The other night, during a break from our trio show at Vivaldi's Restaurant in The Symphony Hotel in Downtown Cincinnati, I met a charming couple, the wife from Cincy and the husband from Eastern Pennsylvania/New York. The man commented on how “parochial” Cincinnati is. I can relate because when I first returned here in 2017, I would be asked where I went to school, and as I would begin to describe my college (Graduate) education in New York, they'd interrupt me and say that they wanted to know what high school I went to! I've zero interest in talking about that, and zero interest in talking to anyone who is only interested in knowing what high school I went to. The bulk of my learning didn't occur until I had left Cincinnati, and the most significant aspect of my high school memories was that I had no intention of ever returning here. I felt that Cincinnati was too conservative. A summer-long visit to New York City to attend The Guitar Workshop as a teenager opened my eyes to not only jazz music, but to a place where cultural diversity and awareness was more prevalent; a place where the underpinnings of White privilege and racism seemed less oppressive; and a place teeming with far more role models and sources for inspiration and opportunity than here. NYC was definitely more my style!
I moved to NYC and bought a house in Brooklyn. Later, I relocated to Hong Kong (2 years), Singapore (7 years), Shanghai (2 years), and Japan (6 years). I relocated back to Cincinnati to be closer to my Mother in 2017, and it was a good thing, because she passed away in 2021 and I was with her (bedside in fact) right up until her last dying breath! I will always miss her, and I know she wanted me with her at the end. I was privileged to be there when she needed me the most, since most of my adult life I was physically too far away from her too often to cherish those most intimate and memorable moments of life with her.
Though I will be forever grateful to share those meaningful final moments with my Mom in Cincinnati, after having established a very successful career abroad as a performer and recording artist, and doing 300+ gigs a year for consecutive years at a time, returning to my hometown of Cincinnati was to be virtually anonymous and unacknowledged in my own birthplace. Very few individuals (if any) remembered me for booking a weekly jazz concert series (Doc's Place) in Cincinnati with both local and internationally-known artists for almost two years or so in 1985, or for being a first-call sub for Maestro guitarist Cal Collins at the Hilton Netherlands Plaza's Palm Court in downtown Cincinnati. In 2017 upon my return, I had no gigs, no students, no friends. For money, I worked managing a music store (DHR Guitar), delivered pizza for LaRosa's, and drove a semi-truck over-the-road. My first playing gig was not even in Cincinnati! It was in Louisville at the now defunct Jimmy Can't Dance, as a sideman in the Brooks Giles Group. Brooks and I met while on tour in Asia and became friends then, almost 30 years ago. Fortunately, he remembered me as a bad-ass guitar player with International experience and acclaim, i.e. a kindred spirit … a brother from another Mother! This is us in Brooklyn, before we both ended up in the Midwest.
I moved to NYC and bought a house in Brooklyn. Later, I relocated to Hong Kong (2 years), Singapore (7 years), Shanghai (2 years), and Japan (6 years). I relocated back to Cincinnati to be closer to my Mother in 2017, and it was a good thing, because she passed away in 2021 and I was with her (bedside in fact) right up until her last dying breath! I will always miss her, and I know she wanted me with her at the end. I was privileged to be there when she needed me the most, since most of my adult life I was physically too far away from her too often to cherish those most intimate and memorable moments of life with her.
Though I will be forever grateful to share those meaningful final moments with my Mom in Cincinnati, after having established a very successful career abroad as a performer and recording artist, and doing 300+ gigs a year for consecutive years at a time, returning to my hometown of Cincinnati was to be virtually anonymous and unacknowledged in my own birthplace. Very few individuals (if any) remembered me for booking a weekly jazz concert series (Doc's Place) in Cincinnati with both local and internationally-known artists for almost two years or so in 1985, or for being a first-call sub for Maestro guitarist Cal Collins at the Hilton Netherlands Plaza's Palm Court in downtown Cincinnati. In 2017 upon my return, I had no gigs, no students, no friends. For money, I worked managing a music store (DHR Guitar), delivered pizza for LaRosa's, and drove a semi-truck over-the-road. My first playing gig was not even in Cincinnati! It was in Louisville at the now defunct Jimmy Can't Dance, as a sideman in the Brooks Giles Group. Brooks and I met while on tour in Asia and became friends then, almost 30 years ago. Fortunately, he remembered me as a bad-ass guitar player with International experience and acclaim, i.e. a kindred spirit … a brother from another Mother! This is us in Brooklyn, before we both ended up in the Midwest.
