A not-so-brief (personal) Bio
My purpose here is to convey my personal connection to music, how it has found expression in my life, and how music and technology have become intertwined. Of course along the way I'll try to impress you a bit with people and places!
As a child growing up in the Los Angeles area in the 50's, music was everywhere. It sailed about in the winds of radio, TV, movies, much like today. I enjoyed the popular songs I heard but did not feel any special "connection" to music until, at age 12, I first held a guitar in my arms. At summer camp, a counselor brought an old nylon classic. Something about its quiet round tones: harp-like, other-worldly. I was completely captivated. My parents soon bought me my first guitar and I began practicing in earnest. Was I a prodigy? Hardly. It took me many months of struggle just to properly tune it! So my musical journey began. Lots of hard work with slow, steady progress. By my mid-teens I had become an ardent classical guitarist. At seventeen I was fortunate enough to study for a year with the Romero family.
A brief (business) Bio
Raised in Los Angeles California, I began early musical studies on the guitar, later expanding to piano as I became more interested in composition. I played in various band settings and managed some early studio work, even doing an original soundtrack composition for documentary film. I later moved north to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I focused on solo guitar and become interested in concert production. As impresario (sounds so regal) I established over ten years experience directing innovative concerts for soloists and small ensembles, performing works from classical to jazz. On the technology side (where's the money) I gained over twenty years experience as a Systems Manager, building and supporting advanced network servers and workstations. Initially combining these interests as a hobby, I built my first DAW in 1992 running Cubase v1, which was installed via single diskette! Now with computer music technology in full maturity, I bring all of this together as a DAW consultant offering a wide range of affordable professional services.
San Francisco in the later 70s-80s was a joy to experience. A city exploding with energy and affordable excellence across the entire range of arts, often performed at popular venues. On consecutive nights, just at the Spaghetti Factory alone, you could be charmed by a "Pocket Opera" performance of Mozart, .laugh yourself silly with Spaghetti Jam's whacky improv comedy, then be rocked by the power and grace of non-nouveau flamenco.
A brief return to school got me a technical degree in computer programming and I was all set to begin a new career coding behemoth mainframes when the PC made its debut and changed the American workplace. I still recall the excitement in my first computer office when some of the staff received PC-XTs with a "huge" 10mb internal hard-drive! I was impressed enough to start shifting my work focus from programming to PC systems, a career track I pursued successfully for over twenty years. As a systems manager I built and supported networked servers and high-end workstations, utilizing every evolving technology to maximize speed, reliability, and data protection. These are skills that carry over well to DAW computing.
D A W - s o l o
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D A W - s o l o
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Music initially was a refuge for me. A time warp where I could hide. That safe place started to unravel when I first heard the music of Stravinsky and was annihilated by John Coltrane. I went then on a spiritual journey, becoming a Buddhist for a time. I stayed for a month at a temple in the countryside of Japan, seeing and hearing things the memory of which amaze me to this day, When I returned, I began composing music in earnest. I taught myself piano, carefully arranging by ear the more accessible Coltrane compositions. I sought out popular music and had a wonderful time hanging out at jazz clubs about the LA area. One of my favs was the Comeback Inn in Venice, where I met a number of talented young players and studied jazz theory with pianist David Garfield.
I experimented with early multi-track recording, buying a cheap in-line reel-to-reel. I would lay down guitar and bass, then improvise piano over the changes. Most importantly I discovered a new space: a refuge that was also a dynamic tool of change and a stage for the most deeply personal expression of my individual experience; a magical place where past, present, future all come together within the exquisite process of creation. It's in this spirit that I strive to compose music to this day.
Never a "trust fund" kid, I fortunately had a practical side and a love of learning that kept me in school during the above (parking cars weekends to pay rent and books). I graduated with a BA in History from Cal State Northridge, minoring in music because I felt that clubs and popular music offered more than academia at that time. Within a few years after graduation I packed up and moved to San Francisco, because there was so much more "There" there.
So began a nicely balanced time in my life when systems work was interesting but not overbearing and I had enough time and money afterwards to explore culture freely and even create some of my own. During this time I began to produce concerts, first being "Guitar Night at the Spaghetti Factory", followed by three other series. My personal favorite was "Acoustic Cafe at La Bodega" where for three years every Tuesday evening was a musical adventure, from elegant Chamber Jazz settings of sax and bass to dynamic folkloric ensembles with dancing percussion. All shows were totally acoustic. I opened each night with solo Spanish guitar by the bar, then settled down to discreetly bartend and focus on the featured performers, as did our very respectful audience. Performing only a few feet from where we sat, were some of the finest musicians of the bay area. There were so many great names, I could go on for pages, but just for guitar alone we featured the likes of Alex Degrassi, Adam Levy, and Joyce Cooling, amongst others. This provided an invaluable, ongoing master class for me that I cherish as a wonderful resource.
At present, as a family man in quiet Alameda, I can draw from the best of two intertwined worlds. With a rich personal musical history and the amazing technology of today's DAW-powered project studios, now is a time of creative reflection when composing and producing music is of primary importance.
