Dates and events are reported as: allegedly - thought - of - as - true - but - admittedly - flimsily - researched.  I  regrettably have no first hand knowledge of these events and dates.  So I rely on the more confident and esteemed  purveyors of facts -- websites such as:

<>The New York Times <>CNN <>All Music Guide <>CD Now <>Music News Wire (and all their links) <>Associated Press <>The Encyclopedia of Popular Music and lots of newspapers that get credit for their reporting as well.

I really owe a debt of gratitude (on the one hand) to the makers of Music Central 96, a cd rom that got bundled up with my new computer in 1995 when it was shipped.  This little masterpiece is so comprehensive in its coverage of music makers, it even includes guys from my neighborhood who, although they're recorded, still are looking for that second nickel to scratch together with the one the record company gave them. 

On the other hand, Music Central 96 has stolen my life away from me and given me this useless web site in return.  So I give them credit for the work they did--in thankfully  mentioning the cause of death of most every late musician bio'ed -- but I'm also speaking to my lawyer to see if I have a shot at damages if we sue on the grounds that I've become addicted to this grim pursuit of death.  (In a personal note to Music Central 96: If you don't sue me for stealing all your words, I'll call off my lawyer and we'll call it even.

(you bastards). 

Mini-Me

I've been coaxed to publish this excerpt from an email that I wrote to a curious visitor who wanted to know more about me:

For a private person, I've put a lot of me up there on the web already -- I think a full on bio would feed my vanity to the point of gluttony so I resist.  I'm flattered that someone would write and want to know about me based on my web pages.

 I wasn't ambitious enough to hit the streets to find a publisher and agent for my work and then the internet found its way into my sylvan little cabin in PA -- then the snows came and rather than succumb to cabin fever in the mad winter of '96, I just started to publish to the web altruistically.  I used to lead tours around the country and American continents and in my down home times between tours I would spend sleepless days and nights researching how people that I admired in music went about meeting their maker.

Now I do the jazz tours in Manhattan and am starting to research the idea of getting a Greenwich Village storefront to create myself a little scene where musicians can jam and hoofers can tap and I can smile from dawn to dusk.  Right now my lovely bride, Jennifer, and I are living in the section at the top of Manhattan where you can see fireflies and buildingless skies but no movie theaters or bagel shops.  It's time for a change.