Indulge me if you would because, at my age. I am beginning to see the story of my life. This vista comes complete with a new found ability to look back and either applaud or rue the many past decisions that have led me to the current space I now occupy in my small corner of the great unknown. My life in 2018 was rather stationary, but the lives around me were in motion as my daughter got married, my son started medical school and my wife opened her own medical practice. After 18 years, I am still doing my bit to add to the ever-growing audio department at S.I.R in New York, and I am also proud to say that I am now starting my 18th year also as a writer for FRONT of HOUSE.
One change that did occur for me? This past New Years Eve, I welcomed in 2019 as a guitarist in a band, and it marked the first time since 2000 that I have worked on a New Year’s Eve. Starting in the early 1970’s, I prided myself for managing to work every year on that coveted high-paying night. They were fun times indeed. I was doing what I liked to do, getting paid double for doing it, and being a part of the party as well.
The Good Olde Days
Back in the 1970’s, we had an old 14-foot beer truck we used to cart our gear to and from gigs. The truck was a necessity, as most clubs at the time were devoid of any type of audio, and we were required to carry our own sound system to ensure a decent quality of sound. We started with Shure Vocal Masters and worked our way up to a couple of Altec Lansing cabinets stacked per side, with either a JBL horn or the Altec horn on top.
At the time, there weren’t a lot of mixing consoles to choose from, but in 1975, we bought a second-hand 16-channel Stramp console. Stramp was a German company that made sound reinforcement gear, and it turned out to be a decent board, and it was the board on which I first learned how to mix. We would set the console up by the side of the stage, and I would play and mix at the same time. The band finally worked its way up to hiring an engineer, but after a year, the band broke up, and I moved back to New York City.
Doing the Sound Circuit
By the early 1980’s, I was doing sound at The Bitter End in New York as a way to supplement my income as a musician. Come New Years Eve, I usually found that I had a choice of either playing or mixing for the big night and, unless it was a great playing gig, I began to opt more for sound gigs, since the money offered to me was always better as an engineer than that as a player. On a few of these yearly gigs, I was even able to mix and play in the band, as it doubled my pay, and because I could.
By the mid-80’s, I was never at a loss of work, as I was doing sound at many of the New York clubs. Not only was I working at The Bitter End, but I was also picking up gigs at The Blue Note, The Bottom Line, The Cat Club and The Village Gate, to name a few. At the same time that I was honing my engineering and production skills, I was playing guitar with blues legend Sonny Terry and also Melanie — the iconic star from the Woodstock Festival. Other than that, there were the one-off playing gigs, some studio engineering as well as mixing live auditions for the TV show Star Search — a talent-show precursor to American Idol.
During that time, I was also working and traveling as an engineer for jazz luminaries such as Tania Maria, Eddie Gomez and Herbie Mann. It was an exhilarating time as I traveled between Europe, Canada and the United States, alternating between playing and engineering. In 1987, I got married and was still on the road as an engineer, but I was also working as arranger and music director for the singer-songwriter Wendy Wall. We were signed to a record deal with SBK/EMI, and started the recording in 1989 — a mere two weeks after the birth of my daughter. It was a great time, as we worked with some amazingly talented people and traveled around promoting the album — we even had the opportunity to play The Letterman Show and do a short tour opening for Michael McDonald.
New Horizons
In 1991, my son was born, and along with that blessing I was offered the position of audio engineer at Tramps in NYC as they expanded the club on 21st Street in Manhattan. I had the chance to work with and mix many top-name artists while managing the audio and production for the club, and in the summer of 1996 I expanded my horizons while holding down the FOH position for New York’s Central Park Summer Stage. During those years, I was also able to do a bit of roadwork mixing sound for Chaka Khan and Lou Reed as well as doing shows at Town Hall and The Beacon Theater with Tramp’s promoter Steve Weitzman. By 1999, Tramps was coming to an end and as we were working towards our demise, I was staying busy doing production work for the Bell Atlantic Music Festival as well as doing a 10-week Allman Brothers/NASCAR tour. For promotional reasons, NASCAR had attached itself to the Allman tour, and for 10 weeks, I wore the mantle of engineer/production manager for the NASCAR bands on the second stage.
When Tramps, Bell Atlantic and the tour came to an end, I decided I wanted to see more of my family and less of the road so, for a year, I bounced around a couple of venues and even a regional sound company until I landed at S.I.R., where the fit was just right. I’m not recounting my adventures because I think that my experiences are all that amazing or unique. Throughout the years, I have had the pleasure of working with and knowing many engineers, musicians and producers with more impressive lives and resumes than my own, but as I welcomed in the New Year on the upstage side of the microphone, I began to reflect upon the 40-year-old body of work that I created, which is still a work in progress.
A Little Sage Advice
I’m not ready to retire as of yet, and since most of the techs and musicians I work with are now younger than me, I’d like to think that I can offer them good advice on navigating this life they have chosen for themselves. Most of my advice would be anecdotal, as so much has changed over the last few decades, but while the opportunities and technologies have been updated, there are a few things that remain unchanged. Even though the tools are different, the fundamentals to success stay the same. A proper gain structure is still a requisite for the sound engineer; playing in tune is a necessity for a guitarist; and the difficult task of maintaining a balance between a professional life and one’s personal life is definitely a mandatory requirement for anyone making the choice to follow this path.
