About me
Preface
If you choose to read the novella I've written here about me and my family heritage, you'll probably tell I enjoy storytelling and you'll learn more than a bit about me personally. Perhaps that's why I like music so much, because I feel music added to a story can bring a far greater depth of emotion than words alone... no matter how eloquently spoken. As articulated on my Home page, I feel every form of input and interaction, along with all the feelings and judgments accompanying them, help to form who I am and how I choose to interpret, assimilate, digest and incorporate all sensory input inside myself for future reference.
All my life's experiences then become part of my story, who I am and how I choose to express myself outwardly through words, actions and creative expression. I've often said that people get to know me best by listening and feeling my music, and in time I learned how the loss of my parents in 1993 and 2008 impacted my musical endeavors in profound ways (90 days afterward, in both cases).
I'd like to share an existential epiphany of mine I feel fortunate that, in my relatively short life span, I have realized the meaning of life can be distilled down to a single word. Legacy. It's incumbent upon each individual to establish their own personal legacy during their time on this little blue planet, through their chosen words and actions, good or bad. It could be as altruistic as curing AIDS, cancer or hunger, or as seemingly simple as making time for a homeless person or shut-in, raising healthy and happy kids, or being remembered as being a kind person. Transversely, there's a litany of descriptions and real-life examples of bad legacies that need not be mentioned here.
Creating all of this is helpful for me, recalling and remembering so many details about things and experiences from the past that can benefit my future, by reflecting and completing the other half of the yin-yang balanced form, plus I think it's a good way to document part of my life's story... or legacy.
Pre-Me Family History - Dad's Side
There are a few famous ancestors in my family tree on both sides. Most of my creative family influences come from my mother's side of the family, which I go into a lot greater detail throughout everything I'm writing. So I'm going to talk a bit more about some my Dad's family history before I existed, which still serves to have an influence on me, as it did the generations leading to me.
I'm half Lithuanian, my father being full Lithuanian, as obviously both his parents (my natural grandparents) were as well. His mother I called 'Granny' and the grandfather I grew up knowing with her was Grandpa Bill (where my Mom's Dad was simply 'Grandpa'), who adopted my father at age 6 after marrying his Mom (Granny), and is the source of my Baldwin surname. My Dad's birth father died when my father was only 3 years old, resulting in Granny and my Dad moved into her parent's home.
My Dad's father figure and head of household during some early formative years was his grandfather, who came to this country through Ellis Island from Lithuania in 1906. Everyone in my family referred to him as 'Pop' and perhaps my father used that name for him when he was very young.
In Lithuania, Pop attended only three years of schooling in a one room schoolhouse, yet spoke 7 languages and was more intelligent and resourceful than anyone I've ever known. Over there he and his brother were awakened by knocks on their doors by the housekeeper's daughters, who were not allowed to speak to or even see the boys at all. Pop and his brother were born to an entitled class in Lithuania. Pop would laugh while telling the story about how his uncle once locked himself in a tower room for three days, without food or water, because a commoner had the audacity to publicly insult him by speaking to him directly.
Pop shared that royal titles could be bought and sold at that time, which was helpful when things were unstable in Lithuania. Pop and his brother didn't want to be forced to fight and die for any other country, while they were still teenagers. They dressed up as an old man and woman on a horsedrawn haywagon, using the money from the sale of the title to bribe the border guards to escape and emigrate to the US.
When Pop first arrived, his rate of pay was $0.05 an hour at the railroad yard, after which he would come home to take so many strokes of the saw to fell a tree or swings of a sledgehammer on wedges to split it, before eating dinner and going back out for more saw strokes or sledghammer swings before bed. Pop ultimately built his own family home from the very trees on the property, on a good sized piece of property that would take a week to mow, so it was non-stop. There was a huge stone cornerstone that was placed perfectly and Pop would never tell anyone how he did it.
After arriving in the US, Pop met a young woman who said she was from Lithuania, then it got to the same area, village, and home. Pop ended marrying the girl who used to knock on his door every morning as a child, and his brother married her sister. Pop was an amazing man who left a powerful legacy and I could write so much about the many stories he shared.
Granny played the piano and later she got rid of her piano for an organ, especially after she got involved with playing organ for her church. I know she played, yet I can't remember ever seeing or hearing her play music, like I can about my grandma (my Mom's mom). Grandpa Bill was in the military and Granny worked in hospital administration, so they moved around a bit. Granny and my Dad lived in Washington, before moving to the Phillippines at the end of 1951, then to Wyoming, where Granny and Grandpa Bill still lived up until I was 5 or 6.
While living in Wyoming, my father won the state mathematics competition, was a cowboy and rodeo clown. He lied about his age to be allowed to serve as a ranch hand cowboy, and he said travellers would stop when driving through to take pictures of a cowboy on a horse. One day my Dad commented how Brahma bull riding didn't look that tough, riders heard him and told him, "Alright Baldwin, you're riding on Tuesday." My Dad was a rodeo clown at Frontier Days, yet said he still got scared as the day approached. When the chute opened, he was working his hand out of the rope, with his legs already running before he was off the bull.
My Dad headed out West and met my Mom, taking her to her high school senior prom, before serving in the US Marines, stationed at Camp Pendleton in CA. While he was there, he used to make extra money by playing pool and pinball machines, which cost a nickel and would give nickels back instead of extra games. My brother and I learned this during one visit to our local Shakey's, not believing our Dad when he asked us to pick a pinball game for him. When he was done, he had won so many games that we left a bunch on there for other kids, after playing on it all night for one quarter.
My Granny and Grandpa Bill moved to Central California to both work at a military base until Granny retired and Grandpa Bill got a job as a handyman at a local car dealership to install, fix or do anything. He had so many gadgets and things worked into his home that absolutely amazed me, hidden places everywhere you look to store things out of sight yet still remain easily accessible if you knew where they were located. When my Granny had to me moved out and her home sold, it was like a scavenger hunt looking for family heirlooms in secret hiding spots even I never knew about.
Pre-Me Family History - Mom's Side
On my mother's branch of the family tree there are some notable ancestors on both my Grandpa and Grandma's side. One of the notable ancestors on Grandpa's side was his maternal grandfather, John Lemp, (from whom he got his middle name that he went by) who immigrated at age 14 by himself from Germany in 1852 and arrived in Boise, Idaho on July 8, 1863, the day after the city weas surveyed and created, becoming known as the beer baron of Boise after opening a brewery and acquiring quite a bit of land. He was known as being very generous and he paid for the burials of around 20 local pioneers.
John Lemp was a history buff who was had an unusual knowledge of historic facts, served as president of First National Bank of Idaho, was a member of the constitutional convention, a Boise city council member for 20 years and served from 1876 to 1877 as Mayor of Boise. He died almost three month before my Grandpa was born.
Prior to John's emigration to America, I believe it was a distant relative from Germany, Johann 'John' Adams Lemp, who settled into St. Louis and Lemp Brewery opened in 1840. It became the largest brewery in St. Louis by 1870, ultimately becoming Falstaff. The Lemp mansion is well known for it's stories of being haunted, with three Lemp's committing suicide there by gunshot. It has been the site of an annual haunted house for three decades.
On my Grandma's side, her Mom's maiden name was Perry and some ancestors include the two Perry naval commodores, related more to the Oliver Hazard Perry branch of the family tree. Grandma's Mom and Dad had a great sense of humor, which my Grandma inherited, speaking about how her Mom would host 'color' themed dinner parties where every part of the meal was the same color, using food coloring. Let's just say there are certain foods that appear far less appealing in certain colors, such as dark brown mashed potatoes, blue or green meat, etc. (green eggs and ham, anyone?).
The most notable accomplishment of Oliver H. Perry was his attack on Robert H. Barclay's British fleet in the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813. He was victorious, causing the British to evacuate Fort Detroit and communicated the triumph with the famous words, "We have met the enemy and they are ours." He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1814 for his actions on Lake Erie and the War of 1812, while also receiving a personal gift of a rare and valuable desk that had been within the White House, originally traveling over to the US on Colombus' Mayflower ship. Oliver Perry died of yellow fever in 1819 at the age of 34, while on his way by ship to Trinidad for medical aid, while commanding a diplomatic and anti-piracy naval mission to Venezuela.
The desk he'd been given went to one if his sons who was a talented luthier that used the rare wood from the desk, along with a corner post from an old church built in the 17th century that was being torn down and rebuilt, to construct two Stradivarius violin replicas. The rare woods imported from Europe for the old church corner post was used for the violin necks and the desk became the instrument bodies, accompanied by a handwritten letter that described it all. My mother used the violins when she was in high school and the family still has them today. My grandma's middle name of Adelle (that she was known by) was a female adaptation of her maternal grandfather's name, Adelbert Perry, who is buried along with a lot of the Perry family in the same cemetery as my grandparents.
Matthew Calbraith Perry was born 9 years after his older brother, Oliver, also a naval officer who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War. He played a leading role in the Perry Expedition that ended Japan's isolationism and resumed trade with the US. On July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew C. Perry led his four ships into the harbor at Tokyo Bay to re-establish, for the first time in over 200 years, regular trade and discourse between Japan and the western world.
His first visit was with four warships, indicating he was willing to use force if necessary, yet brought many gifts from the West intended to impress the emperor and induce a trade treaty. He told the Japanese he would return at a specified later date to receive their response, to which the Emperor bristled at and started gathering forces to repel the ships' return, then Matthew returned much sooner than he'd stated with a much larger fleet, effectively forcing Japan to enter into the Convention of Kanagawa with the United States in 1854. Apparently, this is a big deal in China, because my mother's cousin and her husband were unexpectedly treated like dignitaries when they went there for business (it was expressed that it had to do with the Perry family lineage).
My Younger Days and Influences
I was born in Los Angeles in 1960, growing up listening to all sorts of music in my household. On the radio it was mostly contemporary pop and my father had a wide variety of vinyl albums he would often play on our Packard Bell record player stereo console, including Herb Alpert, Nat King Cole, Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops, or any of his collection of the the Time/Life Great Men of Music collected works volumes he displayed on a bookshelf. I visited my maternal grandparents' home about a mile away from mine often, where my grandmother (Adelle) would play classical music and piano standards frequently, so it's no surprise she's the person I take after most from a creative perspective. I'm very much like my grandpa (Lemp) in so many other ways and I spent a lot of time with both of them until our family moved about 50 miles away, the day I turned 6 years old. We still visited each other often, but it wasn't as conveniently close or frequent.
My grandma was a very good artist, attending ArtCenter School in Los Angeles when it was still within the city (prior to changing 'school' to 'college of design' and moving up into the hills), before becoming a print advertising artist for Buffum's, Macy's and others. She created the pen and ink drawing of the Union 76 man approaching your car with a smile, and won numerous awards in later years for her exceptional portraits, scenic watercolors and oil paintings. As a result of being around her so much at a young age, I developed a great interest in expressing my creativity through both art and music. It's probably no surprise that my favorite composition is the same as hers, George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' and I have her collection of 76 rpm records of it being performed by the Paul Whiteman orchestra (including the first version recorded in 1924).
The first instrument I learned to play as a young child was the accordion, taking lessons at Milton Mann Studios. Maybe it was due to the popularity of the Lawrence Welk TV show that accordions were a fairly common choice of instrument for musical education at the time. After a series of lessons to get the student to play a tune, there was always a sales pitch to induce the purchase an accordion. My father asked me if I was serious about wanting to continue playing the accoprdion before he bought one for me. I explained I like the keyboard part of it but not the chord buttons so much, and I said I felt I would enjoy playing the piano more. That was the end of my time playing the accordion playing days, which were short-lived.
The next step in my musical journey was a trip to Wallich's Music City, which was a unique store that was the first to have shrink wrapped record albums and had soundproof listening rooms where you could listen to a record album before deciding to buy it, with multiple locations around Southern California. It wasn't unusual to see Bing Crosby shopping and Franz Zappa working the floor. at the Los Angeles location. They also sold concert tickets, pianos and other musical instruments with rooms for group music lessons on electronic pianos. They opened in 1940 and unfortunately closed their doors in 1978 during my senior year in high school. I first learned to play piano on the what I recall were the Wurlitzer 145a models in white, wearing headphones with other students as the instructor guided us along on. My parents bought a Wurlitzer spinet piano from Wallich's and they told me it was my birthday and Christmas present.
I took piano lessons off and on, including one instructor who was a school teacher and parent of a classmate, and every week I would study and learn a classical music composition, along with having to write a report about the composer to learn more about them and their life's influences. I had another instructor who would chart out by hand any popular song I was interested in learning, which I really enjoyed, and he discovered I had nearly perfect pitch, being able to identify notes on the piano by ear. There were times in my childhood where I felt my piano was my best friend and I would play out any bottled up emotions I had inside. My Mom was not too pleased when I placed thumbtacks on all the hammers to make it sound more like a honky tonk piano, or the time I broke three strings pounding out the ending jam of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird as loud as I could. My Wurlitzer's notoriously light key action is somewhat infamous, yet it's my piano, I still have it, love it and play on it to this day.
Family History and Synchronicity
My grandpa's sister (my Aunt Bernice) married an artist (Uncle Ed) who worked for Walt Disney, from the Ub Iwerks days. Uncle Ed worked on background art for such movies as Snow White, Pinnochio, Bambi, Fun and Fancy Free, and many others. Another movie my uncle worked on was Igor Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring' segment in Disney's Fantasia, as well as doing all the illustrations for the Golden book title 'Bongo' from the Bongo the Bear segment of Fun and Fancy Free (I purchased copies of it for my kids, plus the one my Mom was given as a child). The 'Bambi' debacle story I was told involved scrapping all the initial background art that had already been completed, after Walt discovered a new artist's watercolor style on trip to the Orient during the movie's production. Walt brought the artist home with him and told his artists they had to learn this style of art, then re-do all the backgrounds if they wanted to get paid for their work on the movie (Walt always got what he wanted). At that time many artists got paid for their work on each movie, not as a salaried or hourly employee, with payments often being issued when the movie was done.
I was told that while Walt was preoccupied with building Disneyland park in 1954, my uncle felt the staff in the animation studio were being mistreated and neglected, so he walked into Walt's office to tell him off before quitting. He then went home to smash all the art he'd collected during his time at Disney Animation Studios (including some original backgrounds he had), before burying it in his back yard and moving to Puerto Vallarta (when there were only about 4,000 residents) and becoming a successful artist there. Years later I was contacted by someone who'd purchased my uncle and aunt's old Burbank home, wondering where he might be able to find the smashed and buried Disney art and cells. I laughed and explained I understood there had been a pool installed in that back yard which was subsequently removed and anything that could be found would be either disintegrated or close to it.
My aunt was a former school teacher, never having any children of her own, so she started the America-Mexico Foundation which later became the Becas Foundation (tutoring younger students and paying tuition for secondary school through graduate degrees), and they were her "kids." She was chosen to be in John Huston's 1964 movie adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana, starring Richard Burton and Ava Gardner (filmed in 1963). Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton famously had an affair during the filming (even though she was still married to Bobby Fischer), after which she got divorced, they married and ended up buying a home two houses away from my uncle and aunt in what was called Gringo Gulch, on the river. (Within the photos linked, my Aunt Bernice is standing behind Richard Burton in the color photo and speaking with him in the upper left photo of the black and white Dick and Liz collage.)
My family would always stay in the home located between by aunt's and Liz's home during our visits, with my brother and I staying in the guest house on the property. During our family's 1978 visit, we hosted a dinner for John Huston and I really didn't know who he was at the time (although my grandpa educated me when we returned home). My aunt's cousin Kay ended up moving to Puerto Vallarta, finding an apartment behind the stained glass crown at the top of the church in the center of town, with the sun bathing her place in bright colors before sunset every evening.
As frail as Cousin Kay appeared, she was the only person in PV that could handle their liquor alongside Richard Burton, who by then had purchased a home (with his then current wife) across the calle (street) from Kay. She became drinking buddies with Burton in his later years, and he referred to her as 'Shanghai Kate.' While I never met Elizabeth Taylor personally, I did meet her mother on one visit and had a couple of nice conversations, seeing Burton frequently when he was in PV during the same time of our family visits a few years apart.
In 2002 I was in Puerto Vallarta for the posthumous dedication ceremony of Sala Bernice Starr (my Mom and her brother did the ribbon cutting) at the city's only public library built by my aunt and filled with books. We brought some family photos to add to my aunt's memorial photo collage. While walking back to my rented condo one evening I heard someone playing piano in a club, walked in and introduced myself, because I was missing my piano so much. After talking with him then playing the piano for a little while, I shared my professional background and abilities, with him responding enthusiastically, offering me the opportunity to travel to Fiji and create a Fijian real estate website for him (more about Fiji later on).
The following year I helped organize a special duet performance at a private estate in Newport Coast featuring Povilas Stravinsky (from the Seattle Symphony), with Ching-Yi Lin on the iconic 1718 'Firebird' Stradivarius, flown in from Austria for this event and about 50 guests in attendance. It was more than interesting to be working with the grandson of a man my uncle worked with on Fantasia, and I told Povilas about this in one of our conversations we had. He was pleasantly surprised, sharing some of his stories with me as well. I recorded 8mm video and a DAT of the private concert, which broadcast on the radio in Seattle a short time afterward. I remember hearing a duet concert from a performance in L.A. on local radio, playing some of the same pieces with different musicians, yet it didn't sound anywhere near to the sound quality and clarity of my recording at the home.
My grandma used to take me to the LA County Arboretum as a child, which was the old Lucky Baldwin estate, and I grew up loving peacocks and their beautiful blue, teal and purple colors on their fanned out tail feathers of males, while vying for their mates. I chose a peacock theme for my studio, using peacock patterned curtains from Pier One to make covers for my keyboards and other equipment.
Many movies and TV shows were filmed at the Arboretum, including the old black and white Tarzan movies within the thick brush along the lagoon, opposite the Queen Anne Cottage, which my brother and I used to run around through as children. My grandma painted the famous Queen Anne Cottage many times, with one painting being used for a greeting card sold by the Arboretum. I have one of those paintings, as well as one of the long gone boathouse that burned down many years ago.
The Queen Anne Cottage was used for the opening of the TV show, Fantasy Island, when arriving guests would be greeted by Ricardo and Herve. As a young teenager I got to meet Sir Laurence Olivier while he was on site, filming a scene for the movie, Marathon Man (co-starring Dustin Hoffman) on a boat in the lagoon. My little brother and I were hiding behind a log while the film crew was on a raft, our heads popped up and the director yelled, "Cut, get those kids out of there!" Security approached us both and we promised to stay low if they would let us stay, they did and the scene was completed. I walked right up to Sir Olivier as he got off the boat and introduced myself to shake his hand, which he graciously accepted and shook as I explained my grandma was a huge fan of his and I think my grandma blushed, being shocked by my gregarious approach.
My grandparents also used to take me and my little brother to visit the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino often as kids. As an adult I became an annual member, visiting often with my kids and later my grandkids, attending their outdoor summer concerts, which were great. The first time I went to the Huntington was as a baby with my grandma pushing my stroller, and the last visit for my grandma I was pushing her wheelchair. After her passing, I organized a family gathering memorial visit to the Huntington for all surviving generations of descendants. A year after my Mom's passing, I organized a family reunion and memorial of sorts at the Huntington, with three generations in attendance.
In 2009 I chose to write an email to the executive director (at that time) of the Huntington Library about a recent acquisition made with the Los Angeles Museum of a very rare and expensive chair that was part of a beautiful dining room set that helped to ignite the gorgeous art nouveau style that followed, that I believe had been exhibited at the World's Fair in Paris. I expressed how I felt he was championing and extending the legacy Henry Huntington had started with his numerous unrivaled collections, sharing my 'meaning of life' epiphany, and was surprised to receive a heartfelt response within hours (with an invitation for my family to be special guests). Apparently the Huntington had just selected the word 'legacy' as their primary focus of intention for the future. What great synchronicity. My younger daughter and my first grandson were there, to go on a special behind the scenes tour and hosted lunch, with multiple photos taken of our visit, one of which appeared on the inside back cover of the Huntington newsletter.
Early Musical Equipment & Experiences
I played in my first rock band during high school, composing some of my first songs in my freshman year, and I bought a used Univox Compaq as my first electronic keyboard, with the soft carrying case and handles. It was the version with only three voices, Piano, Honky Tonk & Clavichord, with the white, purple and teal voice switches, and I was told it once belonged to the keyboardist for the Byrds. Whether or not this is true, it was a 21 lb. portable keyboard that came out in 1973, which was used by such popular keyboardists of the day as Billy Preston and Edgar Winter, running print ads featuring both artists. Univox products were really copies of Italian manufacturer Crucianelli's early Crumar keyboards, and I later obtained a Crumar.
That first band called 'Gold' performed at a variety of parties, local high school dances, small dive bars and clubs, appeared on local TV, and had one gig at the Ramona Convent for a corporate event that had the nuns looking rather concerned when we played Alice Cooper and David Bowie covers -- with accompanying theatrics by the singer. An interesting side note is our singer at the time had grown up with David Lee Roth and the Van Halen brothers as kids in Pasadena, making lemonade stands to get candy money, then years later another band was in traded sound equipment with Van Halen and other popular artists at the time (which I felt was weird synchronicity).
I ended up selling my Univox and purchased a Fender Rhodes 73 suitcase model (because it barely fit in my 1968 VW bug's backseat, where an 88 key would not), a Crumar Orchestrator, and an Arp Axxe synthesizer from Guitar Center in Hollywood. I only have one photo I can find from that era where I'm in the rehearsal studio for the band I was in the time, shopwing the wooden rack I designed and built to stack up the keyboards over one another. Now I had the capability to play such covers as the Who's Baba O'Riley, using the Arp Axxe for the synth and Crumar for the strings, recreating the jet sound on the Axxe for the Beatles' Back in the USSR (which I often triggered by using my nose to press a key), while playing the piano part on my Rhodes. Later on, I purchased the Arp Little Brother expansion module for the Axxe, which added additional voices to the monophonic synth for additional depth at live performances. (I was surprised to later learn that Crumar's Spirit synthesizer was designed by Paul Moog.)
My first experience with real synthesizers was with around 1977 at Orange Coast College (OCC), where they had a Moog IIIp as I recall, using 1/4" patch cords and there was an oscilloscope alongside it to visually observe the waveforms being created. This ended up being incredible beneficial for me later on, helping me to recreate and create my own synthesizer sounds with a better understanding what waveform sounds visually looked like. When the Fairlight came out with it's ability to actually draw waveforms on a screen with the attached "pen" connected to it, this made perfect sense to me. Around 1980, the music department at OCC added an Oberheim OB-Xa, a great classic synthesizer that was a whole lot easier to perform on and change sound patches far easier than the Moog.
During my time in college I played in what started out as a rock band that ended up also playing cumbia music, which was an interesting mix, and we would sometimes perform either style at various clubs, events and parties. The practice garage was located at a house that I can say was definitely haunted, and the two band mate brothers who lived there with their Mom were just fine with its presence. The most common manifestation was changing everything in their kitchen cabinets and drawers in literally seconds, while no one was in the room.
I was spending the night one evening and I rushed downstairs with George when we heard noise in the kitchen. I could see for myself how everything was in a different place in the time that a dozen people couldn't do, because we had been down there a few minutes beforehand. When we returned to his upstairs bedroom to crash out, I asked him to stop playing his guitar, but it wasn't him, because he was in his bed and the guitar was playing inside the closed case resting on the floor near my head. That was a little more freaky to me than the kitchen, all of this they were accustomed to. I was told a 16-year-old son of prior owners had committed suicide in the home, his spirit refused to leave the home and they would often talk to him as if he was a member of their family.
Musical Endeavors After College
During college I worked in the campus printing department between my classes, continuing my employment in it and the advertising industries after college, initially managing companies at age 18, and later becoming co-owner and partner in a typography (yeah, that used to be a thing) and advertising agency. Right out of college I played in a rock band called Hard Times, which was the official band for the local L.A. area KEZY radio station, 96 FM. The band performed at various venues for events sponsored by the radio station, including the now defunct Orange County International Raceway (OCIR), and jog-a-thons, etc. Our guitar player at the time had worked with JBL, as well as Flagg Sound Systems, who was a source of most of our band's powerful rack mounted sound system. We would often trade our rear-loaded horn C43 speaker speaker cabinets with such contemporary musicians as Van Halen, Heart and George Benson. The C43 cabinets were fairly similar to the older JBL C40, except they had the single speaker more centrally located in a more square cabinet similar to the JBL 4530, and they were highly sought after by major artists due to their superior bass and midrange performance at the time.
At one point I felt I needed an organ, so I purchased a used Hammond M-3 along with a Leslie speaker in a wooden cabinet nearly as tall as the organ, both being quite heavy to move, making gig transport and set-up much more difficult. I played in a band called Warning that headlined in May of 1981 at Bill Gazzarri's nightclub on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, where the Doors and Van Halen got started. The crowd loved us, and our opening act was just breaking out, later becoming a major commercial success with many hits (and they're currently on another farewell tour). It was at that gig where I felt I was "prostituting" myself to play music, being ordered what, when and where to play my music, so I decided I needed to pursue music on my own terms that I could be proud of. Perhaps my reaction was somewhat similar to my uncle's with Walt, in 1954. I ended up doing some studio recording sessions for other musicians' songs, and kept composing more of my own original songs.
That solid wood base cabinet of the M3 really added to the weight factor, as opposed to the B3 with it's four legs, and I ended up seriously injuring myself above the knee when my grip slipped while moving the organ with another person while setting up to play a wedding event. That's when I decided I needed an organ that was easier to transport, selling the Hammond and buying a used Yamaha YC-30 combo organ with that innovative portamento "zip strip" above the keys, and keeping the Leslie speaker. Unfortunately, a person I tried to help by inviting them to stay with me when they were down on their luck, stole both my YC-30 and Axxe keyboards in 1982, but they were scared off, leaving the YC-30 bag with the stand and my Little Brother module (that was rather useless without my Axxe).
I joined the band, St. Pierre, named after its lead singer, Gary St. Pierre, alongside guitarist, Joey Tafolla. We worked on our musuc in a rented practice pad. In the practice pad behind us was a band that had just changed their name to Great White, who asked me to join their band after a couple of the band members said I composed the best rock song ever. Joey was the only musician who could manage to play a 9/8 timing movement of a song I'd written, where most other musicians couldn't find the groove within it.
A part of Joey's history I find most interesting is his mother, born as "Rosie" Méndez Hamlin, wrote the hit song, 'Angel Baby' at age 14 and recorded it at only 17, as Rosie and the Originals in 1960. Later she created her own band with guitarist, Noah Tafolla, they got married and Joey was born. In a 1969 Life magazine interview, John Lennon said Rosie Hamlin was one of his favorite singers, and he recorded a cover of Angel Baby in 1975. (I love synchronicity and musical threads, can you tell?)
I did some studio recording gigs while continuing to work full-time in the printing and advertising industry management. Joey went on to establish a name for himself as one of the most influential metal guitarists in the band, Jag Panzer, and conducted guitar seminars at some of Europe's biggest musical institutions. He was also sponsored by numerous music brands, including Carver guitars, and I bumped into him years later at the NAMM Show (National Association of Music Merchants) in Anaheim.
Joey released an instructional video in the 1990's entitled, "Shredding with Joey Tafolla," a title I came up with while doing some charting for Joey's Guitar Player magazine articles, when my girls were little. He used to let them play with his guitar, which they enjoyed. Joey was instrumental (like how I did that there?) in recommending me for studio recording gigs, including one where he was involved before, and another where he wasn't after, my back surgery, while still recovering. About a year ago, I was in a local grocery store and hear someone say, "Mike?" I turned around and was surprised to see Joey, who I hadn't seen in many years, and it turns out we now live pretty near each other within the same city.
I got married in 1983, spending the honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta. When my wife and I arrived at our hotel at the pier on the beach, the desk clerk looked flustered and ran into the back without saying much. Just a moment later a man about my same age came out and graciously greeted the two of us, then reached up into an upper mail slot to grab an envelope left for us by my Aunt Bernice. It was a note to welcome us and let us know there was no charge for our penthouse room, and the man that handed it to us explaned she was a dear friend of his grandfather, who built the hotel.
We got up to our room and while we were unpacking, we heard some really good guitar and harmonica playing, along with the sweet smell of something 'herbal' real close by. My wife went out onto the balcony and said, "That smells good." The response from the other side was, "Well, give the little lady a hit." As the joint was being passed through the round tile openings between the two balconies, she called out to me, and I heard a group of guys all sound disappointedly go, "Aaah."
As it turns out, it was Jimmy Vaughn on the guitar along with all the members of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, plus their manager who went by 'Pablo' when in Puerto Vallarta (which I came to learn was a favorite spot for them to visit frequently). We ended up having a lot of fun and being entertained by the guys, taking Pablo with us for a nice lobster dinner at a restaurant nestled into the cliffs at the South end of PV, El Set (where Night of the Iguana was filmed, which put PV on the map for tourism), that was famous for its sunset views where everyone would clap as the sun disappeared on the horizon.
On that same trip my Aunt wanted to take us to dinner at a popular restaurant called Carlos O'Brien's, which was famous for having people waiting in lines around the block. As we pulled up in my aunt's yellow VW Atlantic, the bouncer and doorman rushed to open the car doors and usher us past the crowd and into a table in the bar. The next dining table that opened up was ours, ahead of everyone waiting for theirs, and this was really the first time I realized my aunt was really considered special by anyone else other than family members, due to how much she and my uncle did to benefit the town and its citizens.
My First Home Studio & Life Events
My two daughters were born in December of 1985 and November of 1987, becoming the motivation for numerous original compositions. Because I always felt I was destined to be a rock star (along with millions of other musicians), I purchased new musical and recording equipment at the end of 1989, at Guitar Center in Hollywood, including what I and others consider to be one of the best keyboard MIDI master controllers ever made, the Roland A-80, which I was told was the keyboard chosen by Elton John for touring around that time (with real ivory keys, not wood, and slightly heavier action than others). In that same bundle I also got a Roland LAPC-I full-sized sound card, CM-32P expansion module, CS-10 stereo micro monitor, and it came with Dynaware Ballade software for hard disk recording, mixing and charting on my wonderful 386-based computer tower at the time. I felt I was ready to record my songs to become the next big hits. I still have that 386 computer and other gear, and later purchased another used A-80 for only $400 when my original A-80 had electrical problems causing one of the key banks to go out (probably about the same cost as the required repair).
In 1992 I suffered a major back injury that caused a 13 mm rupture of my L4-L5 disc that cut off my sciatic nerve to my right leg, with two free-floating fragments breaking off into the fluid in my spinal column amongst my nerves, a 12 mm herniated L3-L4 disc, and 11 mm L5-S1 disc. This injury resulted in a lumbar laminectomy on my birthday, while the Seoul Summer Olympics were taking place. Even though it took me years to recover from the injury and surgery, I felt fortunate to have a sky chair to hang from in my home office to access my comnputers on a Windows 3.11 network. I started my own company and did whatever consulting work I could to earn money, as well as graphics work with contacts I had in the printing and advertising industries, while working on my music as best I could. I had always worked for other people and this was the first time I started being self-employed, depending solely on myself for the income my family needed.
I recorded a number of my songs on that computer system, including a work for hire project with a producer where I composed, performed and recorded everything but the banjo and vocals on a project for Shakey's Pizza Parlors that were just starting up in Japan. As a test, I played that song for numerous people without telling them what it was for, and pretty much everyone said it sounded like a song that would be played in Shakey's, so I knew I had the composition nailed. It was sent over to Japan in a rough mix, with everyone but the person in charge liking it. What we received in response was a really rough recording to use as a template that sounded nothing like Shakey's, resembling a mash up of the trombone song "Catch That Tiger" and music from a vintage Warner Bros. cartoon. The vocals pretty much consisted of a guy speaking the words in broken English, "Come to Shakey's, you just want to eat and eat and eat." We all looked confused at each other, uttering something like, "those are some catchy lyrics," before proceeded to work on what was requested, which I heard ended up being used on TV and radio commercials, while my song played on the Muzak loop in the Shakey's locations. (So much for those feelings I had after performing at Gazzarri's!) My other originals I recorded around that time weren't very good, as if everything and the kitchen sink were thrown into a sonic blender, and it wasn't until many years later than I discovered how little I really knew about professional songwriting, arranging, producing, recording and mixing.
I lost my father in 1993, when he was only 54 years old. A Japanese-American friend of mine shared a belief in his culture where grief is replaced with healing at 90 days after losing someone. Without realizing it had been 90 days after his passing and thinking about my Dad, a complete song popped into my head and I sat down to my piano to play it out. I then went into my home studio to record it into my computer system, with Alberti bass (somewhat like Mozart's Piano Sonata K 545 composition or Beethoven's 3rd movement of Moonlight Sonata). I didn't even realize it had been exactly 90 days until I was speaking on the phone with my stepmother, went to my computer to play the song for her, then noting the recording date, which gave me goosebumps. That was my second epicedium or funeral/memorial song I ever wrote for someone who had passed, writing many more over the years since for others in my life I've known and unfortunately passed. The first epicedium I composed was for a friend's toddler who passed away due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and it was played at Calvary Chapel Church for her memorial service.
Self-Employment & Fiji Trip
During that entire span from early 1993 to present, I've been actively involved in multiple company start-ups, usually as a founder, co-founder or part owner, as CEO, CFO, COO, president, vice president, chairman in entities both public and private, domestic and international. I've gained a lot of professional experience in various areas of expertise, and currently own and operate two companies, in addition to being a CA licensed life and health agent (even though I'm not actively doing any of that). I've been nationally published on numerous topics, written and conducted seminars and trainings, been an invited presenter or panelist at regional, national and international conventions or conferences.
Due to greed and the nefarious actions on the part of others, I lost a lot more money (mostly on paper through ownership) than most families might earn in generations, so I've had to become the proverbial Phoenix bird and re-emerge, reinventing and finding myself drawn to a new opportunities, sometimes in areas I've never known before mastering them. From the telematics company, cellular, venture capital, investment fund, crystal and oscillator manufacturing and pre-foreclosure real estate, to perhaps more altruistic eco-friendly pursuits such as molded rubber sidewalks, walkable communities, environmental products and services, and becoming a Certified Playground Safety Inspector (CPSI).
My son arrived in 1999, and he became an inspiration for more compositions, just as his sisters were and are. In 2008 I lost my mother to a very rare form of cancer that's always terminal and progresses rapidly, passing away in hospice care just one week after exploratory surgery and diagnosis. Months before she passed away or even being diagnosed, I was able to compose and play for my Mom the song I'd written, which she liked, and she'd always been so supportive of me and my music. Weeks after her passing, my first grandchild was born in the same hospital my Mom had been in, which was quite cathartic, to say the least. Now each of my daughters now has an older son and younger daughter, so I have four grandchildren. I've written songs inspired by each of them, and I tend to write songs that evoke images and feelings. This is the motivation for buying and placing the vinyl cut-out on my current office/studio wall that expresses it best, "Music is what feelings sound like."
As I shared earlier, I was given the opportunity to go to Fiji in 2002 to visit lots of locations there, taking photos and video and gathering information for a Fijian real Erstate website. While I was there, I traveled between the two largest out of over 330 islands that comprise Fiji, Vanua Levu and Viti Levu, becoming mesmerized by its incredible beauty and its gracious people, with Conde Naste Travel stating around that time that Fijians are considered the friendliest people on the planet. The most amazing view was of Savusavu Bay, where Fijians go for vacation, which I viewed from my hotel room while I was there. I was lucky enough to travel to a small village on the largest bay in Fiji, taking the compulsory kava root offering with me as a guest of the tribal chieftan, Tui Nararu. He greeted me warmly, treating me to the most amazingly freshly prepared lunch and dinner, where it tasted as though everything was either growing, running or swimming around just prior to harvest and meal preparation. I'd never eaten anything so wonderful and flavorful.
Between meals, Chief Tui Nararu took me out on his small boat to show me a spot he considered very special, where I could see the ocean floor so clearly at about 20 meter depth, as if it were less than one meter. I'd never seen any body of water so clean, clear and blue. He stopped the boat, asked me to look around at the idyllic view, and explained this was the spot George Harrison told him was his favorite place on the planet (George and Olivia visited the village more than once). I felt so thankful and fortunate to take this in and experience this special place and moment, before returning to the village to gather up for a special event he'd planned for my visit. On the way back to shore I asked Tui what their financial needs were like, to which he lamented the electric bill was the highest expense, running about US$10 to $20 a month. I asked if that was for his home and he said that was for the entire village, and it appeared they were all very happy and wanted for nothing. I then sat with Chief Tui among with other men and elders of the village, drinking kava from a half coconut shell out of the village's ceremonial stone bowl, while most of the male villagers performed the traditional Fijian fire dance for me. Chief Tui explained his village had been honored to be selected to perform the fire dance for the country's annual Fiji Days celebration, and I felt like I was transported into a National Geographic special as I took it in, documenting it with video and photgraphs.
Getting Serious About Music & Joining TAXI
Similar to when I lost my Dad, I believe it was 90 days after losing my Mom in 2008 that I realized she would have wanted me to get more serious about my music, so I started researching what was going on within the industry. Something kept popping up in online search results that resonated for me about this entity called TAXI, describing themselves as the world's leading independent A&R company, helping get their member's music to people who need it. The more I looked into it, the more sense it made as the probably the best path forward for me and my music, so I joined and became a member of TAXI in August of 2008. In a way, I could feel my Mom would have approved of this choice, as she was always my champion.
I attended my first TAXI Road Rally in November of 2008, which amazingly is free for all TAXI members, absorbing so much great information from many different music industry titans and professionals, causing me to realize how much I really didn't know or understand about all of it. The Westin LAX has been the location for the annual TAXI Road Rally since I joined in 2008, and it's a nice venue with a theatre on the second floor. Arriving for what was probably my fourth TAXI Road Rally around 2011, I tripped and fell at the curb in front of the hotel entrance before entering the lobby, injuring my knee, leg and ankle, and spending the entire weekend primarily within the Grand Ballroom in a wheelchair provided by the hotel. I learned so much by being there, I decided this is where I needed to be for subsequent annual TAXI Road Rally events.
I learned a lot of the nitty gritty details in my first few Road Rally years about the craft of successful hit songwriting, from lyrical content and prosody to melodic structure, as well as recording, mixing, marketing, placement and so much more from those powerful breakout sessions. The year following my injury I started sitting in the front row, primarily to see and hear everything better. I ended up being seated near and assisting Michael Laskow a little (TAXI's CEO & founder), then a bit more each subsequent year, getting to know many of the staff members, as well as industry professionals who regularly attend that are so generous with their time, and sincere about offering their insights and experience to benefit others. I know I made the right choice by choosing and joining TAXI, because it is such a great resource for information, education and contacts within the music A&R industry.
If you're choosing to get serious about your music, not sure what to do next about your songwriting, recording, mixing, mastering, where to receive constructive feedback for any improvement, or where to find a home for your work once it's completed, then you probably could benefit from joining TAXI. I would be honored to assist you by providing a link that saves you money on your annual membership, while it benefits me too with a credit toward mine, so it's a win-win for both of us. Please feel free to Contact me.
My Musical Influences
Some of the musical influences I grew up listening to include: Mozart, George Gershwin, Herb Alpert, Henry Mancini (I attended his final concert), Vladimir Horowitz, Leonard Bernstein, Buddy Holly, Nat King Cole, Nina Rota, John Williams, Mommas and Poppas, Peter, Paul and Mary, Byrds, Uriah Heep, Sly and the Family Stone, Jim Croce, America, Beatles (plus each member's solo careers), Rolling Stones, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (and Neil Young as a solo artist), Edgar Winter, Pink Floyd, Gentle Giant, Kraftwerk, Rick Wakeman, Jethro Tull, Ambrosia, Yes, Boston, Who, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Deep Purple, Elton John, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa, Bob Seger, Billy Joel, Electric Light Orchestra, Kansas, Rush, Shakespears Sister, Enya, George Winston (to whom many people compare my piano playing style on some of my piano compositions) and Ray Lynch, as a small sampling to give you an idea of the wide variety of my musical exposure and preferences. More recent influences whose music I love include the Foo Fighters, Joe Satriani, Green Day, Traveling Wilburys, Black Keys, Struts, Dirty Honey, Hu Band and Volbeat (who are great live, especially if there's a mosh pit!).