The David Ocker Interview - Revision history

Jason.Kreitzer at 22:54, 31 October 2021

2021-10-31T22:54:30Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 18:52, 30 July 2021

2021-07-30T18:52:30Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 02:10, 20 July 2021

2021-07-20T02:10:41Z

Propellerkuh at 07:30, 22 January 2009

2009-01-22T07:30:09Z

Maroual at 09:57, 29 November 2007

2007-11-29T09:57:05Z

Fishbrain: Updated link to London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)

2007-11-27T13:14:15Z

Updated link to London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)

Propellerkuh at 17:29, 11 June 2007

2007-06-11T17:29:55Z

Propellerkuh at 04:37, 11 June 2007

2007-06-11T04:37:02Z

Maroual at 15:10, 10 April 2007

2007-04-10T15:10:29Z

Maroual at 23:47, 18 February 2007

2007-02-18T23:47:30Z

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 <br>
 The internet source for this dialog/interview is not available any more. So any copyright claim is welcome to be reported here.
-[[Category:Bandmember Interviews]]
+[[Category:Bandmember Interviews|David Ocker Interview]]

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 You've heard about "[[The Vault|the vault]]"? In the process of building [[Utility Muffin Research Kitchen|UMRK]], a huge storage vault was created to hold all the tapes which Frank had collected during the years. He had pretty much everything he'd ever recorded. It has been 15 years since I've seen the vault so I have no idea what has become of it. I certainly hope they've maintained the environmental controls to preserve the tapes. When I quit my job with Frank we moved a large, fireproof filing cabinet that held all the score and part masters into the vault. Maybe that cabinet is still down there.
-There was one large orchestra piece that I worked on that has never been performed. It's a concert version of "[[Penis Dimension]]" and "[[Dental Hygiene Dilemma|I'm Stealing the Room]]". Under Frank's supervision I orchestrated this for a large symphonic orchestra in the same fashion I did "[[Bogus Pomp]]" or "[[Strictly Genteel]]". Those versions are on the [[London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)|LSO]] albums. Along with the full orchestra there are narrators in "[[Penis Dimension]]" doing dialogue from the movie, plus a chorus. Having it performed would be a big deal. Frank gave me tapes of the previous recording and had me notate the rhythms of the spoken parts exactly. He would not allow any flexibility for the performers in terms of rhythmic performance – not even a fermata to allow the conductor the luxury of deciding how long to wait before going on. If there was a pause in the narration then Frank wanted enough in-tempo beats to allow that same amount of time to go by. The conductor was given no discretion.
+There was one large orchestra piece that I worked on that has never been performed. It's a concert version of "[[Penis Dimension]]" and "[[Dental Hygiene Dilemma|I'm Stealing the Room]]". Under Frank's supervision I orchestrated this for a large symphonic orchestra in the same fashion I did "[[Bogus Pomp]]" or "[[Strictly Genteel (The Track)|Strictly Genteel]]". Those versions are on the [[London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)|LSO]] albums. Along with the full orchestra there are narrators in "[[Penis Dimension]]" doing dialogue from the movie, plus a chorus. Having it performed would be a big deal. Frank gave me tapes of the previous recording and had me notate the rhythms of the spoken parts exactly. He would not allow any flexibility for the performers in terms of rhythmic performance – not even a fermata to allow the conductor the luxury of deciding how long to wait before going on. If there was a pause in the narration then Frank wanted enough in-tempo beats to allow that same amount of time to go by. The conductor was given no discretion.
 The moral of this is, I guess, that Frank wanted to remain absolutely in control of the pacing of the music. Since it was intended as a concert version, I would have thought some allowance should be made in case an audience interrupts with laughter or applause. I would want a performer to have some opportunity to interpret the material in small matters of timing and inflection. I think Frank was more interested in recording than in live performance and the way he asked me to do this score definitely would facilitate it being recorded.

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-'''David Ocker''' (b. 1951) worked for [[Frank Zappa]] during seven years as a copyist, but he also performed and recorded as soloist with the [[London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)|London Symphony Orchestra]] in the premiere of Frank Zappa's [[Mo 'n Herb's Vacation]]. He is an incredibly gifted clarinetist who has performed with the the Berkely Symphony and an accomplished composer, whose music has been performed by Xtet, the California Ear Unit, the Antenna Repairmen, and even a rock group (the Mope – now defunct). His chamber work Pride and Foolishness was performed on the Pacific Contemporary Music Festival in Seoul, South Korea. He now works doing something called music engraving and has given up playing (What a pity!!). He is also a cool and interesting person and he answered some questions for the Arf-dossier. His answers are gems of wisdom for me, read and enjoy:
+'''David Ocker''' (b. 1951) worked for [[Biography|Frank Zappa]] during seven years as a copyist, but he also performed and recorded as soloist with the [[London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)|London Symphony Orchestra]] in the premiere of Frank Zappa's [[Mo 'n Herb's Vacation]]. He is an incredibly gifted clarinetist who has performed with the the Berkely Symphony and an accomplished composer, whose music has been performed by Xtet, the California Ear Unit, the Antenna Repairmen, and even a rock group (the Mope – now defunct). His chamber work Pride and Foolishness was performed on the Pacific Contemporary Music Festival in Seoul, South Korea. He now works doing something called music engraving and has given up playing (What a pity!!). He is also a cool and interesting person and he answered some questions for the Arf-dossier. His answers are gems of wisdom for me, read and enjoy:
 '''What is Music Engraving?'''
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 '''Did you work on pieces of music for Frank on the [[Synclavier]] that are still unreleased? Do you think there's still good stuff to be released?'''<br>
-You've heard about "[[The Vault|the vault]]"? In the process of building [[UMRK]], a huge storage vault was created to hold all the tapes which Frank had collected during the years. He had pretty much everything he'd ever recorded. It has been 15 years since I've seen the vault so I have no idea what has become of it. I certainly hope they've maintained the environmental controls to preserve the tapes. When I quit my job with Frank we moved a large, fireproof filing cabinet that held all the score and part masters into the vault. Maybe that cabinet is still down there.
+You've heard about "[[The Vault|the vault]]"? In the process of building [[Utility Muffin Research Kitchen|UMRK]], a huge storage vault was created to hold all the tapes which Frank had collected during the years. He had pretty much everything he'd ever recorded. It has been 15 years since I've seen the vault so I have no idea what has become of it. I certainly hope they've maintained the environmental controls to preserve the tapes. When I quit my job with Frank we moved a large, fireproof filing cabinet that held all the score and part masters into the vault. Maybe that cabinet is still down there.
 There was one large orchestra piece that I worked on that has never been performed. It's a concert version of "[[Penis Dimension]]" and "[[Dental Hygiene Dilemma|I'm Stealing the Room]]". Under Frank's supervision I orchestrated this for a large symphonic orchestra in the same fashion I did "[[Bogus Pomp]]" or "[[Strictly Genteel]]". Those versions are on the [[London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)|LSO]] albums. Along with the full orchestra there are narrators in "[[Penis Dimension]]" doing dialogue from the movie, plus a chorus. Having it performed would be a big deal. Frank gave me tapes of the previous recording and had me notate the rhythms of the spoken parts exactly. He would not allow any flexibility for the performers in terms of rhythmic performance – not even a fermata to allow the conductor the luxury of deciding how long to wait before going on. If there was a pause in the narration then Frank wanted enough in-tempo beats to allow that same amount of time to go by. The conductor was given no discretion.

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 I played with Steve only once. He came over to my house (the bungalow in Los Feliz) to rehearse [[Sinister Footwear]] – we played the melody together as a duet: bass clarinet and guitar. I think we'd both worked on it pretty hard by then, learning the nuances by playing along with tape to prepare for Frank's studio. Our duet went well. At least I don't remember any problems now. When we'd finished playing, Steve must have wanted to learn something about how I copied music because I can remember sitting with him at my copy desk. At one point the discussion turned to composing music. I remember leaning over and opening the large desk drawer where I kept all the master copies of my own pieces. When I turned back to Steve the expression of surprise on his face was quite evident. He was impressed by how full it seemed.
-The last time I saw Steve in person was within a year or two of that. I went to the house he'd purchased in Sylmar – a tract in the dry, extra-boring northern part of the uniformly boring San Fernando Valley. This was either when he was still working for Zappa or soon after. Frank told me that Steve could afford the house because other people were living there who paid rent to help cover the mortgage. I was impressed because most of the musicians I knew then could not afford to buy a house. Steve had rented a large truck trailer, parked it in the backyard, and set up a full recording studio inside. I think Steve always made it clear that he wanted to compose not just tunes but also ensemble music.
+The last time I saw Steve in person was within a year or two of that. I went to the house he'd purchased in Sylmar – a tract in the dry, extra-boring northern part of the uniformly boring [[San Fernando Valley]]. This was either when he was still working for Zappa or soon after. Frank told me that Steve could afford the house because other people were living there who paid rent to help cover the mortgage. I was impressed because most of the musicians I knew then could not afford to buy a house. Steve had rented a large truck trailer, parked it in the backyard, and set up a full recording studio inside. I think Steve always made it clear that he wanted to compose not just tunes but also ensemble music.
 This is the reason for my only direct contact with him since then. He called me sometime in the early nineties and asked if I was available to work preparing the score and parts of his pieces scheduled to be conducted by [[Joel Thome]]. He sent his assistant (his sister) over to our house with copies of the manuscripts and I worked out an estimate of how much I would charge. He didn't hire me – probably because my estimate was higher than others. Several years later I heard from him again and he wanted to know if I was available to finish the project – which apparently had not been completed by the person he did hire. But I couldn't do that either because the work had been started with a computer program I didn't use. We exchanged a bunch of emails as I helped him find someone who could help. I don't know all the details after that but eventually the music was played. And so ends the story of my relationship with Steve Vai – there isn't much real information here but I've fleshed it out with needless details and other digressions. I hope it held your interest.

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 You've heard about "[[The Vault|the vault]]"? In the process of building [[UMRK]], a huge storage vault was created to hold all the tapes which Frank had collected during the years. He had pretty much everything he'd ever recorded. It has been 15 years since I've seen the vault so I have no idea what has become of it. I certainly hope they've maintained the environmental controls to preserve the tapes. When I quit my job with Frank we moved a large, fireproof filing cabinet that held all the score and part masters into the vault. Maybe that cabinet is still down there.
-There was one large orchestra piece that I worked on that has never been performed. It's a concert version of "[[Penis Dimension]]" and "[[Dental Hygiene Dilemma|I'm Stealing the Room]]". Under Frank's supervision I orchestrated this for a large symphonic orchestra in the same fashion I did "[[Bogus Pomp]]" or "[[Strictly Genteel]]". Those versions are on the [[London Symphony Orchestra|LSO]] albums. Along with the full orchestra there are narrators in "[[Penis Dimension]]" doing dialogue from the movie, plus a chorus. Having it performed would be a big deal. Frank gave me tapes of the previous recording and had me notate the rhythms of the spoken parts exactly. He would not allow any flexibility for the performers in terms of rhythmic performance – not even a fermata to allow the conductor the luxury of deciding how long to wait before going on. If there was a pause in the narration then Frank wanted enough in-tempo beats to allow that same amount of time to go by. The conductor was given no discretion.
+There was one large orchestra piece that I worked on that has never been performed. It's a concert version of "[[Penis Dimension]]" and "[[Dental Hygiene Dilemma|I'm Stealing the Room]]". Under Frank's supervision I orchestrated this for a large symphonic orchestra in the same fashion I did "[[Bogus Pomp]]" or "[[Strictly Genteel]]". Those versions are on the [[London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)|LSO]] albums. Along with the full orchestra there are narrators in "[[Penis Dimension]]" doing dialogue from the movie, plus a chorus. Having it performed would be a big deal. Frank gave me tapes of the previous recording and had me notate the rhythms of the spoken parts exactly. He would not allow any flexibility for the performers in terms of rhythmic performance – not even a fermata to allow the conductor the luxury of deciding how long to wait before going on. If there was a pause in the narration then Frank wanted enough in-tempo beats to allow that same amount of time to go by. The conductor was given no discretion.
 The moral of this is, I guess, that Frank wanted to remain absolutely in control of the pacing of the music. Since it was intended as a concert version, I would have thought some allowance should be made in case an audience interrupts with laughter or applause. I would want a performer to have some opportunity to interpret the material in small matters of timing and inflection. I think Frank was more interested in recording than in live performance and the way he asked me to do this score definitely would facilitate it being recorded.

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:14, 27 November 2007
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−	'''David Ocker''' (b. 1951) worked for [[Frank Zappa]] during seven years as a copyist, but he also performed and recorded as soloist with the [[London Symphony Orchestra]] in the premiere of Frank Zappa's [[Mo 'n Herb's Vacation]]. He is an incredibly gifted clarinetist who has performed with the the Berkely Symphony and an accomplished composer, whose music has been performed by Xtet, the California Ear Unit, the Antenna Repairmen, and even a rock group (the Mope – now defunct). His chamber work Pride and Foolishness was performed on the Pacific Contemporary Music Festival in Seoul, South Korea. He now works doing something called music engraving and has given up playing (What a pity!!). He is also a cool and interesting person and he answered some questions for the Arf-dossier. His answers are gems of wisdom for me, read and enjoy:	+	'''David Ocker''' (b. 1951) worked for [[Frank Zappa]] during seven years as a copyist, but he also performed and recorded as soloist with the [[London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)\|London Symphony Orchestra]] in the premiere of Frank Zappa's [[Mo 'n Herb's Vacation]]. He is an incredibly gifted clarinetist who has performed with the the Berkely Symphony and an accomplished composer, whose music has been performed by Xtet, the California Ear Unit, the Antenna Repairmen, and even a rock group (the Mope – now defunct). His chamber work Pride and Foolishness was performed on the Pacific Contemporary Music Festival in Seoul, South Korea. He now works doing something called music engraving and has given up playing (What a pity!!). He is also a cool and interesting person and he answered some questions for the Arf-dossier. His answers are gems of wisdom for me, read and enjoy:

	'''What is Music Engraving?'''		'''What is Music Engraving?'''

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 If Steve is your favorite musician, I'm afraid this answer is going to be a little disappointing. My window of personal experiences with him was extremely short, only during the length of time we were both working for Frank – but even then we had little personal contact. Although we worked on several of the same projects it was never at the same time or place. He did the transcriptions for the [[The Frank Zappa Guitar Book|Guitar Book]] in his appartment – I remember that he lived for a while in a very boring looking building on Fairfax (a busy street) somewhere around Hollywood or Sunset boulevards – way down the hill from where Frank lived. I was there once to drop something off – I don't think Steve was home. Meanwhile I did my work, copying and proofreading, in my own office in my little rented bungalow on the other side of Hollywood in a district called Los Feliz. Steve and I are also both on the [[Sinister Footwear]] recording, doubling the same Zappa guitar solo – but we never played in the studio at the same time. Steve did his overdub long before I did mine. His guitar can be heard much more distinctly than my bass clarinet. Of course Steve's main job was being in the band. They rehearsed long hours most every day at a huge sound stage on some movie lot or other. Those rehearsals were a separate little world; my visits were infrequent and I usually just sat in the back and watched. Working at home, my contact with other [[Intercontinental Absurdities|InterContinental Absurdities]] people was mostly by phone. My questions could usually be answered only by Frank himself and because of his weird schedule trying to reach Frank on the telephone was usually a problem. I saw other employees most often to pickup or deliver manuscripts.
-Watching a rehearsal or session was always a treat for me. (My life is still the same now in this respect.) Okay, back to Steve... My first memories of Steve, just after he joined Frank's band, are of a friendly, eager, wide-eyed young guy who was ready for just about anything, both mentally and musically. I say "young" – but I don't think he can be all that much younger that I am, maybe 10 years? Back then a decade seemed like a much bigger gap to me. I had already been working for Frank for several years and in the my spare time had gotten a small dose of local notoriety as a composer and performer of strange music. Steve was fresh from the [[Berklee School]] in Boston which must have seemed a long way from Los Angeles and a real gig touring with a major rock band. It soon became clear to everyone that he was very talented. Besides his abilities as a performer, people were amazed by his transcriptions of Frank's solos. He seemed to do this work so easily. I would have regarded the solo tracks as un-transcribable. Of course, it's much easier for a guitarist to figure out what another guitarist is playing. Once we started to play them we discovered how accurate they were.
+Watching a rehearsal or session was always a treat for me. (My life is still the same now in this respect.) Okay, back to Steve... My first memories of Steve, just after he joined Frank's band, are of a friendly, eager, wide-eyed young guy who was ready for just about anything, both mentally and musically. I say "young" – but I don't think he can be all that much younger that I am, maybe 10 years? Back then a decade seemed like a much bigger gap to me. I had already been working for Frank for several years and in the my spare time had gotten a small dose of local notoriety as a composer and performer of strange music. Steve was fresh from the [[wikipedia:Berklee College of Music|Berklee School]] in Boston which must have seemed a long way from Los Angeles and a real gig touring with a major rock band. It soon became clear to everyone that he was very talented. Besides his abilities as a performer, people were amazed by his transcriptions of Frank's solos. He seemed to do this work so easily. I would have regarded the solo tracks as un-transcribable. Of course, it's much easier for a guitarist to figure out what another guitarist is playing. Once we started to play them we discovered how accurate they were.
 I played with Steve only once. He came over to my house (the bungalow in Los Feliz) to rehearse [[Sinister Footwear]] – we played the melody together as a duet: bass clarinet and guitar. I think we'd both worked on it pretty hard by then, learning the nuances by playing along with tape to prepare for Frank's studio. Our duet went well. At least I don't remember any problems now. When we'd finished playing, Steve must have wanted to learn something about how I copied music because I can remember sitting with him at my copy desk. At one point the discussion turned to composing music. I remember leaning over and opening the large desk drawer where I kept all the master copies of my own pieces. When I turned back to Steve the expression of surprise on his face was quite evident. He was impressed by how full it seemed.
@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 Recording is a different issue. You could make a darn fine recording in a home studio, but it couldn't compete against a professional studio like [[Utility Muffin Research Kitchen|UMRK]]. The [[Synclavier]] was in fact the ultimate instrument in the early 80's and it offered features impossible to find anywhere else at the time.
-But in the years since then computer technology has advanced the quality and lowered the price of individual musical components exponentially. We're now way beyond anyone's wildest imagination then, even Frank's. A couple good synthesizers, a quality sampler and a computer powerful enough for direct-to-disk recording would be the necessary hardware. A good sequencer, sound editor and a notation program would be the principal software. Had [[New England Digital]] stayed in business and kept developing their product I suspect they could have stayed at the cutting edge (and managed to keep charging premium prices). The important thing, however, that you could get from a Synclavier that a current, composite system doesn't quite give you is integration. Synclaviers were built to allow data to interchange from function to function. It also had a programming language (the one [[Steve De Furia|Steve DeFuria]] used to write programs for Frank). Of course there were a lot of exceptions to what you could do then, but the theory of ''one'' integrated musical system was a good idea.
+But in the years since then computer technology has advanced the quality and lowered the price of individual musical components exponentially. We're now way beyond anyone's wildest imagination then, even Frank's. A couple good synthesizers, a quality sampler and a computer powerful enough for direct-to-disk recording would be the necessary hardware. A good sequencer, sound editor and a notation program would be the principal software. Had [[wikipedia:New England Digital|New England Digital]] stayed in business and kept developing their product I suspect they could have stayed at the cutting edge (and managed to keep charging premium prices). The important thing, however, that you could get from a Synclavier that a current, composite system doesn't quite give you is integration. Synclaviers were built to allow data to interchange from function to function. It also had a programming language (the one [[Steve De Furia|Steve DeFuria]] used to write programs for Frank). Of course there were a lot of exceptions to what you could do then, but the theory of ''one'' integrated musical system was a good idea.
-It still is. If they had continued to develop, I would hope this aspect of the product would also have been improved. I'm not aware of any current product that attempts the same integrated operation (but I don't pay much attention to products I can't afford.) Today's foremost medium of data interchange between musical equipment and software is (you can say this with me) ... MIDI. What's the best thing you can say about midi: It works. Can you imagine it working better? I can. Have you ever tried importing a midi file into a notation program. It's usually gibberish. A few years ago certain companies tried to create a method of interchange for music notation, not just note numbers and velocity. The standard was called NIFF but it's never going to happen (mostly because [[Coda]], makers of [[Finale]], opted out.) There's so much equipment and software today which is supposed to be "interoperable" which is the fancy word meaning that it will all work together.
+It still is. If they had continued to develop, I would hope this aspect of the product would also have been improved. I'm not aware of any current product that attempts the same integrated operation (but I don't pay much attention to products I can't afford.) Today's foremost medium of data interchange between musical equipment and software is (you can say this with me) ... MIDI. What's the best thing you can say about midi: It works. Can you imagine it working better? I can. Have you ever tried importing a midi file into a notation program. It's usually gibberish. A few years ago certain companies tried to create a method of interchange for music notation, not just note numbers and velocity. The standard was called NIFF but it's never going to happen (mostly because ''Coda'' [Music Software], makers of [[wikipedia:Finale (software)|Finale]], opted out.) There's so much equipment and software today which is supposed to be "interoperable" which is the fancy word meaning that it will all work together.
 These products are produced by many different companies who are more interested in staying in business and in maintaining their market share more than finding ways for everything to work together more easily. We can only hope. I think the beauty of digital systems for a composer is that you can sit at a computer terminal, look at standard notation on screen and then hear back pretty much what you've written. Frank really excelled at this sort of composition. Anyone can do it now, but then you needed a Synclavier. It took him a while to figure out his own methods. He spent countless hours sitting in front of the monochrome [[Synclavier]] screen, tweezing the smallest details over and over. I think this is the reason [[Civilization Phaze III|CPIII]] is such a great album.

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 '''[[Steve Vai]] is my favourite guitar player, what are your memories about him?'''<br>
-If Steve is your favorite musician, I'm afraid this answer is going to be a little disappointing. My window of personal experiences with him was extremely short, only during the length of time we were both working for Frank – but even then we had little personal contact. Although we worked on several of the same projects it was never at the same time or place. He did the transcriptions for the [[Guitar Book]] in his appartment – I remember that he lived for a while in a very boring looking building on Fairfax (a busy street) somewhere around Hollywood or Sunset boulevards – way down the hill from where Frank lived. I was there once to drop something off – I don't think Steve was home. Meanwhile I did my work, copying and proofreading, in my own office in my little rented bungalow on the other side of Hollywood in a district called Los Feliz. Steve and I are also both on the [[Sinister Footwear]] recording, doubling the same Zappa guitar solo – but we never played in the studio at the same time. Steve did his overdub long before I did mine. His guitar can be heard much more distinctly than my bass clarinet. Of course Steve's main job was being in the band. They rehearsed long hours most every day at a huge sound stage on some movie lot or other. Those rehearsals were a separate little world; my visits were infrequent and I usually just sat in the back and watched. Working at home, my contact with other [[Intercontinental Absurdities|InterContinental Absurdities]] people was mostly by phone. My questions could usually be answered only by Frank himself and because of his weird schedule trying to reach Frank on the telephone was usually a problem. I saw other employees most often to pickup or deliver manuscripts.
+If Steve is your favorite musician, I'm afraid this answer is going to be a little disappointing. My window of personal experiences with him was extremely short, only during the length of time we were both working for Frank – but even then we had little personal contact. Although we worked on several of the same projects it was never at the same time or place. He did the transcriptions for the [[The Frank Zappa Guitar Book|Guitar Book]] in his appartment – I remember that he lived for a while in a very boring looking building on Fairfax (a busy street) somewhere around Hollywood or Sunset boulevards – way down the hill from where Frank lived. I was there once to drop something off – I don't think Steve was home. Meanwhile I did my work, copying and proofreading, in my own office in my little rented bungalow on the other side of Hollywood in a district called Los Feliz. Steve and I are also both on the [[Sinister Footwear]] recording, doubling the same Zappa guitar solo – but we never played in the studio at the same time. Steve did his overdub long before I did mine. His guitar can be heard much more distinctly than my bass clarinet. Of course Steve's main job was being in the band. They rehearsed long hours most every day at a huge sound stage on some movie lot or other. Those rehearsals were a separate little world; my visits were infrequent and I usually just sat in the back and watched. Working at home, my contact with other [[Intercontinental Absurdities|InterContinental Absurdities]] people was mostly by phone. My questions could usually be answered only by Frank himself and because of his weird schedule trying to reach Frank on the telephone was usually a problem. I saw other employees most often to pickup or deliver manuscripts.
 Watching a rehearsal or session was always a treat for me. (My life is still the same now in this respect.) Okay, back to Steve... My first memories of Steve, just after he joined Frank's band, are of a friendly, eager, wide-eyed young guy who was ready for just about anything, both mentally and musically. I say "young" – but I don't think he can be all that much younger that I am, maybe 10 years? Back then a decade seemed like a much bigger gap to me. I had already been working for Frank for several years and in the my spare time had gotten a small dose of local notoriety as a composer and performer of strange music. Steve was fresh from the [[Berklee School]] in Boston which must have seemed a long way from Los Angeles and a real gig touring with a major rock band. It soon became clear to everyone that he was very talented. Besides his abilities as a performer, people were amazed by his transcriptions of Frank's solos. He seemed to do this work so easily. I would have regarded the solo tracks as un-transcribable. Of course, it's much easier for a guitarist to figure out what another guitarist is playing. Once we started to play them we discovered how accurate they were.