Captain Russ, that is some story and some resumé! My hat's off to you- and yes- I can well understand that you consider yourself the luckiest man alive...but there had to be a whole lot of talent and discipline and good karma involved in that too..congrats

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Miami Mo

Thanks to Dan, Mo, Midge and Russ for sharing some of your history with us. It is really exciting to learn about the people we have been inter relating with all these years. I was amazed at how little we know about each other.
I hope that many more of you will share with us here in this thread and keep this thread just for Bios,
Thanks to all who have shared and those that are right now putting their bios together to post here.
Best to all,
Bebop

My story is a lot different from these, and not nearly as interesting.
I started playing trumpet in Junior High School (remember that?) because my cousin played trumpet. By my sophomore year I was first chair in the Oklahoma all-state concert band.
My mother always played piano and organ so I fooled around with those instruments growing up also.
When I got to college, I played trumpet in the ROTC band for the first two years. Since I was a basketball player I couldn't play in the University band because of time restraints. College basketball is pretty rough and I lost my front teeth. The trumpet was never the same after that.
My sophomore year, my roommate, who played guitar and sang, asked if I knew a bass guitar player. He had a dance to play for in two weeks and it paid $50. apiece.
I told him sure I could play bass. I called mom and she sent me $50. I went to the pawn shop and bought a used Silvertone bass and amp for $45. Since I knew music theory, all I had to do was figure out which strings and frets went with which notes.
To shorten things a bit, I learned enough to do the dance, paid mom back, and I was hooked forever. I played bass and a little drums with that same group for the rest of my college days. We traveled all over the state playing proms and dances.
Right before graduation, a band back home was going really well and they offered me a job, but it was to play organ. Called mom again and I went to the music store and bought a Lowrey on credit. I knew only enough to get started but picked it up pretty quickly, song by song. I could play in the keys of C, F and G. If they called a long in E, I pressed the foot level that ben the note a half step and played in F. (Primitive transposer). I also did some songs on trumpet when needed (I Feel Good, Papa Has a Brand New Bag, etc.)
For Russ, at this time, I had yet to play or really listen much, to a country song. I could read anything written for right hand because of the trumpet history and I knew how to make chords with the left. I made myself learn to play in the other keys asap.
I was making about $40. a week at the Oil and Gas Journal as a writer, and about $75 on Friday and Saturday night. However my wife at the time "made" me turn down an offer to play with Freddy Cannon.
I soon dumped the Lowrey for a B3 and leslie.
My daytime career started doing better and I soon moved to Arkansas as Advertising Manager for Murphy Oil Corp.
In my spare time I played organ for parties and dances and soon had most of the the prime society jobs in a semi-small town.
After five years there, I quit and purchased a small newspaper and later an advertising agency.
In the late seventies I sold out and decided to become a musician full-time, at least until the money ran out. By then I was working two music jobs, one solo and one with a band. We backed up just about all the name artists that came through town. It was good experience. I had a few offers to join some of them, but none of them paid what I was already making!
An agent I ran into got me a job with a year's contract in Bossier City, LA. I packed up and moved and have been here ever since.
I did own my own nightclub for about 10 years, but for the past 15 have made a fair living "just playing".
I told you it was boring.
DonM

This won't be as interesting as the rest above me.....

I started study of the accordion at age 12...
I actually excelled quickly as an accordionist...guess I had good teachers..

I really did have great teachers....
My teachers actually prepared me to also teach after my schooling..

I did not play in High School bands..
I mostly played sports and dated in High School..

After graduation (high school)..I went on to college (Villanova, Pa)..

Don I also played basketball, but still have my front teeth...

I started to play accordion in local bands..."top 40 bands"...
Now they call the tunes "standards"...

After college...I started my own Contracting business (Construction..not hits)...
and continued this as my "day" job to date..

In the mid 60's I worked for Hammond Organ,
in sales , and performed (played) at exposures..
(term used for demonstrations)..

I also did home demos to sell Hammond organs...
Talk about back breaking ..

After my stint with Hammond ..I worked for Conn Organ,
as a teacher, accordion and organ..

When Disco came about, I stopped playing gigs with the band..
actually I quit playing jobs for about 5 years.

In the Early 80's, I opened my first of several musical instrument stores..
.specializing in keyboards..

I also started to work as a duo,
with some of the prettiest girls, you ever want to see...
and they could sing..

I have enjoyed working with "girls" for the last 25 plus years..

The last 7-8 years I have worked with the popular Jersey shore band.."Just In Time"..


I only have worked with a couple folks that were more famous than I...
and of course , I helped make a few more famous too..

Thanks to Don and Fran for sharing their Bios. I have really looked forward to learning more about these two really accomplished musicians, and I was sure not disappointed
We all hope to hear from many more of you too. We all are interested in what makes you who you are. How about sharing with us. Your bio can help many of our younger people that are still laboring to find their way.
Thanks to all in advance,
Bebop Bill

Well mine is short but messed up...at the age of 5 i had to speak 4 Languages and listen to 5 different
types of Music, reason: Turkish heritage, born in Yugoslavia (Macedonia), all Albanian neighboors,
at home we spoke Turkish, in school Macedonian and Serbian and outside with friends Albanian too.
Then i also lived in Turkey, Italy, Germany and now finally in the USA since 1997 when i came here.
I lost my parrents, both in the same day in a car accident when i was only 4, i stayed with my uncles.
Same goes with the Music, we listened to all, at the time they were very different not like right now.
I started playing Kawala (Flute) when i was 5, by accident, went with my grandma to an open
Fleat Market (Bazaar) and i saw the guy selling them and i started screaming i want one, she wouldnt
get one and i became more stubborn and crying and the guy let me play with one...once i started
playing (never touched one before) i gathered crowd around, it was just plain hearing, creating tunes,
it wasnt just awfull blowing...while the crowd gathered my grandma had no choice...she bought it.
Then i got sick everybody in the house, my uncle was a drummer...then i started bugging them more,
wanted a Gaida (BagPipe) and learnt that too...finally at the age of 11-12 i started playing parties on
a Clarinet and Sax while i had a Darbuka and Accordeon as Accompainment. Till the age of 16 i was
ok and then suddenly asked the Accordeon guy to let me screw around with his Accordeon and that
was it...my life changed again, next two weeks i was trying to convince my familly to buy me accordeon
which it didnt happen...had to learn on other peoples instruments that too and later on i went straight
to synths, abandoning the Accordeons all together...that was all till 1993 somewhere when i got into
Programming, everyone was just trying to play music and i was the only one screwing around with
the machines what can they possibly do at the time...and here i am at SZ today, still doing the same.

A little of my influence: ... at the time i was strictly playing our music till like i was 15 then i suddenly
started listening to Classic Rock, Oldies and some electronic, i liked Ofra Haza at the time too...
In the begining of 90es i got heavilly in love with Jean Michel Jarre (still today) and then the Techno
era started and i got carried with it...till late 90es when i got back to Rock and older stuff.
During mid 90es i produced, programmed, worked a lot of European TECHNO/DANCE/TRANCE
music (which i still do today) and also for a lot of Ethnic bands as Greeks, Turks, Arabs, Yugos,
Bulgarians, Caucasus, Indians and few others...but while doing all this i started slowing down on
laying live and less and less time for ACTUAL MUSIC PLAYING...untill recently, i started listening
and playing some BoogeyWoogey music....
I never took a single class for music in any instrument, all self taught...finished Sound Engineering
which in my opinion has nothing to do with music itself at all.

Thanks for your time reading this.

1-I started my first band in grammar school, four flutaphones, three humazoos and me on drums and humazoo. We played at the graduation, the song was Begin the Beguine. We changed tempos from Latin the 4/4 upbeat, the flutaphones took the Latin part and the humazoos had the 4/4 upbeat part.
2-My first guitar was bought at age 15. We were three singers, one harmonica player and myself on guitar. Since I did not play that well I would turn the guitar over and use the back to play a drumbeat.
3-I was 23 when I played my first pro job. Bass, sax, drums, piano and me on guitar. There was no need to turn the guitar over any longer because I knew a lot of chords. The job was at a German Ratskeller (spelling?) As we walk out with our instruments I can still remember the manager saying, “This is the worst band I have ever heard”. Ouch!
4-In my later 20’s and early 30’s we played in restaurants and clubs. Lead singer playing bass, drums, accordion and me on guitar.
5-In my later 30’s I took the place of the lead singer and played as a trio.
6-The accordion player was then replaced with a young inexperienced organ player, he used a portable Hammond B3 organ. The sound of the band was full, on occasions we added a sax.
7-Everything went straight up from this point, more jobs, better pay and we started to earn a solid reputation.
8-Played through the catering circuit in Manhattan and long Island in New York. Played for the Mayer of New York, Terrace I the park, the World’s fair restaurant, and the Playboy Club – we were even fortunate enough to play on TV for three different occasions. (Cerebral Palsy) We were hot and playing in the best places. The best job I ever played was at a hotel in New York. I booked the job by phone. Everyone in the party we were playing for was black. I knew their love for music and I was hoping we could satisfy them. A great sax player, my young now experienced Hammond B3 organist, a wild drummer and me on lead vocal and guitar. We played – they showed their appreciation – then we played even better. Humbly I have to say we tore the place apart.
9-In 1984 I moved to Florida which 20 years behind the times. A guitar players were hired as the 6th or 7th musician. I purchased my first Yamaha keyboard, a Psr55 if I remember correctly, I was on my way to be coming a one-man-band.
10-The keyboard history goes from that first keyboard to the Kn7000 to the Tyros 3. At first I connected my guitar to the keyboard using a Midi Wire. I was able to play my guitar and have the chords triggered on the keyboard. As I improved I began to leave the guitar home. The rest is history, weddings, anniversaries, private parties and condos – ending with Nursing Homes.

Thanks for allowing me to share it brought back a lot of beautiful memories.

Thank you Bebop, John C.

Wow two more really interesting bios. Nedim and John C. Guys, I really enjoyed reading your bios. they all trigger so many things in my life that start to come back into focus. I am really enjoying reading your bios from every one of you. I am thankful to each of you for taking the time and trouble and memory searching to share with us. You are all great folks.
I am sure there will be many more of you fine people that will yet share with us. I am looking forward to reading each one.
thank you all for your dedication and commitment to making the music world a better place for everybody now and those yet to come.
Best to all,
Bebop Bill

I started playing the accordion at the age of 8. When I was 14 the studio where I took lessons paired me up with a couple of their guitar playing students to play a gig for someone that called the studio asking for a band. That was the start of what evolved into a 4 piece group. One played guitar and sang, one played bass and we added a drummer. We played weddings, proms, anniversaries, bowling banquets, lounges, etc. almost anything you could imagine. We took second place on the Morris B Sachs Amateur Hour. That was the 50’s version of American Idol which played out in black and white on TV in Chicago. The guitar vocalist and myself even hooked up for a period of time with a couple of country boys and played at a road house bar for several months on the weekends. This experience forced me to develop some improvisational skills because these two country guys would sing a chorus or two and then turn to me and say ”take it Gene” and I’d have to run with it. We had fun for a while but these guys were married and in their thirties and Ed and I were in our teens. They liked to flirt with other women and usually got in trouble with their wives. The bar actually began to stock milk for Ed and myself. However, after witnessing a couple of bar brawls, we decided to quit that gig and focus on more normal gigs. Over the years Ed sang and played guitar, I played Cordovox and we used a bass player and a drummer. The rhythm section would change from time to time. They seemed to be less stable, especially the drummers. After synthesizers came out, I bought a Yamaha DX7. For a while I took both the Cordovox and the DX7 on the jobs but soon the group told me I could leave the Cordovox home. I added a Roland D50 and that worked well with the DX7. More recently, it got a lot harder to get 4 piece gigs so Ed and I began using a Roland rhythm machine and became a 2 piece group. People liked it. Then, a few years ago, while on a cruise with my wife I heard one of the entertainers playing a Solton X1. I talked with him on his break and investigated further when we got home and learned that the Ketron SD1 would be coming out soon. I waited until it was out about 10 months and bought one. It’s been terrific and people seem to like it a lot. I’m looking to purchase an Audya probably within a year. Ed and I are now in our 60th year of gigging together and have each raised our families and made many friends in the business. We have a bit of a following and have played several generations of weddings and anniversaries for various families. Along the way, I’ve been involved in the music ministry at my church. We were always just weekend warriors with the music. We both had full time jobs to support our families. (I had six children) The music was a great supplement to our incomes and a great release from the normal tensions of the week. Ed and I will probably continue to gig together as long as the Lord allows.

Gene

thanks to Gene for sharing your bio with us. I see that many people started out playing an accordion or also played one. It seems to be a common denominator like arranger keyboards are now.
I wonder when Nigel or DP and some more of you well known synthzone musicians will share your bio with us. c'mon guys we are waiting for you.
thanks to all,
Bebop