I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! Carole and I did. It was quiet and mellow on Christmas day. Christmas eve was spent with Stefanee, my stepdaughter, David (her boyfriend) and lots of cool kids. David cooked dinner. He is a GREAT chef and a GREAT guy!
But ... back to my "Petaluma Flashbacks" series.
When we first moved to Petaluma, we lived on Keokuk Street. About 2 blocks away lived "Retso" (Oster spelled backwards). Walt Oster was a lovable curmudgeon who was the founder of the music department at Sonoma State. He was a professor, arranger, piano player and father of the vocalist in my sextet, Jeff Oster.
Soon after my arrival to town, Walt and I crossed paths. I was the upstart, new to town "hippie musician." Walt was the long time "godfather" of Sonoma County music and musicians. I had to pass the "Retso" test for ALL incoming musicians to the county. I must have passed as he soon invited me to be a guest artist with his college band at his fall concert.
The night of the concert, I was waiting backstage to be introduced. The band started its first tune ...Walt and I had not seen each other yet, so he had no idea how I was dressed. Back then (1971), I dressed like the hippie I was ... and for a "formal"event such as this I donned my black
stovepipe top hat. When Walt introduced me, I walked on stage ...Walt just stared at me ... the sold-out crowd was silent ... (Walt owned a VERY bad "rug" which he wore at "formal" events such as this). He took 2 steps back ... you could hear a pin drop ... he blurted out, "Take that damn thing off " (referring to my hat). The crowd started to laugh. Undaunted, I responded, "You take off that damn rug and I will take off this damn "lid"!!
The entire audience erupted. Neither the "rug" nor the "lid" was removed. That was "Retso's" and my first public "encounter." We had many more over the next 20 years, but it was ALL in good fun!! I loved that man! He did SO much for the music community in Sonoma County. I miss him a lot!
His son Jeff is carrying on the family tradition of providing this county with wonderful music.He is, as of 2 years ago, the permanent vocalist in my sextet. And by the way, he just signed with a major jazz label and his new CD (which I produced), "Shining Hour," will be out world-wide in June. The president of the label is VERY excited about having Jeff on his label and has vowed to promote the heck out of the CD, getting world-wide distibution, airplay and reviews in
major magazines! GO, Jeff!!
Stay tuned!