I can’t believe that this picture of me exists. I’m sitting in a subway station, reading through a Learning Annex monthly in the summer of 2002. In that catalog was a listing for a workshop entitled “Make Money Making Music” given by Ann Ruckert. I thought OK, why not. At the very least I could do some networking. At the end of the workshop I asked Ann if she could recommend a teacher for composition and arrangement. Her immediate response was “Yes! One guy! Mike Longo!!”

At the time I had no idea who Mike was so I went home and looked him up on the net. What came up was this photo and his bio. As I started to read through the bio I said to my wife Rosa “Holy CRAP!!!!! I can’t call this guy.” She asked why not and I said “Well, let’s start with he was Dizzy Gillespie’s pianist and musical director!!” I was, for the most part, a self-taught rock, folk and blues guitar player, I knew a little about the piano and nothing about playing Jazz. The intimidation factor was through the roof and I hadn’t even met him.

It took two weeks but I finally got the nerve to call and book my first lesson. In that first lesson we sat at the piano and he asked about my music background and then asked me to voice a C Major chord on the piano. I thought “HA! OK, I got this one.” I played the notes of the chord and he immediately said “No, thats wrong”. I looked down at my hand, then looked back at him. I said “I know that’s a C chord, how am I wrong?” When he explained the difference between spelling a chord and voicing a chord I was hooked. I said “Tell me more…..” and he did. From my regular piano lessons to standing next to him at Jazz Tuesdays, for the next 18 years there would always be something to be learned.

He would say you could fill an encyclopedia with what he didn’t know about music. And I would always respond with “Yes, but you could fill three with what you do know.”