The Musician... see you among the stars

The Menorah Temple was our bands first great musical experience. It helped our band get tighter. Latin nights began popping-up all over town. We received many offers to play them and we did. I wanted to expand the band and add a sax. It would give us much more versatility. Aldo knew a sax player and invited him to play with us at another Latin dance at the Hollywood Terrace in Brooklyn. I told Aldo that we got to get the band out of Brooklyn and into Manhattan. That is where all the real action is. We tried this new sax player out and he played very well, but he was a fucking nut. He was an Italian geep who spoke little English and he wanted to be in control or be the star of the show. He was much older¦ somewhere around 29 years old. Although the band sounded somewhat better with a sax, this guy wasn´t the one we were looking for. It will have to wait for another time. I do not think that Aldo knows anyone who is not Italian. Meanwhile, I kept the pressure on Aldo to get us out of Brooklyn. Joey and I were growing tired of these Latin nights. It was the same shit over and over again. Sure we were playing with stars like Mongo Santamaria and Tito Puente, but we were always second billing. We needed to move on and make a better name for ourselves. We wanted to grow and expand and do gigs that were fresh and alive¦not boring. After all, people come to see the Latin groups not us. We need to break this rut! Therefore, the pressure is on Aldo again to get us out.

I planned out all the music for the group. I learned all the songs and rehearsed them with Joey first before Aldo came into the picture. I bought the records and sheet music and planned out the arrangements. It was a big job, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I knew every note and every drum beat before I entered rehearsal. I knew what was missing or needed in each instrument. My expertise was getting the band to develop a groove. I also knew how each instrument would be tuned for the best impact and sound. This was my job in the group, as well as keeping everyone in sprit and energy. This was my job. It was a tremendous responsibility and that is why I needed someone to handle the business. I could not do both. Therefore, it was my instruction that Aldo get us out of Brooklyn.

With continues pressure, Aldo got the band our first gig in Manhattan. He found a little bar on Wall Street that was willing to give us a try. Apparently, Aldo met many people while working in Manhattan at his father´s business. With my constant pressure, Aldo asked some of his acquaintances, and thus came up with this bar. We arrived in this little bar on downtown Broadway and we played about three sets. It was a dive. There were very few people inside. It seemed like a nice little place for the daytime crowd, but in the evening it was dead. We got off early about 11:30pm. I had known from asking around that the best club in Manhattan was Trude Heller´s in Greenwich Village. I took this early opportunity to convince Aldo and Joey that we go there to check-it-out. I wanted us all to see what was going on. Therefore, we decided to take a drive through the West Village streets to view some clubs. We entered Aldo´s vehicle and arrived at West 9th Street 6th Avenue. The first thing that caught our eye was this line of people on the steps leading into Trude Heller´s. We proceeded to find a parking spot in the area and as we got close to Trude´s place we could hear some music. We looked up at the neon sign, which was an outline of a woman´s face with the words, Trude Heller´s! Aldo is 19, I am 18, and Joey is 17. The drinking age is 18. We looked at the marquee in the front of the place and it had a picture of The Jimmy Castor Bunch. They were playing tonight. With excitement, I told Aldo and Joey, Let´s try to get in. The music sounded good, and I did not want to miss this. We arrived at the top of the eight step stairs, and we entered the twin glass doors. A distinguished looking Italian man dressed in a tuxedo waved us in to the bar area. He gave us the once over quickly, but he let us in without asking for I.D. I think he knew some of us were under age, but I think he also knew we were Italian and he let us slide. As we walked briefly to the packed bar area, I could not take my eyes off the band. I also could not believe the sound they had. The band was only three pieces, because Jimmy Caster played the saxophone, but they sounded very big. I was astonished by how big their sound was. I´m sure Aldo and Joey felt the same. Aldo, Joey, and I watched intensively. We watch Jimmy´s performance and we were very impressed. His professionalism, his bands sound and the way they went through the songs. The songs were one after the other almost without stopping. Real smooth transitions! We were pressured by the bartenders to order a drink immediately, and so we did.

It was a small club with a very big sound. The bar area was small and located directly to the left as you walked in the front door. It had a glass divider that separated the bar from the small main room. The divider was made of dark glass so that you could not actually see the band if you did not sit in the main room. It was sort of a punishment for drinking at the bar. In the main room, directly in front of this dark glass divider, were these 25-inch round tables with booth type seating facing the stage. Beyond that group of tables is a tiny isle that one would walk to the seating area or the bathrooms which was directly to the left. In front of this little isle were these tiny 15-inch round tables with a little candlelight in the center. They seated as many as four people each. In the center of the main room is a small dance floor, but enough to crowd about 60 people if it had to, and mostly it had to, because the place was packed. To the right of the dance floor and situated in the corner against the wall was another group of larger tables facing the performance stage. The stage was about 15 inches off the ground covered with a thick red carpet. The stage is about six -feet long and four-feet wide. Very small! There was a small platform located to the left of the stage above the tables against the wall. The platform was about is an 8-inchs wide. Up on the platform were attractive and sexy female dancers with mini skirts. Sometimes they had male counterparts. The dancers were called, The Trude Heller Dancers, appropriately. The place was jumping!!!

We watched Jimmy Castor for about 40 minutes and another band immediately came on stage. The music is continues. Jimmy band was finishing his last song of the set, the other band came up and plugged in and caught the same groove. The Jimmy Castor Bunch was good, but they weren´t great. As my ears adjusted to the room and sound, somewhere around a half hour, I noticed that they were a little weak at times. If they had an organ, they would have sounded much fuller. I of course was being very critical. Creative people react that way when they see other people´s art. Constructive criticism! It is a normal reaction if you want to learn and understand art. Jimmy Caster put on a great show and his professionalism really impressed Joey Aldo, and me.

I was listening to Jimmy´s rap and the words he was saying in signing off the set and introducing the next band. There were two sets of drums on the stage. The tall black guitarist plugged in. Jimmy was still talking as the next band was grooving. While this was going on, two horn players, a sax and trumpet walked up on to the stage, and as soon as Jimmy walked off the stage, the other band kicked in immediately into a new song, but they had horns. I could not believe my ears. I have never in my life heard a sound like this. The horns in this six-piece band had brought the club to a new height and a new direction. The club seemed to lift off the ground. Everyone everywhere in the club was moving their body. I could not see straight. I was so high from the music and drink that my adrenalin began flowing at an uncontrollable rate. I could not see straight. Then when you thought you couldn´t get any higher, this 6 foot 3 inch, 260 pound black man came walking on to the stage and started singing with this incredibly powerful voice and the whole club went into oblivion. Non-Stop, song into song, the band was incredible! The guitarist was playing chord structures that I have never heard or ever seen before, but all the musicians were great. The drummer also impressed me because he was hitting the snare drum and the bass drum so hard that the groove just jumped out at you. After about six songs, the band finally introduced itself. They are Benny Gordon and the Soul Brothers. Aldo wanted to leave because he had his father´s car and he had to be at work with his father in the morning. On our way out, we thanked the Italian looking man in the tuxedo, he smiled back, and as we entered the street, no one said a word to each other as we walked to the car.

Once we were in the car riding home I had spoke the first words, That was the most incredible experience of my life. Aldo and Joey at the same time, and with a low voice said, Wow! We were tired.... Or were we drunk¦Or we were high from the music or exhausted? Aldo and Joey couldn´t believe the experience. We were all quietly thinking to ourselves. This experience would change my life forever. I went into that club as one person and exited another, and I was sure that Aldo and Joey felt the same way. Now I had to restructure. Joey said, How do we sound like that? The next day, I was still thinking how we could sound like that, and this is what I thought:

• First, they had a bass player, and we had no bass. There is no bottom to our group.

• Second, we were mostly playing top forty songs and show tunes and the Trude Heller groups were totally R&B. The R&B radio stations were separate from mainstream.

• Third, they had horns.

• Forth, they did dance steps while they played to enhance their appearance and the music.

• Fifth, the club itself had a tight solid sound.

The next night we again played the Wall Street bar and it gave us the opportunity to reflect on last night. I basically said that we needed a bass player. It really made the difference. Aldo agreed. I could see Joey thinking, and that is what I wanted. I planted the seed in Joey´s head and I was hoping it would bloom. We again finished around 11:30pm, and I told Aldo and Joey that we should walk around the Village and see what else was going on at some of the other clubs. Aldo and Joey quickly agreed.

This time we drove the car through the narrow streets of the Village, and as we were coming down West 4th Street, we noticed a club called, The Cinderella Club. I said that looks interesting and Aldo began to park. We went into the Cinderella Club, and it was a really dark and funky. We had the obvious look of a band, because we were dressed up in black suits with skinny ties. The owner came strolling over, and he said, Are you guys a band? I said yes. We are playing a few blocks away at this little bar; I then immediately said, Why don´t you hire us. The owner quickly said OK. I said, Let me get my drummer to speak with you, and I introduced Aldo to him. While Aldo was talking to the owner, I went to Joey and told him that the owner might hire us. Joey became very excited. The band on the stage was not too good, but they had a bass player and he played a Fender Bass just like the two bass players at Trude Heller´s. We could feel the bottom. Aldo finished the deal, and he told us that we were playing the gig full time Tuesday through Saturday starting next month. We flipped out! Aldo is becoming a good businessman, that is, he´s good at negotiating the money. We then entered Aldo´s car and drove home. On the way home, Joey decided to stop playing the guitar and learn to play the bass instead. Aldo and I became exceedingly happy. Joey said he was going to ask his parents for a loan, and buy a new Fender bass with a Fender bass amp. We had three-weeks to prepare for the Cinderella Club. Most of all, we were indeed playing in The Village. It wasn´t the happening part of the Village, but the happening part is just four blocks away. Better yet, no more Brooklyn!