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Gary A Soucie

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My Jazz Story

I was first exposed to jazz as a baby, because my Uncle Cliff was a weekend musician and he used to have jam sessions at our house. Apparently, propped up in an armchair, I would spend the whole time digging and grinning. Our house had a parlor organ and upright piano and for reasons I cannot fathom, I never had a music lesson. I started playing drums by ear (no chops!) in high school and became the world's worst jazz drummer. In college, I played in two bands: Bob Haas's Embers Orchestra, a 7- to 9-piece band in which I was clearly the worst musician (Bob had played with the Adderley brothers in Miami, a fact I confirmed with Cannonball many years later) and Higgy's Combo, a rockish-dance quintet-plus-singer in which I might have been the best musician (but still no chops). Highlight of my "career" (and lowlights of theirs): sitting in with Jack McDuff and Wes Montgomery.

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