BACK TO LOS ANGELES

BACK TO LOS ANGELES

So after I was done, LA Unified was recruiting and I got a job with them. It took me a long time to adapt to LA. It was a hard life for me. It made me grow up, though. Because in Oakland, my family would spoil me. They were always there for me—I’d need a little money, they’d give me some money.

I’m glad I stayed in LA. I needed to be somewhere I needed to really take care on my own. By then I had left Carla, the kids were with her. I went to court to try and get them back and I got them. I was a single parent. When they were 15 and 16 they decided to go back to her.

I’ve been in Los Angeles for 30 years now, I think. Oakland has changed now. There’s something quaint about it up there, but there’s something down here that’s missing up there. It’s the MUSIC. It’s GIANT. We talk on the phone and they say there’s nothing goin’ on up here. LA is the music mecca. I had to stay.

In Oakland, there are people up there that can really play and know music, but the rank and file–most of them can’t read music at all. And what they do is, they play by ear. I did both. For instance, I like to create songs. When they record, they like to record an old BB King tune or an old something that’d already been out.

In Los Angeles, I used to play Babe and Ricky’s but I couldn’t do it full time because I was teaching. After I retired, I went back full time. Then I played different places like Lucy’s 51, The French Quarter, The Seabird Jazz Lounge.