THREE OF MY FAVORITE MUSICIANS

Here's an old photo I found of three of my favorite musicians. It's kind of old and faded but still cool to me because of who's in it. Taken in the living room of the first home I lived in after moving to Santa Monica with my second wife in 1982 my guess is it's Christmas 1983. I'm leaning back and wearing a sweater from the 1930s that was my oldest brother's and I got when I was a kid and still have. That's the way they made stuff in the USA back then.

To my right is the late Sandy Bull, the great guitarist (holding his little girl). One of the highlights of my life was an afternoon at his house when I got on the keyboards and he got on guitar and we played for about four or five hours without stopping, just jamming on themes and the old jazz standards I used to play and his riffs and just extended improvisation. I had to keep reminding myself that I was jamming with the guy who made an album in the late 1960s of just him playing his guitar and other string instruments (or at least that's the way I'm remembering it now) that my first wife and I used to listen to repeatedly. He was a great music creator and a sweet man and friend. And the good news is I can still listen to his music anytime.

To my left is the late Buddy Arnold, another great musician, a jazz saxophonist who played with some of the icons of jazz in the decades before I met him and asked him to play solo sax improvisations in a theater piece I created from a book of poems from the '60s and '70s that came out in '82 called HOLLYWOOD MAGIC (the book and the play). He was a gas to work with every night (I was in it as well as directed it and we did it for several months in two different theaters in L.A.) But he was also an amazing person and friend, mellow but deep, like Sandy.

And sitting in the chair behind me is my oldest son Miles, a bass player already and in a year or so playing in a band that actually performed at one of the better venues for music in Santa Monica that Sandy played at with Don Cherry around the same time, one of Sandy's last performances. Miles still plays bass, and has taught himself guitar and keyboards and drums and knows more about music than me.

So, three of my favorite musicians, and though two have passed I still love all of them.