The Battleship U.S.S. New Jersey,
BB-62
The Band

.With help from James Flood (keyboards) I got the Captain to allocate us a stateroom near the bridge for a ship board band. The Captain liked he idea and gave us all the help we needed.

We played a few gigs and were "featured" at the FanTail during boxing tourneys. We also performed during the Crossing of the Equator event on our way to Singapore for R&R.

James Flood, now a famous nautical artist, was my inspiration to great American jazz and contemporary musicians including Aretha Franklin and Jimmy Smith (organ). He loaned me cassettes to listen to not only for enjoyment but to study the essence of rhythm and blues and of course jazz. As a musician I still had much to learn especially if I'm going to perform in a shipboard band.

As word got out about the band, I was pleasantly surprised and excited about the quality of the respondents both musically and personally.

I'm sorry to say I don't remember everyone's name. It's my hope someone will email me with correct information.

The 'band room' was up one level from the bridge in the tower under the topmost part of the ship which houses the ECM yard arms and the 0ll level watch station. My nomenclature might be off, but you get the idea. But as with most spaces aboard ship, there was no key only trust and never any problems.

The band room was a tiny space barely large enough to set-up an electric piano and trap set (drums). We all learned to walk around each other and to practice carefully. I remember the problem we had with AC (alternating current) hum on the electic equipment. We managed OK and really couldn't be much happier. We stored our instruments here. What I wonder is where the heck the guys had this stuff before we started the band??? (Gotta check those voids again).

Being so high up in the ship, about 06 or 07 level, we were affected by the roll of the ship more which made our playing all that more challenging. Talk about Rock 'N Roll!