Graduate School in Buffalo
At Occidental I fell in love with higher education and made that my career choice instead of music. So, after graduation, I attended the University of Buffalo, studying for my PhD in psychology. That’s when I branched out to play in small combos for club and social events all over town – Jewish weddings, Italian weddings, Jewish-Italian-Polish weddings - often playing on the then new Fender Rhodes piano (I still have it!). It was a great musical education. The extra income helped pay the bills during graduate school.
Occasionally, I played with an amazing saxophone player from Buffalo, Bobby Militello, who was talented enough to end up in Dave Brubeck’s band (post Paul Desmond). I touched base with him in Santa Barbara when they played at the Lobero Theatre around 2010. We enjoyed reminiscing about Buffalo days.