I come from a family of music lovers. I heard music constantly growing up, went for piano lessons in grammar school, sang in the church choir and went to Rock and Roll shows before I went to high school. All those early seeds blossomed, when one Christmas I received a guitar from a very perceptive gift-giver. I started to practice, play with friends and was hooked!

Even though I jammed with people, I focused on solo or duet playing for years. My first group, The Leftovers, was formed in the 70’s with American and Jamaican musicians creating tunes together. We became the house band for an after-hours club called Port Royal in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Some of those rhythms still vibrate in my mind and influence me to this day. These were pretty inspirational days.

Around this time I started to organize shows of different musical acts on the same bill. Sometimes a poet or dancer would perform in one of these shows and I realized how the variety improved the whole night. I began to host these “cabaret” type shows on a semi-regular basis. My travels in many parts of the world stimulated my musical curiosity and I wanted to include some world performers in subsequent shows. This is an avocation that I am still very attracted to.

This journey was not the straight line it sounds like when I tell it here. There were long breaks where music faded into the background, where no shows were performed or contacts made. But something would always bring me back. After the traumatic shock of the loss of my wife, I started to play the ukulele, which I had acquired on one of our many trips together to Hawaii. The baritone ukulele has become a constant companion and there are now 7 CDs of songs that I wrote using that instrument.

I have had the chance to perform here in New York, but also Florida, Hawaii, Thailand and Japan. The portability of the uke is a blessing. All this has reinforced the often-stated belief that music is a language of its own. I continue to speak that language as much as I can.