After the early momentum of Part 1, the path takes an unexpected turn. Life introduces challenges that pull Dave away from music, testing both passion and perspective. What follows is a story of resilience, rediscovery, and a return to the guitar that had been waiting all along.

 

Whereas in high school with the Montreux experience, long journeys are bound to hit some rough spots.

 

Several years after college, I injured my left hand—especially my pinky—during a pickup volleyball game when a hard serve smashed into it. After several surgeries, pins, and casts, it never healed properly. Months later, I pulled out a guitar and tried to play, but that very crooked pinky couldn’t reach the proper fret on the fretboard. “Oh no,” I thought. “I may never be able to properly play the guitar ever again. This stinks.”

 

Months later, I got the phone call at 4 a.m. that everyone dreads: our dad had passed away suddenly at 54. This came just two years after our mom had passed away at 46, following a five-year battle with cancer. My wife, Linda, and I had met the year before, but here we were in Allentown, PA, while my younger sister, 21, and brother, 17, were 90 miles away in New Jersey—with no parents.

 

Life was really throwing some nasty curveballs, and this was a tough period. After a trying and frustrating probate process, the estate was settled but the grief remained. What is the best way to deal with grief?

 

All three of us went on to further our education. Between the injury and all the estate issues, the guitars basically collected dust in the closet for over 10 years. For me, full time graduate school combined with a teaching assistant position was a tailor-made distraction to recover from the heartbreak and the grief. A few years later, I joined Citicorp in the NY metro area, Linda reluctantly left her job in Allentown, and we were off to Fairfield County, CT, with a new baby boy in tow.

 

While at Citicorp, a co-worker and fellow guitar player and I perused a guitar/music store down the road in White Plains and joined their “Over 30 Guitar Club”. What a great marketing strategy! Young players try out guitars and give the staff headaches with their attempts to sound like Jimmy Hendrix (among others), BUT players over 30 have something

extra: MONEY to actually buy these instruments!

 

Periodically, the store would close and only allow us members to participate in clinics

where great guitar players would “hold court”, as they say. Notable sessions included Herb Ellis, who performed incredible guitar work with the legendary Oscar Peterson, and Tommy Tedesco, the renowned Los Angeles studio musician who helped define the West Coast sound. He played with the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, Cher, Barbara Streisand, and countless others, and contributed guitar to many iconic TV theme songs, including Batman, Bonanza, and M*A*S*H*. If you were asked to pick the person behind all that “surfer style” music, Tommy would probably be the last guy you’d guess! But that’s the magic of session work; it’s not how you look, it’s how you sound, and Tommy had it in spades!

 

One of the last sessions I attended featured Joe Beck, another great who also had an article placed in an edition of Guitar Player magazine for us to peruse. On the cover, Joe was shown with the following headline:

 

 

As expected, this was a great session. Little did I know that about 10 years later, Joe

and I would cross paths again in a big way.

 

Another dozen years go by away from music, and I am now employed by GE in their

aircraft finance division with 10 years under my belt. After closing a large sales transaction, a group of us celebrated on Super Bowl Weekend of 2003 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. While there, two of us made our way to what was billed as the “World’s Largest Guitar Store”. Typical Vegas - everything done in a grand manner!

 

Once inside, we saw more than 2,300 guitars on DISPLAY! “Mind boggling...! I’m in heaven!” I thought to myself. I tried out several jazz guitars and I was stunned when I tried out one last one!

 

It had the most perfect neck width and radius—the chunky, thicker neck that allowed my hand and damaged pinky to fit nearly perfectly on the correct frets. Nirvana! “I gotta have it! I can play again! Yippee!” I thought. Remember Alex Haley’s line in Roots: “I found you! Kunta Kinte, I found you!” That was how I felt. It wasn’t cheap, but I bought it. As I was leaving the store, it hit me… “My wife is going to kill me!”

 

Returning home, Linda was quite understanding and we agreed that with this investment, I was once again motivated to find a good teacher and get back at it.

 

In early 2003, through a mutual friend, I was introduced to the great Joe Beck, who lived

up in the hills of Connecticut about 35 miles from our house. It was a month before my 49th birthday and I was driving up to his house with the new guitar to basically audition for a lesson slot. In his house, he had a full-fledged recording studio upstairs. As I made my way up the steps, I passed photos of Joe with Miles Davis, Sinatra, a Gold Record with Paul Simon,and  5 Grammy MVP awards. So that is what these items actually look like! “Well,” I said to myself, “I’m here and I’ll give it my best shot.”

 

After about an hour of playing and chatting, he said, “YES - my fee is $60 an hour.” I was ecstatic. This turned out to be the first session of a 5-year run. Over time, I would learn more about his career while I was learning from one of the all-time greats - from a musical genius who, when I once asked him how many albums he had played on, he casually said he stopped counting in 1976 - when he had reached 1,000! We got along great, he became a great mentor, and I learned so much.

 

Unfortunately, around the 5-year mark, Joe was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. I was fortunate to have a few more lessons with him until his health declined further. When Linda  and I were in the Vail Valley returning home to Connecticut late July of 2008, I saw the news while at our gate for the flight home. The scrolling banner at the bottom of the CNN broadcast: “LEGENDARY JAZZ GUITARIST JOE BECK DEAD AT 62”. Oh No! Life was throwing those nasty curveballs again...! I was heartbroken; but life goes on.

 

Fast forward to May of 2014 and I had retired from GE, and we were now full-time residents of Singletree and Sonnenalp Club members. I knew there were a lot of good musicians in the Valley with long-standing gigs. I wondered if I could break into the scene. Soon after the move, I met Brent Gordon, who was working on the Sonnenalp driving range, and I approached him. “Are you a musician?” I asked. To this day, we both still laugh at his response. “I’d like to think I am.!” he said.

 

Through his then 25 years in the Valley, we landed a weekly gig and some private functions. Suffice it to say, we are now on our 12th year doing weekly gigs at different restaurants and hotels, and getting booked nearly monthly at Harvest too! Add in the ad hoc wedding or other private event and this journey is still going on and boy, am I grateful. The unique people I have met along the way have truly enhanced my experiences. Life is great!

 

There are many good musicians in the Valley who could write about their journey and

experiences, and this is mine. Like all long-term journeys, there are ups and downs. I

am sure readers of this magazine have their own unique journeys. Mine happens to be

centered around a guitar and never would I have known what a $25 dollar investment

60 years ago would or could ever lead to. Whatever your journey is, through its ups

and downs, still chase it - it makes life more fulfilling. GO FOR IT! Life is short!