After Paul died on the morning of September 23, 1999 we found a rectangular-shaped black canvas bag that contained cassette tapes of all his recorded music. We picked out a few and played them during his memorial service four days later. One of his long time friends, Martin Borsanyi, who used to compose and play jazz music with Paul during their high school days, came over to our house many times in the next year or so. He made an inventory of Paul's musical instruments (except his piano, which we still have) and other electronic sound and recording equipment that we gave away to the Crossroads High School jazz ensemble where he and Martin played. Martin also transferred the music from cassette onto CDs, working in our home because I was afraid to let the tapes out of my sight for fear of losing them. Once I got into the age of iTunes, I also transferred all of Paul's music there as well. I also created a memorial page on my blog here at Choices where people can stop by to … [Read more...]
Paul’s lyrics found after 25 years
I received a note just after the first of the year from one of Paul's friends from Crossroads High School. Martin and Paul spent a lot of time at each other's homes on the weekends writing and recording music. When they were at our house we could always expect a new recording waiting for us to play in the morning. We've kept in touch with Martin and his family since Paul died. Martin said in his note, I was cleaning out some very old files and found two old hand-written lyrics by Paul, both written aged 16-17 I'd say. One is a straightforward love gone wrong song and one is a rather harsh reproach of hippies who've sold out. Having something else that Paul created is such a gift it helps fill in another piece of the puzzle, showing his prowess as a writer along with his playing and composing talents. The two pages that I received in the mail from Martin yesterday are ripped and faded, but no less valuable to me. The other page is barely readable I've copied Paul's … [Read more...]
More birthday thoughts
Paul, age nine, showing off his ability to play the saxophone Though Paul always showed an interest in the piano even as a baby his first music lessons were at school on a rented saxophone when he was nine years old. But after a year and bumpy progress in his ability to play that instrument, he asked for a synthesizer. We said we'd get him one once he learned to play our piano. So at age ten he committed to piano lessons and regular practicing and within a year we knew he had a special talent. By the time of his Bar Mitzvah when he was thirteen, he had his synthesizer and a growing interest in jazz music. The next year he enrolled in Crossroads High School and auditioned to be in its jazz ensemble. He was admitted. Paul as a jazzman never looked back. My Jazzman My jazzman beat it out on the mighty eighty-eights, played those riffs, tapped his feet bent his head down to the keys, felt those sounds on his fingertips. Yeah, he was a hot man on those … [Read more...]
