I've been very blessed. I'll start in Elementary school and list those I was hangin' with. My best friend was Val Levy. We were in scouts (Encino131) together, did the typical guy stuff... mini-biking, go-karting, rode our bikes a lot. Have a lot of great memories with Val. We both had treehouses, he had a two story treehouse. Stayed friends for years, drifted apart in jr high school. Also in scouts with Eric Jacoby, he later moved right around the corner, the first house I knew with a bomb shelter. Eric & I went to different jr highs so we lost touch. Friends with Marty Sarkissian, he was a good artist. He lived around the corner on Clark Street just west of Reseda, until he later moved to Woodland Hills. Portola Jr High - Val went to Portola, still friends although we were starting to drift apart. Met Randy Ralke, Alan Marks, Randy Saltzman, Bob Yellen and formed Loadstone, legendary rock band. Also Met Heidi McReynolds And Trish Spencer of Valley Vista, Encino. Still in touch with Heidi, who is married with two little ones. Heidi and I spent hours and hours on the phone, which was quite amazing since her parents were musicians and needed the phone to ring to get calls for work. When we weren't on the phone we were writing letters back and forth, I still have a stack of letters from her saved, as does she with mine. Randy soon became my best friend. He lived on Yarmouth in Encino. Currently he is back in Minnesota. Reseda High - Randy Ralke also went to Reseda. We hung around a lot, he got his license to drive so we went places, in his mom's Chevy Vega, light blue. His family moved to Reseda (Tampa&Hamlin), in an area that used to be called the pits. (A big hole in the ground motorcyclists and bicyclists were attracted to for the jumps. Of course I rode my bikes there. One good crash I'll never forget. Went off a big jump, when landing the down tube broke off at the head tube. Hit the family jewels, not sure what else happened. Next thing I remember I'm walking home with my bike.) Randy and his family then again moved, a few blocks west to a house with a pool. Fast forward decades, Randy has since moved back to Minnesota. Greg "Claude" Hollands, sax player - Been friends with Greg since 1972. He is the only person I know that practiced more than I did. And only then because of the difference between getting brass and reed vibrating. It would be an understatement to say he was an incredible player in high school When the Reseda Jazz BAnd would go to a jazz festival, if there was an Honor band the only question was would play 2nd under Greg. Unfortunately when his older brother got killed Greg's life took some sad turns. He's never been the same. He still plays everyday Dan Cedano, trombone player - Lived up the street from me. Spent a lot of time with Dan and his family, maybe they knew about my home situation. Went to the snow, the beach with them. Played football on Sundays with his extended family at Kennedy HS or Parthenia Park. John Wolfe, trumpet player - With Rick, the 3 of us hung out together almost 24/7. His mom was always baking, so obviously I was there whenever possible. Rick Austinson, trombone player. Lived around the corner. After high school, John kinda drifted away as Rick and I remained tight. A visit to the 7-11 at Tampa/Oxnard for big gulps and sunflower seeds and then back to my place for game after game of backgammon was a daily ritual. He's married to his lovely wife Jana and have 3 well behaved children. Unfortunately, Rick works on those "other" kind of computers. I try not to hold it against him. Richard Sproul, trumpet player - One of the better players in high school. One of those, "legit" players. He rode a Honda motorcycle. We played a lot of handball at Pierce college together. He's currently living up in Oakland, I got to visit him in 2001. He's doing well last I emailed him. Jim Rodgers, trumpet player - Another Reseda Regent, 3 years behind me. Also took trumpet lessons with Dolph, as did most of the trumpet players at Reseda. One year at the Orange Coast College jazz festival Jim, Don, John and I drove down in my Cougar. Had a flat tire on the way down, the hub cap popped off and rolled under the lane divider. We changed the tire and continued on without the hubcap. We slept in the car. On the way home the next day we pulled over to the left side of the highway and picked up the hubcap. Don Stillo, trumpet player - One of the gang, a Reseda Regent with Jim Rogers. Played in the Dave Olson band with Jim and I. College - Jana Rains, woodwinds - Another Reseda regent, a few years behind me. We dated briefly. Married, 3 kids. Patti Magee, Vocalist. She sang on all my compositions/arrangements at LAVC. Looking for her, if you have any info about her shoot me an email. Frank Villafranca, sax player. Originally from Buffalo New York. Attended Berklee college of music before heading west to Los Angeles at the suggestion of trombonist Bob Ryan. We have played so many gigs together a gig without him wouldn't seem right. I'm lucky to be able to consider him one of my best friends. He met and married Connie and had two lovely children, Katie and James. Before I moved from Tarzana he was only a mile away, obviously I don't see him as often. Was it good living that close to "Frankie V, International Recording Star." Hell yeah. One of the jobs Frank had years decades ago was filling vending machines. He would swing by and I would loot the truck. Not really, Frank picked out what he could spare and the sandwiches that expired. Currently Frank is playing with the San Gabriel Seven and the Super Groovers Norm Cowen, trumpet player. Played together at Valley college and CSUN. Designed the sound back. For a while we were almost inseparable. It was during this time I became an Astroids expert. Norm is still playing trumpet, not sure if he still plays Asteroids. Sal Panelli, trumpet player - from Valley college. Currently a teacher in Bakersfield, and still playing. Scott Wright, trumpet player - We have played all across the country together, helped me fix my house. Was my wing-man in the Moshe Noy band. Andy Wiener, trumpet/Keyboard/Arranger. Met him at CSUN. He played keyboard in my band for a while. He's currently working on American Idol. Lee Chemelsky, sax player - Also a Reseda Regent but we met at Valley College. It's been a few years since I last saw Lee. I would meet him after his last class at Pierce college, we would run the cross country course together. Played tennis together, Ran the Reseda Fire Road with Rock. Played tenor sax a few times with the Christmas Brass Quartet. Richard Medrano, trumpet player/vocalist - We met at Valley college and he invited me to play in his band, "The Relations." He's gone on to finish college, he now works as a choir director at both a church and school, he loves what he's doing. He's soon to get married. Early McCalister, sax player - We met in college, played in a few bands together. I played piano in his band a few times. Played tennis together, including a few tournaments. He could be called my basketball trainer, he might not want to admit it. We were weekly (wednesday) partners at Hometown Buffet, we would show up at 3, the dinner menu started at 3:30. Early also coached Basketball at a couple of the local private high schools. Bob Dawson was the co-director of the Valley College marching band and a couple other classes. Like me, he was a graduate of Reseda High School. For a while we were real close. I was doing th copying work for the Valley college marching band and also the copying for Church On The Way. His wife set me up with a nice girl, Elizabeth Ann. She invited me over to watch basketball and she would cook dinner. Yeah, I know what you're thinking... why didn't this work out. Don't know, can't remember. I can remember the college game before the Laker game was Ralph Sampson vs. Pat Ewing in college. Also was invited to Thanksgiving at the Dawson's one year. They have a couple kids. The last time I saw him was at "The Canyon" in Thousand Oaks at a Tower of Power concert. Music - Deb Wagner, trumpet player. She needed some charts for her gig in Japan in 1997, that's how we met. To say that Deb is one of my bestest friends would be an understatement. There is no one that is better to have in your corner than Deb. A few years ago I started going through a funk. In hopes of helping she organized a cleaning/repairing/painting program for my house (back in Tarzana), hoping improved surroundings would provide a lift in my mood. Before and After. I've played piano on a few gigs with her, played at Lake Tahoe Dec. 31, 1999. Also played at the blue water resort for a week with her all girl band. Over the years we have gotten closer and closer. Deb and her husband Wayne Bergeron have a Christmas CD, Music & Mistletoe out for sale, a Brass Quintet with vocalist and rhythm section. "2004 Grammy nominee Wayne Bergeron, along with the After Hours Brass (and Rhythm), perform Christmas standards with a bossa nova, swing and cool jazz style" It's available for sale on After Hours Brass dot com. I was in attendence at Martin Sound studios for a couple of the sessions, if you're a fan of brass music this CD is a must buy. All the top players from Los Angeles. And yes, as an ex-trumpet player I encouraged Wayne to overdub a lot of high notes. Mark Prudeaux, vocalist/artist. Met him when he was singing with "The Relations." He is the artist that designed the Bring Back Swing logo and the Phat Sushi logo. We've mountain biked on both the north and south sides of the valley. We're also sushi buds. Like all sane rational people, he has a MAC. Roch Brodenave, Voiceoverist and Trombone player and father. AKA Mr. Downhill. When mountain biking he has NO FEAR of crashing on his downhill descents. We played many gigs together, both for my projects and those of others. One time we were playing in the Bay (San Fran) area, we were on one of the upper floors. The room was stuffy and the window wouldn't open so we took it upon ourselves to liberate the window from the window frame. Ah, fresh air. And no, we didn't spit down on the people walking into the hotel. Jerry Brookings, Bass player/Bandleader in Las Vegas. Played bass with Lou Rawls a few years back. Needed some charts and was referred to me by Early McCalister. Jerry has an R&B band. Rhythm section, trumpet, tenor, trombone, bari. He's thinking about adding a couple live string players to his band on a regular basis. Life - Craig Morgan - Craig and I have been friends since the mid 70's. We've done lots of guy stuff together. I spent some time as his co-pilot for t-hunting in his ex-police car or 4 wheel drive trucks. We've thrown papers, been regulars at Shakeys bunch-a-lunch at Corbin/Saticoy. Played hours and hours of tennis, was his assistant coach when coaching little league. I tagged along on a few of his flying lessons. Drove from Texas to Reseda in his dad's new truck, part of that with me in the bed practicing trumpet, and getting a sun burn. I would practice in the hotel rooms where we stayed. Worked in L.A.S.A.R. (Los Angeles Search and Rescue), his search & rescue teams with him. He got me work for a day on the Rocky 2 movie (the scene in the pinball arcade). He's currently married to his high school sweetheart living in Texas. Jabari Davis - I first met him when he was still in diapers, I used to play tennis with his dad while he was placed under the bench in his car seat. Years later when he had grown taller and I had grown wider I met him again playing basketball at Tarzana park. I consider him to be one of my bestest friends. We are both big Laker fans. Jabari is a very prolific writer, visit Jabari's blog. Ann Hollcraft, my better half. First time we met, I hugged her first. I brought her a six pack of diet pepsi as that's her drink of choice. After emailing back and forth, and then talking I drove ut to her place in South Pasadena for a face to face meeting. We went to dinner at her favortie place, President Thai on Rosemead. More to come soon