(What you sow, so shall you reap)
While still a high school tuba player I discovered that I could play along with Elvis Presley records without the distraction of sheet music. While in college a friend let me borrow some Firehouse Five and Turk Murphy records, and I learned a lot from them. Finding some other guys who could play, I formed a band, and started getting gigs. I managed to keep it up while becoming a high school physics teacher in the 1960s. Occasionally some of my students found out about my hobby and asked if they could bring in their instruments after school for informal jam sessions, which I enjoyed as much as they did.
Early On
Fast-forward to 1971 when I found myself onstage with Woody Allen at the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. How the nascent Galvanized Jazz Band stumbled into that gig is another story, but backstage before the show we met Danny Barker. He told us about trying to find instruments for a youth band that he was starting at the Fairview Baptist Church. Back home in Connecticut I went to some garage sales and bought a couple of trombones for something like five bucks apiece, and sent them to Mr. Barker.
A short time later I was on a gig with s
