There was only on kind of music that I seriously considered - jazz.

Jazz was what I heard. The 78's that were around the house - Fats Waller, The Big Bands, etc. - were the standard songs that my father's dance band rehearsed in our living room on week nights and played in local American Legion halls and VFW's where I would go with him to 'help' set up for a weekend gig.

I led my first jazz combo in fifth grade using charts stolen form my father's band library. Wang Wang Blues and 12th Street Rag are some of the first songs I remember playing.

These and all the other classic Tin Pan Alley songs of the previous generation were what I was learning while the rest of the world was witnessing the Rock 'n Roll revolution on American Bandstand.