Janice and Bud,

First let me tell you about that "B3." I call what I have "the B3 in a breadbox" - 16 pounds with the tonewheels, Leslie, overdrive, percussion, everything. all digitized. A real B3 will run you at least $40,000 today and weigh the same number in pounds. Folks used to take this monster on gigs in various types of vehicles (in the era before the invention of SUVs). Milt Buckner used a step van. Jimmy Smith used a hearse. One time, Eddie McFadden, Jimmy Smith's guitar player, had to give up his passenger seat and the only place for him was in the back, where they put the casket. So a cop pulls them over. The cop, suspicious, walks around to the back of the hearse and demands an inspection. Eddie jumps out and begins lurching forward, like a zombie. Jimmy says the cop was last seen running for his life, but I'm sure he was making it up.

Anyway, no one has ever asked about what it's like to be able to put together these tunes and post them on the Forum. I could use expressions like "dream come true" but that doesn't capture it. After a few years playing in crummy bars, I walked away from the business. I could never find musicians who could play my arrangements; good drummers were especially hard to find; I noticed that none of my musical colleagues were making it past the age of 52; even while alive some of them seemed half dead from drug-induced dementia. I assumed I would never play again.

I just managed to make it alive into the era of the disfiguration of the music business and the birth of internet music. Amazingly, if you look for talent there, you'll find it. Why, look at you guys!

I want to thank both of you for your thoughtful comments and rocket-fuel encouragement. I'm taking off for my summer sabbatical and hope that you'll still be turning out the great tunes when I get back in September.

Dean