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CHAPTER 5

The Bands

During the ten years I was studying with Stella, I did manage to get my own band together, which I was so excited about! “Bobby J. and the Last Set” was the name, and “Bobby J.” is the name that stuck! The band consisted of a drummer, base, sax, keyboard, and me. The keyboard player at the time had quite a nice setup and contributed a lot to the band. Interestingly, the sax player was my cousin Skip. Aside from being a cousin, he has remained a faithful friend.

I will never forget the one night at the club where we were playing. It was the Italian/American Sportsman Club, and we were waiting for Dave, the keyboard player, who got there late. I had called for my buddy’s brother, Pat, to sit in with us because he played the guitar. Finally, Dave walked in with his nose all bandaged up. We couldn’t imagine what happened. He proceeded to tell us that some guy cut him off the road. When he stopped for a light, the guy came over to him, yelled at him that he cut him off the road, and punched him in the nose and broke it. I had to commend him for what he did. He set up his keyboards and played and sang the rest of his night. He even refused to take any money. He said, “Give it to Pat.”

There was a slight problem with Dave though. It was like a head thing where he wanted to be a star. When you are working with a band, everyone’s head has to be in the same place or problems start, and they did. There was always a struggle with songs and the things he wanted to do. He wanted to add pieces to the band and do the arranging of songs. That would have been great, but I tried to tell him that nobody would pay for a big band in our area. Then I found out that he was doing things behind my back. Not long afterward, the band broke up.

One day I got a call from my buddy, Mike, who was the guy that I was in the original band with. He put me on the phone with his cousin Tommy who was trying to start a band. I never really got along with Tommy, it was like a personality clash, which later in years turned out to be worse. Tommy was an only child and very spoiled, which I think caused the problems. He liked his way and nothing else.

We got together with a drummer and then a keyboard player. The drummer’s name was Crazy Eddie, who turned out to be quite a nice guy. We spent eighteen months in Eddie’s cellar practicing two to three nights a week. This took a lot on my part, being married, with children, and having a full-time job. Fortunately, my wife put up with it and backed me because of my love for music. There were times when we would practice, and a couple of other guys would start drinking. It was a bad thing to do. I was there to work, not to drink, so that kind of aggravated me. We started getting calls for jobs. We did three jobs that went well. On the last job, Tommy came to me and said that he was quitting along with Eddie. I said, “Why are you, guys, doing this?” Their response was that we weren’t playing enough. I told them that we just started and it takes time but couldn’t convince them otherwise, so that was it. I made a promise to myself that I would never spend that much time for a band again, and I never did.

After my divorce a few years later, another guy, Steve, called me and wanted to start a band. I went over to his house for a few Sundays. The keyboard player seemed to have a drinking problem, so I just quit that outfit fast. Steve and I remain good friends to this day and even visited me in Key West while I lived there for ten years.