San Antonio, TX and The Nobuko Trio

Prologue

• Work had slowed down in LA and I wanted to move back to Texas. I jumped into my 66 Bronco (top down for the whole trip), which I just had overhauled, and headed East on I10 towards Texas. Dallas was the first stop... looked up the guys from Doc's rhythm section and other old musician friends... on to Houston to see my brother and Mother and to nose around the music scene there... the last stop was home, San Antonio, called Bob Schulman, we met after a gig he was working and he offered me the job with the Nobuko Trio as soon as I could get back to town.
• Went back to LA, put my house on the market - it sold the next day... sold a LOT of furniture and antiques, loaded up a U-Haul, hooked the bronco up to it and off I went with John III. He wanted to come to San Antonio and agreed to enroll in Texas Military Institute because I was going to be working at night.
• Got to San Antonio... enrolled John at TMI... Old friend Al Hansen hooked me up with Bitsy Pinson, a great real estate agent who found a little house with an existing space perfect for teaching / practicing. The house had a 3 car garage / driveway that opened onto West Avenue, a major through street in San Antonio... one third of the space closest to the house (about 25 feet away) had been insulated and walled-in, heating and AC installed and turned into an office... the building had apparentloy been used as some kind of paint shop (signs???) as there was paint all over the floors. I practiced and taught there... John III practiced there, too... and I even had some rehearsals there... and never got a complaint from a neighbor. Had all but two bedrooms tiled with Saltillo Mexican tile... made the house cooler, both in temperature and "ambiance"... gotta have Saltillo tile in Texas!!!
• Started to work almost immediately with:

• Nobuko (Utterback) is the only (jazz) pianist from a family of doctors in Japan. After graduating from the conservatory she played in jazz clubs in Tokyo as a young woman and describes the experiences as very "counter-cultural". Nobuko is married to Bob Utterbach who is retired from the government...
• Bob Schulman, my friend from Lee HS was the bass player when I joined the Trio. Bob
• Jim Kalson later joined the Trio on bass... Jaco Pastorious aficionado... Jim was from a musical family which toured together as a band. Jim lived and breathed the bass!
• Our regular Sunday night "jazz artist" guest was saxophonist Paul Ostermeyer, a major player in the Austin music scene. He played a memorable concert with the trio at University of Texas at San Antonio, and a concert benefitting the St. Mary's Stage Band (Kalson was attending classes there at the time) featuring the trio that was video-taped for public access cable.
• Arthurs was a beautiful and prestigious place to play! The restaurant was located in an "up-scale" small group of boutique shops and offices. The jazz bar was surrounded by windows on all sides overlooking lush tropical plantings. Great acoustics, great piano, and an intimate setting that was often packed.
• Audio - Recorded by the Nobuko Trio +1
• Video - Nobuko Trio + 1 - St. Mary's University Concert

• Stephania the belly dancer... a special friend from the Holiday Club days who now owns Delores Del Rio, an Italian restaurant on San Antonio's famous Riverwalk.
• Bitsy Pinson - Bitsy was the real estate salesperson who found the house I bought
• "Texas" painter Heather Edwards and Preston her amazing self-taught drummer son. He was a blistering fast double kick player who had copied Keith Moon from records/video(??). Preston studied reading drum music with me -- he wanted to get into the high school band.
• Magui de la Maza, free-spirit who took drum lessons
• Kirk Scott who owned THE drum shop in San Antonio... which was located next to a GREAT place for huevos rancheros!!
• Bill Sylvester (ex Green Beret Major and drummer who drove a DeLorean) who was married to Betsy Hanson, Al Hanson's sister
• Re-connected with Charlie Fox, who was my drum instructor through most of High School. Great guy... tough as nails... NO BS!!

• Being back in San Antonio was fun for the most part but it became clear after a while that I was not going to be able to sustain myself and John III financially. I made the decision to go back to Los Angeles, sold my house in a matter of days, said Thanks and goodby to all friends, old and new, and headed West.

• In 1994 Ann got a job offer from The Psychological Corp, a publishing company, and we moved to San Antonio
• Rented a nice house in a gated community (WAY cheaper than we were used to in NYC!!)

• Richard Garcia talked me into playing Fri/Sat with his jazz-fusion band, "First Light" at El Jarro de Arturo Restaurant -- Gourmet Mexican Food and Margaritas!!!!
• THE BAND
  Richard Garcia -- saxes, flute/piccolo, trumpet, MIDI wind controller
  Ralph Cortez -- vocals, percussion
  Joe Cortez -- keyboards
  Joe Sarli -- bass
  Michelle Garibay -- vocals (fabu!!!)
  
• Audio - First Light at Jazz Alive Jazz Festival
• The "beef and bean" dip we "built" for snacking during the breaks was KILLER!!!

• No "MultiMedia" jobs available in San Antonio (too early???)
• Spent my time learning ToolBook and developing MusicLab
• Demo'd MusicLab for Dr. Bill Lee (UTSA music dean and jazz pianist), Fred Hoey (percussionist, composer, educator), and Joe Cortez (public school music teacher)...
• Negotiated with Rob Wallis and Sandy Feldman at Belwin Music Publishing
• RCTV at AT&T "rose from the ashes" and turned into DTD (DownTownDigital). Steve Plastrik called and offered a position... I took it and "commuted" back and forth to NYC... I "lived" in a variety of (sublet) places in NYC -- Roosevelt Island, "alphabet-soup" of the lower EastSide, The "Y" on the WestSide Central Park...