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I am
currently an IT Professional and a Professional Musician - Days, I work for
Jewish Vocational Service where I
am the entire IT
Department. Evenings and weekends, I
play many instruments including Sax (Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bari),
Clarinets (Bb, Eb, Bass), Flute, Piccolo and a tiny bit of Oboe doing
whatever gigs I can get. I haven't been able to play too much
since moving from Florida to Cincinnati in late 2003, there aren't many
decent paying gigs in the Cincinnati area. I REALLY miss playing all the shows and backing up acts as they
come through the South. In the IT world, I have
both an AS in Computer Science (emphasis on programming) and a BS in
Information Technology. I've
taught Computer Science classes both at the college level
(Intro to Computers, COBOL I
and II and
Systems Analysis & Design at St. Petersburg
College for 3 years) and
at the Corporate level
(Developed and taught the
almost the entire
microcomputer curriculum plus System Analysis & Design and Software
Project Management at GTE Data Services for 5 years), worked as a
both a systems and applications programmer in C, COBOL, BASIC, Pascal,
dBase
III, Clipper and IBM/370 Assembler, done hardware and software
support on both mainframes and microcomputers, worked with 3Com Voice over IP
and Avaya Definity phone switches, been a network
administrator
(Novell, NT and 2000/2003),
worked as an electronics technician, managed a corporate helpdesk,
been a Helpdesk Administrator, etc.
As far as music goes, I've been fortunate in my career to have had a great
upbringing and have played with, backed up or
shared the stage with a diverse group of people and bands. Here's a
pretty complete list (), although I'm sure I've forgotten
someone along the way.
Let's take it from the top - I started on accordion at 5 and then trumpet when I was 6.
I
switched to clarinet at 7 and had my first paying gig a few weeks before
I turned 9, playing clarinet in a Dixieland band. I added in sax
the summer before entering high school at Maine
East HS in Park Ridge, IL, where band was more like a full-time gig.
I even played sousaphone for half of my senior year, which taught me to listen to
bass lines when playing jazz. Then I was a Music Performance major at Northern
Illinois University and Triton College from 1969 - 1971. In 1971, I came REALLY
close to winning the lottery. Too bad it was the draft lottery - I had a number
3 and they took up to
number 270 that year, so I enlisted in the Navy to avoid getting drafted
into the Army and
going to Viet Nam. I ended up spending 8 years traveling around
the country with Navy Bands out of
San Diego, CA and Great Lakes, IL (near Chicago). It sure beat going to
'Nam.
Besides, Green
is NOT my best color, especially when running through a rice paddy carrying a
weapon instead of a sax. In 8
years, the only "sea time" I did was 4 hours on a Coast Guard
cutter on Lake Michigan. I did, however, log several million miles in vans,
busses and planes. It was a great playing experience but enough was
enough. Along the way, I got married (in July '72) and had 2
kids (more later).
I got out of the Navy in October, '79 after 8 years of "hit-and-runs"
-
Besides being very tiring, it was a major case of "too many politics, not enough music". When I got
out, we moved to Florida
where my mother lived and I got a job as an Electronics Technician while going to school, majoring in Computer Science.
I put the horns in the closet
for a while to "get it all" out of my system and
concentrated on school and work but once it's in your blood, you can't
give up music. One
day, in a round-about way, I was asked to sit in and sight-read a musical. One thing lead to another
and I was back to playing steadily, sometimes as much as 28 - 30
nights a month in addition to the day job. Here's "Military Intelligence" for you - I was
28 and in the Navy Band at Great Lakes, and they actually told me I was
"too old to play rock"... after I got out, I spent much of the next
25 years
playing a lot of rock, much of it with world-class groups (see the list of
bands above).
I got divorced in July '96 and moved from Tampa to Lakeland, where my day
job was, and eventually took a job transfer to Cincinnati in October, 2003 -
Back to the snow and away from the heat and humidity! That job was
eliminated within 9 months but I stayed around and now live in West Chester,
OH, with a good day job and more and more gigs coming along.
I
have 2 great kids from my first marriage:
Nicki, my daughter, is 35 and a
nurse working in Tampa. She has a
14
year-old daughter (Amanda) that is in high school and a 7 year old
daughter (Rhiannon) that is in 1st grade.
Chris,
my son, is 33 and an Independent Duty Corpsman in the Navy, currently
stationed Hawaii. He and
Tenina
have twin daughters Taelor and Jaeden, who were born on November 5th, '07.
I don't get to see ANY of these guys as much as I'd like to, but at least
there are Cell Phones, Facebook, E-Mail, Webcams and Instant Messaging to
keep in touch. |
