I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1958, a Gemini and only child. My father was Greek and my mother American. My parents divorced when I was young, and I was raised by my mother until she remarried. I grew up too fast (my mom's "young man"), and I was intelligent, independent and sometimes rebellious. My first music lessons were on accordion when I was 9 yrs. old. Because the teacher said I had some talent for music, it was decided some music lessons should continue. I was very keen to play drums but my stepfather said no to that because he didn't want to hear me practicing in the house. My mother preferred piano, but in my ignorant youth, I thought piano was for sissy's. Guitar as the instrument of choice was a compromise, though once I heard Hendrix, I wasn't sorry for the choice. I began guitar lessons in 1968 at Hoffman Music Studios in Hamilton, Ohio, under Helen Hoffman who took me through the MelBay guitar method books. Soon she said she had taught me everything she could. During that time, in 1969, I won 2nd place in the American Guild of Music contest involving about 100 guitar contestants.

It was always assumed by my parents that guitar would merely be a hobby, nothing more. My mom thought I couldn't earn a living from music, and that was her main concern. My stepfather didn't believe I had any talent whatsoever in music, despite what the teachers told him. He wanted me to be an engineer. But when I finished high school I refused to go to collage to study anything but music. My stepfather refused to contribute any money for my collage education. Luckily my mother helped financially, plus I earned a partial scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in1976 as a performance major, against the wishes of my parents. In fact, I was one of only two from my graduating class in high school to study music. I felt my desire to play guitar was somewhat abnormal.

I completed 3 yrs. at Berklee, but I coasted through much of my class work, favoring solitary guitar practice and ‘jamming’ with others. I still managed to make the dean’s list. But it was all study, and money was very tight. Sometimes all I would eat for days was peanut butter sandwiches. On a long Xmas break from school I stayed in Roslyn, New York with my father, and got what was supposed to have been a month long job in a restaurant. I was due back in school after the holiday break. There was quite a wild nightlife where I worked. I was away from my family, earning steady money for the first time, and it was so exciting to be ‘free’ in the ‘Big Apple’, the ultimate party town. Here my stepfather’s words of warning came true. He had said that as soon as I got a job earning a salary I wouldn’t want to go to school again. Sure enough, I stayed on in New York and dropped out of collage. I worked in kitchens and partied it up in the bars and beaches of Long Island, NY. I traveled to Greece once and camped on the beach in Corfu for 4 or 5 months, occasionally playing guitar for fun. Upon my return to NY, I gained my first experience in Arts Administration working briefly for the Guitar Workshop school in Roslyn, NY, though when they quickly closed, I resumed cooking in order to make a living.

By this time I had gained experience in kitchens andit was apparent I had the talent to be a creative and competent chef. I was groomed by two different executive chefs for a cooking career, at one point being offered a partial scholarship to the famed Culinary Institute of New York. A career as a chef was possible, and I liked working with food (still enjoy eating it), but I didn’t like the long hours and that particular kitchen smell that permeates all your clothes!

I married in 1982 and moved to Amherst, Massachusetts where my wife was going to school. I became Assistant Chef at the Lord Jeffrey Inn, New England’s oldest and most prestigious Country Inn. I was practicing guitar too, and teamed up with a bassist in Amherst who also had a ‘day job’. So far, my music was not earning me any money. My reputation as a chef there was good, so I set up a meeting with the General Manager of the Lord Jeffrey Inn. I convinced him to let my bassist and I play jazz in their lounge on my only two nights off, telling him I was a better guitar player than a chef (I lied!). He agreed, so I cooked in the kitchen 5 nights and played guitar in the lounge for 2, a full 7 nights a week work. Eventually I asked the executive chef to let me take off one more day a week to play guitar but he said no, saying he preferred I work even more in the kitchen rather than less. I quit the cooking job and began searching for playing gigs anywhere I could find them.

While in Amherst, Massachusetts I founded a Jazz Society and, obtaining the support of both local businesses and the Massachusetts Council of the Arts, I organized a jazz concert series program and an outdoor jazz festival (I played with Slide Hampton, Bill Hardman, Ed Jones & other top players). I was on a mission to promote the art form I loved, and I had the skills necessary to do so. The Director of the Fine Arts Center of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Dr. Frederick Tillis, once commented that I alone, in organizing the jazz festival, accomplished the work of his entire staff!


When my wife finished her Masters degree in 1984, we moved to my hometown of Cincinnati. We might have moved to New York then, but we thought Cincinnati would be easier and less scary (it wasn’t). In Cincinnati, I got a job teaching guitar at a music school. The teaching wasn’t satisfying because my students were either beginners or interested only in the latest Van Halen licks. More importantly, they weren’t serious and didn’t practice. I ‘sat in’ around town, playing for free anywhere, just to play. Eventually I got a steady gig as resident bandleader and booking agent at a club called Doc’s Place, owned by a real doctor who loved jazz. I booked and played with some name players there (Herb Ellis, Jimmy Raney, Rusty Bryant, Junior Cook, Lanny Morgan, Bobby Watson, Jim Snidero, Mike Wolf, Othello Molineaux, etc...). I also hired and featured ‘unknown’ local groups, sometimes giving those who hadn’t the opportunity to play for years, a chance to strut their stuff (I was by all means an ‘equal opportunity employer’!). This was good experience as a steady working musician, promoter and agent. It would have seemed then that the ‘jazz life’ was there to stay, but it wasn’t to be so.

The excitement and diversity of New York City lured us out of Cincinnati (in case you don’t know, Mark Twain said of Cincinnati that when the world comes to an end he hoped he was there, since everything happens 10 years late). We moved to Brooklyn, NY in 1986. I was disillusioned with playing music in bars, and living in New York brought out the materialistic aspect in me. I felt I had to support my family, which roughly translates into, ‘I’m tired of my wife earning more money than me’!


While living in Brooklyn I quit playing completely again, from1987-1992 (my longest hiatus from music). I went to school, got my brokers license, and began selling and leasing industrial real estate for a large firm called Kaplon-Belo. I still considered myself an artist (seemed to still think like one), but I didn’t touch the guitar at all during this time. I earned a lot of money compared to playing guitar. I learned more about selling, setting a sales record for the company in my first year, experience which served me well when I became a music promoter again. I also enjoyed the human interaction and dynamics of working with such a diverse range of people making ‘The Deal’. I became active serving the community when I was appointed to the local Community Board. I started a crusade against the garbage transfer stations scattered illegally throughout the neighborhood and tried to make the neighborhood more safe and clean. I was, by all outward appearances, a community-conscious ‘yuppie’. But another major change was about to occur.

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