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Featured SlideMeister Member - March 2015
Dan "Danny-G" Gajovski
I'm sure it's pretty obvious that Danny G has been a close personal friend of mine for many years, as well as a SlideMeister "President's Club" Member, but rather than me rattling on about him, we're just going to let him tell his story here. This will be a good read. Enjoy! :o)
A.J.Fedor 
I took accordion lessons when I was a kid but I didn't really get interested in playing music until one early morning I was driving along with the windows open, the radio blasting, sipping a cup of coffee, smoking cigarettes and still feeling myself falling asleep. I pulled over, stopped for a few minutes, I opened the glove compartment to get a fresh pack of smokes and saw a Marine Band that someone had given me as a gift. It was about a 90 minute drive to work, I found that I never got sleepy while playing the harmonica.
Time marched on, I finished my apprenticeship, worked several jobs as a journeyman and ended up hiring into Ford in 1978. A year or so later, I was walking down the hall at Ford's Cleveland Stamping Plant and this English guy, John Lionel Crown came up to me and said: "I hear you play harmonica" "Yes, I play" "Well, play something for me". So we walked into a shower room, where the acoustics are really good, I pulled out my Special 20 and gave it my best shot. I'll never forget it, he said "Very nice young man, if you ever get rid of that toy and buy yourself a real harmonica, come and see me". Well, I walked away without saying a word and I doubt that Age would let me get away with telling you what I thought. A few days later John walked me into the same shower room, pulled out a 270 and played the most amazing rendition of Ravel's Bolero I'd ever heard. I bought a 270. There aren't many quiet places in a stamping plant so for the next few years every lunch time was spent with John Crown and me sitting across the table from one and other in the salaried cafeteria with our harmonicas. Chuck McKitrick had years ago, put himself through college playing in piano bars and jazz clubs. One day he came into the cafeteria and asked if he could sit with us while we played. Chuck and I started meeting at his house after work and worked up an act. I always thought that being at the right place at the right time means being somewhere special but Chuck and I were just practicing at his house one morning when there was a knock on the door. Dale Garbor, who went to college with Chuck was in town visiting family decided to stop by for a visit. Before he left, he invited us to come sit in with him and Terry Thomas at Gene Autry's Hotel in Palm Springs over the Christmas holidays.
After flying across the country all day, we arrived in Palm Springs on Christmas Eve, the limo dropped us off at the side entrance of the Red Cantina. Baggage in hand as we walked through the door, a spot light hit us and over the sound system Dale said "Ladies and gentlemen, from Cleveland, Ohio, it's Dan and Chuck!" We went up said hello and played a few tunes. We were about to make our way up to the bar to unwind from the trip when a waitress said that she had a customer who had a request. I probably couldn't have pulled it off if I'd have known who had made the request, but when we finished playing Bluesette, I even got to meet David Frost and Zelda Rubinstein. We spent the next day, Christmas just visiting and sight seeing.
The hotel was preparing for their New Years Eve party and filled with politicians and television people who were there because January 1, 1986 President Regan was exchanging televised New Year's greetings with Soviet President Mikhail Gobachev. One of the satellites for the transmission was on the hotel roof. The President and First Lady Nancy Regan were staying nearby at the Annenberg's Sunnylands retreat not far from the hotel. There was allot going on, I had a ball and met allot of people. 1986 was the year that Jim Hughes came to SPAH and announced the First World Harmonica Championships and Festival. When I told Chuck that I was interested in entering the competition, he said "you're good but you aren't nearly good enough to play in elite competition". I was about to go through a nasty divorce and was feeling a little touchy. I told him that I didn't say I thought I was good enough to win but I sure as hell think I'm good enough to try. I worked with robotics at Ford and decided that I'd find a way to automate him. When I got home, I bought a keyboard, a Roland MC500 music micro processor, an amp and I sent away for the test piece, "Caprice" by John Moody. A few weeks later the package arrived and I got my first look at the sheet music. I remember thinking, my God, what did I get myself into. It might as well have been written in Latin but by then, I had told way too many people that I was going to compete to just swallow my pride and write it off without trying. I couldn't even play the first measure, had no idea what Andantino or any of the other tempo makings meant. I made several copies of the music, bought a music dictionary and started out by writing the note names and tabbing out the pages one by one. Once I could play all of the notes, I took another copy of the music and tabbed in the timing per measure. By April, 1987, I could play all of the notes but I was confident that I wasn't playing it right. Reluctantly, I asked Chuck if he'd take a look at it and tell me what he thought. He looked it over and said that it was way over his head but offered to introduce me to someone who might be willing to help. Chuck made a call and arranged for us to meet. Richard Saxman gave private piano lessons and taught virtuosity to advanced and graduate students. I gave him a copy of the music, explained what I was trying to do and asked for his help. He didn't make me feel very optimistic about it but he agreed to look over the music and told me that I should come back in a week when he'd let me know after hearing me play. It was a long week. After the audition, he told me that starting at this level and working backwards isn't how music should be taught but that he was willing to work with me. I spent the next six months, five days a week arriving at his house at 8 AM and working with him until 2 PM when I had to leave for work. For that whole year, every minute that I didn't have something else that I had to do was spent working on Caprice. This was the only time I ever played it publicly and I've never played it since. I'll be forever grateful to John Lionel Crown, Chuck McKitrick and especially to Richard Saxman, I couldn't have done it without their help. |
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I had a half dozen backing tracks made in time for the 1988 SPAH convention. I had taught my then new and now ex-wife how to chain play the songs individually on queue. Everything was going my way. The keyboard and MC 500 were setup in the back of the room next to the platform where the video cameras were setup, sound check went well and everything was, so I thought, ready to go. Show time comes, I'm onstage and enter Murphy's Law (if something can go wrong, it will). I played a trill that was her queue to start the backing track and to my horror, it was in some weird wrong key. No matter what she tried, every song was in the wrong key. The people near the keyboard were yelling at her. I asked if there were a chord and bass player willing to come up and help me out. The room was in shock, I didn't see anyone coming up so I played ah Capella. It was the most embarrassing thing I've ever experienced onstage. Later I found out that some time during the day, a chair was knocked off of the video platform and whoever picked it up had supported themselves by leaning on my keyboard and had pushed the slider tone control all of the way forward. My ex-wife was so shaken by the people who were yelling at her that she refused ever to attend another harmonica festival.
I didn't go to SPAH in 1989 but a few days after the convention I got a call from Donald Beyer (first chair oboe in the NY Symphony) who asked if I'd be interested in entering the trio competition for the 1990 World Harmonica Championships with him and Jennifer Hager (euphonium NY Symphony) It was going to take place here in the U.S. I agreed.
Donald sent me 3 handwritten arrangements he made for me to work on and invited me to join him and Jennifer for a week in March at the 1990 New York Symphony's Brass Conference so we'd have an opportunity to practice together. The brass conference was a great experience, we practiced and things looked like they were coming together. About a week later Jennifer was told that she had to have an operation. John Seaton from the New York Philharmonic offered to take her place then a few days later suffered a fall and broke his hip. Then they found a cancerous spot on Donald's liver. To top it off, they found that my step dad had pancreatic cancer. I spent allot of time at the hospital playing harmonica for him and pushing the button on the gadget that administered his morphine. He died in June. For a long time after that, every time I picked up the harmonica I could picture him laying there and dying. I put my aspirations of becoming a professional harmonica player in the dresser drawer with my harmonicas and for several years quit playing altogether.
I don't know what the odds would be against me moving next door to Bob Nelson, a guy who played bass harmonica with a trio in the Air Force Tops in Blue and later as The Harmonica Riffs, played on both The Ed Sullivan and The Arthur Godfrey television shows, but when I bought this house, that's what happened. Over the years Bob and I would get together to drink beer and play music around an evening campfire. Once we even got together with a chord player, Jack Theres from the Windy City club and played at a Buckeye Festival. Bob passed away a few weeks ago and I already miss him.
I was stringing Christmas lights in my walnut tree the day before our 2006 harmonica party when the ladder broke and I fell about 15 feet and broke my heel. The party went on but I didn't make it to SPAH that year. I was unable to work so when September rolled around and I got invited to play a one night stand at a local restaurant, I jumped at the chance. I was invited back for the next night and ended up playing every day for the next four months.
I didn't go to SPAH in 1989 but a few days after the convention I got a call from Donald Beyer (first chair oboe in the NY Symphony) who asked if I'd be interested in entering the trio competition for the 1990 World Harmonica Championships with him and Jennifer Hager (euphonium NY Symphony) It was going to take place here in the U.S. I agreed.
Donald sent me 3 handwritten arrangements he made for me to work on and invited me to join him and Jennifer for a week in March at the 1990 New York Symphony's Brass Conference so we'd have an opportunity to practice together. The brass conference was a great experience, we practiced and things looked like they were coming together. About a week later Jennifer was told that she had to have an operation. John Seaton from the New York Philharmonic offered to take her place then a few days later suffered a fall and broke his hip. Then they found a cancerous spot on Donald's liver. To top it off, they found that my step dad had pancreatic cancer. I spent allot of time at the hospital playing harmonica for him and pushing the button on the gadget that administered his morphine. He died in June. For a long time after that, every time I picked up the harmonica I could picture him laying there and dying. I put my aspirations of becoming a professional harmonica player in the dresser drawer with my harmonicas and for several years quit playing altogether.
I don't know what the odds would be against me moving next door to Bob Nelson, a guy who played bass harmonica with a trio in the Air Force Tops in Blue and later as The Harmonica Riffs, played on both The Ed Sullivan and The Arthur Godfrey television shows, but when I bought this house, that's what happened. Over the years Bob and I would get together to drink beer and play music around an evening campfire. Once we even got together with a chord player, Jack Theres from the Windy City club and played at a Buckeye Festival. Bob passed away a few weeks ago and I already miss him.
I was stringing Christmas lights in my walnut tree the day before our 2006 harmonica party when the ladder broke and I fell about 15 feet and broke my heel. The party went on but I didn't make it to SPAH that year. I was unable to work so when September rolled around and I got invited to play a one night stand at a local restaurant, I jumped at the chance. I was invited back for the next night and ended up playing every day for the next four months.
Danny & Linette Gajovski
I retired from Ford that December and tried buying the camp ground where we held our 2007 harmonica party. That didn't work out so I went down to Marion, Ohio and helped Doc Belcher remodel the Marion Crossroads Restaurant and Bar. I played every day except Sunday there in the restaurant lounge for the next five months. Marv Monroe and several members of the Buckeye club would stop in and play with me on Wednesdays. After Jack Ely passed away, the Columbus Club decided to have one last festival so because they knew I could play dinner music, I got invited to play dinner music and give a Band in a Box seminar at that Buckeye festival.
In 2009, I decided to build a website and get into the harmonica business. I took a bath selling all of my Ford stock and started New Harmonica. Later in the year, I called Marv Monroe to see if they had changed their minds about not having a 2010 Buckeye. He said no they had not changed their minds but if I could find another club willing to host it, the Buckeye club would support it. I got in touch with Duane Gisewhite , the president of the Rubber Capital club and ended up organizing and being the festival chairman of the 2010 Buckeye Festival. The 2010 festival went so well that I decided to do it again in 2011. Ten days before the 2011 festival I had only sold a disappointing 37 festival packages and made the painful decision to cancel the festival.
Since then I've kept about as busy as I want to be busy. I play at nursing homes, retirement communities, private parties, an occasional restaurant, wineries, and believe it or not, even a gig entertaining at a motor cycle clubs national convention. I was a vendor at the last Buckeye festival, the last 5 Garden State festivals and the last 3 Virginia Harpfests, all of the Huntington, WV Harmonicolleges and the 2014 Bean Blossom Blues Festival. This year will be my 6th time vending at SPAH.
Now I'm looking forward to living the rest of the story.
Danny G http://www.newharmonica.com/
In 2009, I decided to build a website and get into the harmonica business. I took a bath selling all of my Ford stock and started New Harmonica. Later in the year, I called Marv Monroe to see if they had changed their minds about not having a 2010 Buckeye. He said no they had not changed their minds but if I could find another club willing to host it, the Buckeye club would support it. I got in touch with Duane Gisewhite , the president of the Rubber Capital club and ended up organizing and being the festival chairman of the 2010 Buckeye Festival. The 2010 festival went so well that I decided to do it again in 2011. Ten days before the 2011 festival I had only sold a disappointing 37 festival packages and made the painful decision to cancel the festival.
Since then I've kept about as busy as I want to be busy. I play at nursing homes, retirement communities, private parties, an occasional restaurant, wineries, and believe it or not, even a gig entertaining at a motor cycle clubs national convention. I was a vendor at the last Buckeye festival, the last 5 Garden State festivals and the last 3 Virginia Harpfests, all of the Huntington, WV Harmonicolleges and the 2014 Bean Blossom Blues Festival. This year will be my 6th time vending at SPAH.
Now I'm looking forward to living the rest of the story.
Danny G http://www.newharmonica.com/