned, winning a number of battle of the bands shows and opening for the Beach Boys several times. The final version of the Del Counts, with Mike Clark, drums, included Donnie Wilkins on Wurlitzer Electric piano and Dave Haynes on Mosrite electric bass.

I had purchased a Moserite guitar and loved it. Then, I let myself get duped by a Sherman & Clay, (in Sacramento) guitar salesman to trade the Moserite guitar straight across for a Fender Jazzmaster, (what a mistake). I dumped the Jazzmaster and purchased a Gibson ES-335. After a short time I traded the ES-335 straight across for this really nifty old Gibson ES-175. This exasperating guitar swaping fiasco actually turned out O.K in the long run.

I now owned an early (1949-1953) Gibson ES-175 that had the original (one) single-coil bakelite pickup with a rosewood fingerboard. I sent the guitar to the Gibson factory, then in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for an overhaul. Gibson installed a single humbucking pickup with a custom ebony finger board. That upgrade cost all of $80, remarkable by today's prices. Years later while living in Toronto, Canada, late 1970's, married, short on rent money, I sold that beautiful Gibson custom guitar for $400.00. That Gibson was a sweet guitar, that would be worth at least $4000.00 now. In 1967 I did buy a Fender Telecaster from the Sherman & Clay music store in Portland Oregon, and kept the Tele' until the mid '80's.

Dave the bass player, worked at the Tower Records store located at Watt and El Camino avenues, their second store. This was an 'in' with the concerts that Tower Records produced so, thanks Dave Haynes, where ever you are. In 2004, Tower declared chapter eleven bankruptcy and closed the Tower Records store doors.

The Del Counts quartet landed in the right places at the right times. We played weekend dances at high schools in the north area of Sacramento, Carpenters Hall in Carmichael, and downtown at Governors hall.

We tried to cover all the music that was coming out back then, especially that wonderful Motown music out of Detroit. We played tunes by Marvin Gaye, The Beatles, The Drifters, Top 40.

Little did we know about the Funk Brothers, studio musicians that made all those hit tunes possible for Motown. The funk brothers bass player that played on a majority of motown hits was the great James Jamerson. We were fortunate to backup/open shows for some famous groups. The Righteous Brothers, The Olympics, The Coasters, Sonny and Cher and Ike and Tina Turner. Yes, Tina Turner! These gigs were at the Memorial Auditorium in downtown Sacramento.

The Rolling Stones played a concert at memorial auditorium on their first American tour. Tower records produced the concert and asked my band to play for the Rolling Stones private party after the show at the El Mirador hotel. Wow!. We played some Stones tunes from their current album,"King Bee" and "Route 66", I was doin' the singing. Mick Jagger and the rest of the stones were checking us out. Charlie Watts was digging Mike Clark's drumming. I wondered if the Stones liked what we were playing. I didn't have nerve enough to just walk over and say "hi" to the Rolling Stones. They just were sitting there gawking at us. Dave our bass player told me later they wanted to sit in with us and jam. Well, missed out on that one, again, hindsight is perfect.

A week at a time. In late 1960's I found myself on the road with show bands working throughout California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah. We would stay on location at least a week in each city. Now a days, bands play mostly one nighters. Back then, you would stay a week or two in Portland Oregon, or Oxnard, or Sacramento, or Fresno and get to know some of the local folks which was nice, the young ladies were especially nice. I was fortunate to work in one particular road group with drummer Mike Clark, a solid Hammond B3 player kicking bass lines and horn parts via sax and trumpet. Oh yeah, and there was a guy and a gal that fronted the band. The chick could really sing but her partner the "song stylist", was well, just OK. None-the-less, that band was so much fun, a particularly fond memory!

Note: eventually Mike Clark went down to the San Francisco bay area to play music full time and hooked up with funk bass player Paul Jackson in Oakland. Both went on to musical success with Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters.

The trumpet lessons I took as a kid came in handy. I doubled on trumpet and guitar in a later version of Jim Doval's band, Jim Doval and the Gauchos. This was after Jim had done the Shindig tour. Musically this was a much better band of the Gauchos with the horn section thank you. Anyway, the tenor sax player Bobby Lopez (Al Lopez, the original tenor players cousin) and I played horn parts. Two horns, Tenor Sax and Trumpet, R&B style. I also played the Wes Montgomery tune, "Bumpin' On Sunset" note for note. The band and I had that tune down cold and it was a crowd pleaser. Guitar teacher Lee Havens had worked out fingerings for "Flight Of The Bumblebee" which I used as a show tune in Las Vegas, but it was just to hard to dance to in the night clubs!

Working in the bars and meeting young ladies was a plus, I got laid regularly. (Yeah I know, to much information, hey, I was in my early twenties). We played R&B and Top Fourty Tunes, people would party. It was a great time, the on-stage attention and recognition felt really good.

The night club scene lost it's luster. I had become interested in jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery's music. I wanted to learn those Wes Montgomery poppin', single line and octave solos. In Portland, Oregon, I took some LSD (a bad idea in retrospect). We were just finishing up a 2 week stint at this huge night club located in a Bowling Alley outside of Portland Oregon. I decided to quit the Gouchos, head for Los Angeles, and try to learn how to really play guitar. I wanted to learn more of those Wes Montgomery solos, so I hopped in my Volkswagen beetle, and headed south.

When I arrived in L.A. I needed a place to stay. Some musicians that I knew recommended the Hollywood Franklin Hotel located at 6141 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood, California. Below is a photo of what the Franklin looks like now.

Now a Best Western...

Living at the Franklin was a memorable experience. The hotel was considered a rough place to live. I didn't know that. It was just a cheap hotel. In the lobby of the Franklin I'd see a familiar face that had appeared in movies from the 40's and 50's or on T.V. I was just a young, naive kid that just loved to play the guitar. I practiced guitar all day long and memorized Wes Montgomery solos note for note. No TV in the room, imagine that.

Wes Montgomery was a creative genius who died of a heart attack at age 43. Fourty Three, he was on "Top of the World". Wes didn't drink or use drugs, Wes smoked to many cigarettes . The man whose guitar playing has proved a major influence on jazz guitar and the Smooth Jazz idiom, couldn't read a note of music. Reading music, at least on the guitar, doesn't mean the player also develops the ability to play from the heart.

While working in Portland Oregon, I had met some musicians in a band called "The Happy Medium" that was working out of Los Angeles. Their manager worked for Marc Gordon, manager of the Fifth Dimension. Marc was producing recording sessions and was kind enough to hire me to transcribe and convert demo records from aspiring songwriters into lead sheets. Record producer Bones Howe also needed similar work done. Those two contacts provided much needed rent money and helped me to get started doing something in the Los Angeles music industry.

At Los Angeles City College music teacher/arranger Bob McDonald taught the big band class which was comprised of some excellent musicians. Bob McDonald was a mentor. Many Los Angeles musicians went to L.A. City College. At LACC I met lead trumpet player John Madrid. John and I were later on the road with Buddy Rich's big band. Also at LACC was Richard Torres, a tenor sax payer who worked with Stan Kenton's big band. In the late 50's, early 60's, Bob Florence, Herb Geller, Jack Sheldon, Bob Hardaway, John Williams, the "Star Wars" composer were students in Bob McDonald's big band class.

Sometimes after band class, Sal Marquez and myself would go over to the Burrito King (it's still there), a mexican food stand located at Alvarado and Sunset streets. We'd get ourselves a huge Machaca Burrito for 80 cents. Fine dining for sure. Mucho gusto.

At first I lived by myself in a apartment that was within walking distance of City College. Eventually I moved to a comfortable 2 story house on Wilton Place, near Wilshire and Western streets. The house belonged to Elaine Hill, a beautiful African American lady and superb singer from New York city. Elaine sang "Walking in Space" in the production of Hair at the Aquarius Theatre

The musical “Hair” ran for a long time, a couple of years. I would often go to work with Elaine and watch the show, or sit with the band and watch them. The drummer in the house band was Maurice White, nicknamed "sweet grease". Maurice was the founder of the band Earth,Wind and Fire.

Just over the hill from Hollwood was Dante's Jazz Club, located on Lankershim Blvd. Joe Pass played Monday nights and the place would be packed with some of the best musicians in town. Joe was very kind to me and let me come over to his house in Van Nuys to "take a lesson" for which Joe charged me $10.00. He would watch me play guitar and make suggestions. Sometimes another guitar player would come over to the little studio behind his house. One time I handed Joe my guitar to check it out and Joe played Donna Lee, and it was beautiful. Joe pointed out to me that "Donna Lee" started on the 3rd beat of the first bar. "Oops!", I'd been starting off Donna Lee 2 beats early. Joe really liked my guitar, and enjoyed playing it, which I found delightful. Joe Pass could play solo guitar all night long. The "self-actualized" Joe Pass was a remarkable musician and individual.

Los Angeles provided some remarkable opportunities. I had the good fortune to meet and work for the great arranger Don Costa. Don liked me and for some reason, hired me for many of his recording sessions. This was a big deal because my sight reading of music wasn't all that great. I met Don through his nephew Guy Costa who I met thru' recording engineer Roy Durkee, phew!. Guy and I were born on the same day, Jan. 23, which seemed rather cosmic at the time. The 60's," far out man".

I'd go out to Don's house on the beach in Santa Monica and hang out. Don had this huge house that use to belong to the movie actor Brian Aherne, who was famous in the 1930's through the 1950's. On different occasions actor Burgess Meredith or singer Vic Damone would be sitting comfortably out by the swimming pool with Don. I'm blessed to have known the great Don Costa.

Don Costa hooked me up with with Steve and Eydie who were working the big room at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas for three weeks. This led to a gig in Las Vegas with Connie Stevens. Connie was going with songwriter Jimmy Webb at the time. Connie's sister Ava Maria and I dated bit...

In the 1970's Las Vegas was a great town for musicians. It was the days of the "Rat Pack". There was plenty of work for musicians in the casinos. The bands in the big rooms of the hotels were marvelous. Some of the best musicians in the world were working and living in Las Vegas. Guitarist/arranger Don Overberg conducted for Julie London who usually worked the lounge in the Tropicana hotel. Don was a monster guitar player who could sight read fly-shit. Don encouraged me to work on sight reading music, I loved that guy. Like Joe Pass, he was very kind to me.

I was working the Sahara Hotel in the big room with singer/actress Teresa Graves who was opening for Buddy Hackett. Teresa had a hit TV show called "Get Christie Love"and was a very hot act at the time. There was a big band on stage with Teresa, big bands always backed the acts in the main rooms. Teresa did a voice/guitar duet on the song "My Funny Valentine" which also put me in the spotlight, literally. Voice and guitar, dedicated to Buddy Hackett who was the featured act.

I was a bit nervous about this solo spotlight thing with with the focus on Teresa and myself. Between shows I bumped into Don Overberg in the coffee shop and mentioned that the duet number with Teresa Graves was "a bit awkward". Don suggested drinking "a few stingers" (a cocktail consisting of creme de menthe and brandy) to take the edge off. So before the next show I 'prepared' myself with a couple a stingers. My guitar playing for that spot in the show went off smooth a silk.

Show groups played in the lounges, big names played the big rooms on the strip. The hotel lounges also had big names working them. At this point-in-time in Nevada, all the hotels featured live entertainment around the clock. For example, you could go to a casino on the strip at 1:00 AM and see Louie Prima at the Sands, Shecky Green at the Riviera Star Light Lounge or Julie London at the Tropicana. Don Rickles was in the lounge at the Sahara hotel, Roberta Flack was in the lounge at Caesars Palace.

There were countless show groups that worked the circuit of lounges in hotels and gambling spots all over the state of Nevada. "The Jets" were one of my favorite lounge acts. This trio featured guitarist Bobby Gino and a couple of comedians on bass and drums. Most show groups at the time featured a guitarist whose big number was "Malaguena". Bobby Gino played the score to a movie "West Side Story" on the guitar, quite an accomplishment.

Frank Sinatra's movie Oceans Eleven really takes me back to Las Vegas in the early '70's when I lived in Las Vegas. Ed "Pit-Boss" Walters has a website with many colorful stories about those special years in Las Vegas from his job as a pit boss at the Sands Hotel. As far as live entertainment was concerned, it was a magical time in Las Vegas.

Back in Los Angeles, guitar teacher Duke Miller encouraged me to take up classical guitar to help my sight reading music. Duke's top student was guitarist Lee Ritenour. I did a recording session with Lee Ritenour when he was 16. Although Lee didn't know many tunes, his music sight reading music was flawless (the little bastard), a requirement for studio work, .

In 1969-70 I was teaching guitar at Killeen's Music in Van Nuys. The recording scene in Los Angeles had slowed down considerably. Lou Morrell the excellent studio guitarist, mentioned that "there was half as much work as in the previous year", that was true. Work was at a premium. The recording industry was experiencing the invasion of the electronic age and it's profound effect on the future of music. The music recording industry that had been flourishing in Los Angeles for years was slowly dying. Only the cream of the crop of studio musicians would keep working.

I went on the road with the Buddy Rich big band. Some of the musicians in the band were Ritchie Cole, Rick Laird, Pat LaBarbara, John Madrid and New Zealand pianist Dave McCray. We traveled extensively throughout the United States usually by Greyhound bus. Buddy usually took the plane.

The ride to Detroit - This was the usual on-the-road routine. Bus to the gig, play, break down the equipment, load the bus, head to the next gig trying to sleep on the bus. The band was scheduled to play for a week at the (now defunct) Top Hat Supper Club in Windsor Ontario, Canada which is across the river from Detroit Michigan. This night stands out in particular because at this point in Buddy's career, Buddy only played concerts, no exceptions. Well, except this one time.

The greyhound bus left New York City without the band equipment which was stashed underneath another bus. So we had to turnaround, go back to the greyhound bus terminal, get the bus with the equipment and leave NYC again. It's a good thing Buddy wasn't on the bus, ah, never mind. We traveled to Wheeling West Virginia (in 1970 this was way out in the country) to play a gig at this funky little Country and Western club. Afterwards we were to take the greyhound bus straight through to Detroit, Michigan.

These West Virginia country folk started dancing, which is a lot of fun for sure, however these people had absolutely no idea what a jazz concert was supposed to be like, you know, like sit down and listen. Buddy thought this situation was really funny, he had a big goofy grin on his face while the band was playing. Possibly the Willard Alexander booking agency figured they would give it a shot and cover expenses for the bus ride to Detroit. After one short set we packed up the band equipment, loaded the greyhound bus and disappeared into the night heading north. The folks at the club probably wondered why the band had left so abruptly. Seriously, how can you dance to the "West Side Story" medley?

The Newport Jazz Festival - In 1971 the Buddy Rich band was part of the Newport goes to Europe tour put on by Newport Jazz Festival promoter George Wein. The band was to play concerts in many major cities in England and Europe. Besides Buddy Rich, there was the Modern Jazz Quartet, Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie. Also the wonderful Clark-Boland big band which was comprised of famous musicians from all over Europe. The trip to Europe lasted 6 weeks and proved to be the highlight of my travels with the Buddy Rich band.

Some of the worlds finest musicians live in Europe. Jazz musicians are treated with a great deal of respect. In the 1970's Art Farmer, Leo Wright, Slide Hampton, Benny Bailey, Kenny Drew, and many more had moved to Europe from the United States. Dexter Gordon lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the band played a concert at the Tivoli Gardens.

The show with no music. Halfway through the "Newport goes to Europe" tour, the band was in England. The plan was to fly from Heathrow airport London, to Malmo Sweden. That night a concert would start the next leg of the Newport tour. That was on the main continent of Europe. Somehow Buddy's drums, the music and music stands had neglected to get put on the plane at Heathrow airport in England. Oops! So the band had no music or music stands to play from. Amazingly enough, the band sounded pretty good playing by ear, no music. Each section of the band huddled together and listened to each other. This delighted Buddy no end. From then on when frustrated, Buddy would come up with "You guys sound better without music" or "Why don't you play like you did in Malmo?".

On the continent, the band played concerts in Malmo and Stockholm Sweden, Copenhagen Denmark, Oslo Norway, Milano Italy, Prague Czechoslovakia, Paris France, Brussels Belgium, Rotterdam Holland, Stuttgart and Berlin Germany.

In Milano Italy, the band got together for the best meal of our lives. What a feast. It lasted far late into the night. After a while we lost track of the number of courses of food that were served. Buddy picked up the tab. I think Buddy really got a kick out seeing everybody having a good time. We drank a lot of vino and a seemingly endless amout of Italian food. One thing about, Buddy, he never drank alcohol, smoked Marlboro's but never drank liquor. 50 plus years in the music business and you get real tired of drunks!

At the Berlin Jazz Festival, Oliver Nelson conducted an orchestra in one of the finest concerts I've had the privilege to attend.

In England the band played concerts in most of the major cities. The US dollar was worth double the English pound, consequently the cost of living was very reasonable if you had US currency. I stayed at a hotel in Earls Court for $2.50 US a night.

The bus driver freak out - In England, the bus driver became frustrated with the complete chaos that was going on in the bus that he pulled the bus over to the side of the road, got off and tried to hail a taxi cab for himself. We had completely freaked him out. We were drinking beer and some hash had been goin' around the back of the bus. Hey, just fun loving boys trying to blow off steam. We agreed to behave ourselves on the bus and only then were we driven back to the hotel. I can still picture the angry drivers beet red face as he was standing outside the bus, poor fellow.

In London Ronnie Scott's Club was a special treat to work. We played there for a week. Elvin Jones sat in with the band one night. That was interesting to say the least. Elvin was drunk and manhandled Buddy's drums, somehow managing to slam through a few tunes before Buddy got back on his drum set. Elvin Jones was not a big band drummer.

In London I met a lovely young lady, a nurse, Leslie Ann from New Zeland who was the sweetest most beautiful blond. I fell in love, then I didn't want to go back to the USA. For a while I contemplated staying in London. I fell in love a number of times on the road. Sometimes the road could be a lonely place and it was often tough to unwind after a concert. The turnover ratio of bass players was high, as were quite often some of the band members. Buddy was especially hard on bass and guitar players.

Rick Laird was probably Buddy's favorite bassist. Rick always complemented Buddy. If Buddy rushed, Rick would follow him. This was brilliant on Rick's part since Buddy had a habit of rushing the tempo when he got excited. Rick had been the house bassist for Ronnie Scott's Club and recorded an album with Wes Montgomery at Ronnie Scott's. After leaving Buddy Rich, Rick joined the Mahavishnu Orchestra and went on to receive much deserved recognition.

Sometimes late at night Buddy would call my room, which of course was never in the same hotel as his room, and request that I fetch him a "swiss cheese sandwich on dark rye, no mayo". I think Buddy did this for some company, because after delivering the sandwich, he would often say, "Ned, stick around for a while". I'd say "OK".

Buddy Rich was the best big band drummer of the 20th century, for sure. The one drawback to working with Buddy Rich was that at times, Buddy could be quite temperamental.

Listen below to a most creative compilation of Buddy...

Burnt out, exhausted from life on the road after what seemed like decades, actually less than a year, I left Buddy's band and went home to visit with my folks in Coronado, California. It was great to be home. My folks were getting on in years and spending some time with them was important.

After a while in the San Diego area, I needed to get back to work however, work for musicians in Los Angeles had become a scarce commodity.

In 1971 the studio recording scene in Los Angeles had pretty much dried up, at least for yours truly. I started hanging out at Los Angeles City College again to keep in touch with some of the L.A. musicians that sat in with Bob McDonald's big band class and try to pick up some gigs.

I got a call from Ice Follies for the travling guitar chair with Holiday on Ice, then the sister company to Ice Follies. Paul Walburg conducted Ice Follies. Some of the musicians that worked with the Ice Show were Paul Breslin, John Whitelaw, bass players and Joe Pino and Gene Strimling excellent drummers.

Bobby McFerrin, yes the Bobby McFerrin was the keyboard player with Ice Follies when I was on the road with Holiday on Ice. A few years later, he transferred over to Holiday on Ice to play keyboards. We didn't have a clue about Bobby's vocal abilities. Bobby plays piano, that's one reason his singing is so musical. Another reason is that he's a genius. Note: Bobby's web site plays down his ice show days, can you blame 'em?.

When the Ice Show played Indianapolis, Indiana, I met and became friends with Carroll DeCamp and his nephew guitarist Royce Campbell. Royce plays with a lot of heart and has recorded a number of albums. Royce was guitarist with Henry Mancini for 18 years.

Ben Stabler the conductor of Holiday on Ice, suggested that I switch from guitar to electric bass and stay with the show. That would mean repeating the same 500 or so shows. Rather than switch to electric bass I left Holiday on Ice. In retrospect, staying on with the Ice Show was a financially sound idea. I could have done the responsible thing and stayed around for at least a few years to cash in on the excellent pay. Hindsight is perfect!

A rant about prima donna figure skaters. As a result of those Ice Show years, to this day I can't stand to watch figure skating on TV. I love Ice Hockey. Go Toronto Maple Leafs, go Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, LA Kings, etc. But figure skaters...

Inhale, exhale.

While with working Holiday On Ice I met ice skater Judi Hall who grew up outside Windsor Ontaio, Canada. We fell in love and became engaged to be married. That year later, the wedding ceremony was held in Belle River Ontario, Canada (1972). I didn't know anybody in the Windsor Ontario area of Canada and somewhat confused, I asked both Judi's brothers to be best man. What a scene, Judi got hammered on rum and coke before the wedding ceremony, my folks were giddy with joy about the idea of someday becoming grandparents. Here comes that hindsight thing again.

Judi and I settled in Toronto Ontario, Canada. Toronto is 250 miles north east of Detroit Michigan. Both my sons were born in Toronto at St. Michael's hospital on Queen Street. I worked a variety of different spots in Toronto. Society gigs were plentiful. There was work in small clubs/restaurants but, there wasn't a Don Costa to help me get work in Toronto like in Los Angeles. Eventually I sold my beautiful Gibson ES-175 guitar, still had my '67 Fender Telecaster though. Constantly short of cash I started driving a taxi cab part time to help pay the bills but this didn't forestall the inevitable. Eventually living in Canada just didn't work out.

I found the certain Canadian musicians to be laid back, friendly and good players, nice combination. Especially Bob McClaren, Martin Kulakov, Dave Field, Doug Gretzinger, Shelly Berger, Lorne Lofsky. Great people and musicians, except for one unscrupulous trumpet player named Norm Bernard. Instead of paying me cash or a check for gigs that I'd worked for him, Norm always tried to buy me off in cassette tapes he had stolen from the record store he worked in. What a business man...

About my 2 sons - Jesse, born in 1974, lives in Windsor Ontario, across the river from Detroit Michigan and works for a large internet based company maintaining the companies massive Hewlett Packard digital printers. Jesse is an extremely hard working fellow and is doing quite well. Jesse has a remarkable sense of pitch, and taught himself to play electric bass. Jesse and Colleen were married October 20th, 2007. (Update summer 2010), they have a 2 year old son, Murphy Donald Eldredge and may be expecting another child. Time wil tell.

Miles, born in 1976, has a B.A. in english literature, is an artist, plays guitar and is an avid surfer. Miles and his lady Miran are the proud parents of a baby boy, Elijah Morgan Eldredge, born November 22, 2006. Miles has been working with people suffering from autism. (Summer 2010 update), Miles has been accepted at University Victoria, BC. Canada for their teaching program, finished a writing a book and his busy with his artwork. Elijah is now 4 years old and quite a handsome little fellow.

I'm extremely proud of both my sons. Their mother graduated college with a degree in nursing and raised her two sons to respect and be considerate of other people. The same qualities that initially drew me to her. For years I wasn't around while Jess and Miles were growing up and greatly missed those two young guys in Canada. I knocked down a few drinks to many over that situation - the disclaimer comes into effect here.

San Francisco - Late 1977 I had gone to the San Diego area and stayed with my folks, having not seen them for the previous seven years, they were getting on in age. This period is a grey area in my life. I Was trying to deal with the unpleasant feelings that result from divorce. I missed my children greatly. I found Mike Clark's phone number in San Francisco and asked how he felt about my coming up for a visit. He said OK, so I stayed for a while with my buddy Mike Clark and his then wife Bea. Eventually Mr. Clark made the transition from the San Francisco bay area to New York City.

While living in San Francisco, I met a young lady that was a Buddhist and a jogger. Josie and I started running everyday in Golden Gate Park, (click to see a map of the park), from Stanyan Street down to the Great Highway and back, that took about an hour. This time became one the most serene times of my life. The intense physical conditioning helped greatly to getting back on track in life. I ran every day for many years, it was great, thanks Josie.

For a time I worked at Georgia Pacific in South San Francisco. Also worked at an Arco gas station at 17th and Clayton in San Francisco. Not the most exclusive of jobs, those were tough times. I finally caught a break, was was hired by Pacific Bell Telephone. This prompted a move north over the Golden Gate bridge to San Rafael in Marin County.

Do what you know how to do - Playing guitar was my passion in life for many years. My formative years had been spent practicing the guitar a lot, and working in the music business. Since the 1970's the music industry had changed. The work wasn't there and I really wasn't interested in trying to hustle up gigs. Ned the guitar player had to learn to work for a living doing something besides playing music.

Struggling to get a non-music job in San Francisco had revealed a need for an education that had been neglected in my youth. I found a little cottage in Fairfax California located in the old Marin Town and Country Club, which by then had seen much better days. The rent was cheap, $240 a month. I lived there for 8 years, while my two sons were moving around to different cities in Canada with their mother. That's another part of the intentionally excluded stuff.

Becoming a geek - In 1980 I had decided to go back to college, but what classes to take? The two fields of work that seemed promising were electronics and welding. Computers were evolving out of the punch card stage, the personal computer had yet to come into it's own. For some reason, I decided on electronics.

The College of Marin in Kentfield California offered an electronics program. I applied for a student loan at the college and started classes in electronics technology. That first semester I took an incomplete in college algebra because I was so freaked about taking the final. I didn't know how to puncuate sentences because I hadn't payed any attention to learning in high school.

Eventually I made it through algebra in summer school with an "A". I'm a right brain person, math was a lot of really hard work, music was easy. Music always made sense, wish I could say that for math. Non-the-less, I discovered studying to be a good thing. There is a payoff, what a concept. Playing guitar wasn't all there was to life.

In 1980 PC software was in it's infancy, the internet was a rumor. The DOS operating system for the PC hadn't been written yet. (Around 1984 there was 'Visi-Calc' spread sheet and 'WordStar', a word processing program.) In 1980 write software was what you did with a computer. In the computer science program, we learned to write code using Pascal, and the C programming language, the grandfather of C++. C is the main ancestor of programming languages IE Javascript, Perl, PHP and similar languages.

A factual note - Check this link out, The Internet and the World Wide Web are two separate but related things.

At the College of Marin, the computer science department installed a Vax 11/750 mini computer, sporting the Unix BSD operating system. I Spent a lot of time with other students in the computer science lab trying to develope computer programming skills.

My first guitar teacher and friend, Lee Havens, use to say, "When you stop learning, you start to die". Strong words but in my experience true. These words of wisdom prompted me to try to my best at school, to work hard and obey the scout law.

I went work for Bruce Baum Associates, in San Rafael, CA. This outfit was a Value Added Reseller, or VAR for IBM systems. Acronyms were just becoming popular. Computers being used by large companies were huge in size by todays standards. The capacitors inside these large oversized boxes looked like large Campbell's soup cans. We're talking old school here!

IBM had locked up the PC market in 1994, it's flagship product was the IBM AT-80286 platform. The IBM PC was a hot item. The San Rafael company sent me to IBM school in Marietta Georgia for training. To qualify for dealership in IBM's latest product line, the 5362/5364 series of mini computer, a company had to be certified by IBM. Your's truly got the nod to go to IBM school in Marietta, Georgia for "Personal Computer Dealer Training". The transformation to becoming a geek had begun.

During this period of computer fascination, my old friend the guitar had been all but abandoned. One night I wandered into this little bar in Fairfax and met guitar player Chuck Day. I sat in with his band, Chuck liked it, and we started playing music together. We played Friday's in Fairfax (California) at Tucker's Tavern now called 19 Broadway for 5 years. Chuck was the bass player for The Mamas and the Papas when they were at their zenith, also played bass and conducted for Johnny Rivers. Chuck was an extremly gifted musician. Chuck died in 2008. (August 5, 1942 – March 10, 2008)

1987- I worked as a contract programmer for Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco at 4th and Mission streets. When the programming contract at Wells Fargo Bank fizzled out, I moved north to Sonoma County, California and found an apartment in Cotati, a little town south of Santa Rosa.

My CIS (Computer Information Systems) degree completed, I was looking for work in that field. The work that paid top dollar was in San Francisco which meant a commute of 100 miles, round trip, everyday. Having previously experienced commuting to and from Wells Fargo Bank, I was looking for a job locally in Sonoma County.

At home in Cotati I'd walk downtown to eat at this mexican restaurant. Eventually I became friendly with Rafa, the restaurant owner. That led to a solo gig playing guitar at Rafa's Mexican Restaurant in Cotati where I worked playing music for the next 6 years. So much for the commute. I could stay in town, play guitar, and use the computer to create background tracks for myself when playing in public.

What is MIDI? Wikipedia has an explanation if your curious about MIDI. Here's how a MIDI file might sound on a computer through the average (1995) computer. (I used a Cakewalk sequencer to record with). Play the following "straight" MIDI file. The quality of the MIDI played through a computers sound card isn't that great, although it works.

Now here this - There's a big difference between a MIDI file played through a computers audio card and one routed through high end Digital Synthesizers. The  [Audio tab]  on the main menu (check it out) contains three tunes that I recorded in my little home studio using computer and my Gibson L5-S guitar. An orginal tune titled "Bouncin'", Keith Jarrett's "Lucky Southern" and Sonny Rollin's "St. Thomas".

After sequencing a tune on the computer, the MIDI tracks were routed through a Korg 05R/W digital synthesizer/workstation and Kurzweil EGK (Ensemble Grand Piano) then saved to a Sony DAT (digital audio tape) recorder which being digital had very clean sound. Although outdated now, the DAT was high-tech at the time.

The gig at Rafa's Mexican Restaurant lasted six years. Each winter, in the off-season, I'd update and re-record the background tracks from the previous year attempting to avoid the inevitable repetition.

The muscles in my left hand had been bothering me years. I ignored the dull constant ache in the muscles of my left hand hoping the ache would go away, like ignoring a DUI, yet the the ache in my left hand persisted. I visited an M.D., a specialist and was informed that the left hand had developed nerve damage. All those years of playing on heavy guitar stings, then stopping playing for a number of years, then abruptly starting again caused severe irritat\ion in the left hand joints and muscles, it hasn't gotten better.

In the fall of 1996, I had hung my Gibson L5s guitar on the wall for good, having looked at a guitar fingerboard for 40 years. Not having the physical ablility to play at a high level of performance just didn't get it and noodlin' around on the guitar wasn't gonna pay the rent.

1988 - Went to JBASS and Associates, a school then quite successful in technical training, to update my knowledge of the internet protocol TCP/IP. I was hired part time to tutor students with the respective subjects. That's where I became personally interested in using HTML to create websites. I acquired a state of California teaching credential for "Computer Software and Operating Systems". That fizzeled out when the "dot com flue" hit middle 1999.

The wonderful jazz guitarist Johnny Smith was living in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 1968, I had the pleasure to visit with Johnny in his music store. I asked him if he missed playing music full time?  His reply, " It's just music".

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote "Art is a jealous mistress, and if a man has a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider".

Bll Evans, one of my favorite piano players, was a genius. His piano playing was greatly influenced by the french impressionist Claude Debussy, (day-bu-say). Bill suffered from drug addiction much of his adult life and died when he was 53 years old. Many of the "famous" musicians I have known have had greater success with music than with family life.

Chick Corea - another great pianist and composer in his late 60's now. I would say that Chick Corea is my favorite living musician. Nobody plays piano like Chick Corea. Chick is a healty individual performing consistently at a formidible level.

When I was a young turk I had that Jack Kerouac attitude. Today I'm grateful just to wake up and have some gratitude for the gifts that each day presents. Thanks for visiting. (update July, 2010)