From very young ages, my nephews Brian and Gabe (my sister Debby and her husband Bill’s sons) were gifted musicians while their sister Heidi was an equally gifted fine artist and dancer. Brian went from guitar to bass and still plays (I hope) for fun, and now works as an independent Digital Guru in internet marketing doing stuff too advanced for me to understand let alone describe, and after a successful run as a Google Ad and Marketing maven, Heidi has returned to her artistic roots and is doing Graduate work in preparation for a career in Art Curating.



Left to right: Brother Dan, Brian, Debby, Bill, me, Gabe (in boat), Heidi.

CLICKING ON PIC SHOULD ENLARGE THEN CLICK X UPPER RIGHT TO RETURN.

In hindsight, the talent in the latest generation should come as no surprise. Bill is a brilliant and innovative landscape architect. Debby is a potter,craftsperson, flutist, and singer (current member of a local choir) And the larger gene pool includes my brother Dan who is both musical and artistic and is now a dedicated classical piano student, my twin sister Naomi who is a painter (as was my father--both highly gifted) and former dancer, and her daughters; one of whom is a Theatre Director, another a former dancer and yet another who was a basketball phenom in high school and even played cello for a while. Plus, my mother sang beautifully and played piano better than any of us. Then there's my wife Ellen who is a much better artist (particularly in Watercolors) than she believes...my sons Eli and Will who both write and play piano and guitar respectively... and of course, me, amateur musician who is also (drum roll please) the blogger who (with the help of over 250 mysterious Russians, Germans and Brits) has just passed the 2000 page view milestone. I believe that equals the number of twitter views that Jeremy Lin gets every four seconds.

But of all the musicians in the family, Gabe was the one who pursued music as a career... and as a hobbyist musician who has a pretty good ear but has had to put in long hard hours of practice and study to develop what little technique I have, I am in awe of Gabe’s gifts. Seemingly overnight he went from noodling on the piano to being able to swing, stomp, rock, boogie, shuffle and funk it up with the melodic, harmonic and syncopated sophistication of a seasoned pro. Damned if I can figure out how he did it (without formal training--though I believe his brother gave him a few valuable lessons early on)—but did it he did, and do it he does, as a master drummer, guitarist, keyboard player and now (so I hear) mandolin player.

So no big surprise that at the same age as I was when wandering the streets of Greenwich Village checking out (and merely admiring) the talent at clubs like The Vanguard and 7th Ave. South—Gabe is, and has been for a few years now, the drummer (and more) in the Bill Medley Band (Bill is the righteous survivor of what was once the powerhouse duo of The Righteous Brothers)and proud uncle that I am…I just gotta get him up here for all to see and hear.

Here he is tickling the ivories accompanying Bill's daughter McKenna, plucking the strings and singing (on a song he wrote with her: note to cameraman: more guitar player please) and a short clip hitting the skins…and if you’re so inclined you can find assorted other stuff from Medley and Gabe on YouTube… enjoy.










There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind.
Louis Armstrong