Take 3, rolling... My name is David Rabiroff. I
knew Danny Lynch way
back in the late 60's and had the pleasure to play with him. I know I
listened to him play with some high school friends of mine and I can
clearly remember how well he sang and played the piano. Danny played
with a lot of soul then and I can only guess how much better he's
gotten continuing to play all these years. I plan on jamming with him
someday in the future, who knows, maybe we can get lucky and make
some music money together.
About me and music. I started playing guitar when I was 8, I'm
almost 49 now. I come from a musical family. My father played guitar, (folk,
finger picking), also piano and clarinet, his brother
played classical piano, (studied at Juliard), my dad's sister played
professional violin in orchestra's. In addition to guitar, I played
violin in elementary school, french horn in high school, saxophone,
string bass, and a little banjo. The guitar has been my main
instrument.
When the Beatles came along I quickly switched from folk to rock n
roll. My sympathy goes out to George's family and the remaining
Beatles. I must admit, Paul McCartney was my favorite Beatle, and his
songwriting is 90% untouchable in my ears view. But George did add a
lot with some tasty guitar work. His parts always took me for a loop
when I tried to cop Beatle tunes. He really fit into the music.
In 1964 my family moved from Southern California to Palo Alto. In
the mid 60's to the mid 70's, it was musically really happening here.
San Francisco was hopping with some soulful musicians, and I feel
fortunate to have been able to attend a lot of great concerts at the
Fillmore, Fillmore West, Winterland (All Bill Graham Venues), the
Avalon Ballroom, Playland at the Beach, and a bunch of outdoor
venues like Frost Amphitheater at Stanford University and Golden Gate
Park. Lets see, I used to go quite frequently with musician friends
of mine that could drive, and some of the acts I saw live at that
time starting with the ones I liked the most were;
The Sons of Champlin, Tower of Power, Chicago, Jimi Hendrix, AB Sky,
Santana, Blood Sweat & Tears, Albert King, BB King, Lee Michaels, Steve
Miller, Taj Mahal, The Who, Cream, Aretha Franklin, Cold
Blood, Jefferson Airplane. Later in the seventies I did manage to see
Paul McCartney and Wings on there 76 tour at the Cow Palace in South
SF, and that show was awesome. I also got hip to a young blues
guitarist from northern California name Robben Ford. He use to play
in downtown Palo Alto with the Real Charles Ford band, and he
literally blew my mind. He plays the blues with a lot of emotion and
technique that to me, is totally happening. I played in a band called
Blue Mountain in the late 60's early 70's, and I was slightly well
known around here, and this very good harmonica player by the name of
Gary Smith, brought Robben over to my house once to introduce me to
him. Robben picked up one of my nylon string guitars that was in my
room and didn't really play it, he just looked at it.
Oh yeah, Blue Mountain, my only real claim, so far, to stardom. This
was a 11 piece Rock and Soul band I created with the help of Tony
Norman on vocals, and Paul Sommer on lead guitar. We were a big wall
of sound, 3 male lead singers, 4 horns, two guitars, drums and bass,
sometimes a keyboard player, they were hard to find back in those
days. Our music was almost all original tunes, sounding somewhere in
between Tower of Power, The Son of Champlin, and any other good soul
group that used 3 singers to sing harmony intertwined with the music.
We had fun. Some of the musicians in that band went on to be in big
name bands, Donny Baldwin eventually ended up in Jefferson Starship, (We Built This City), and Hubert Tubbs did lead vocals with
Tower Of Power for two albums, (Your So Wonderful, So Marvelous). We
had a manager who promoted shows, and we opened for some big acts at
the time; Boz Scaggs, Tower Of Power, The Sons, Cold Blood, The Doobie Brothers, Steve Miller, even Santana at Frost Amphitheater one
summer. That was way fun.
So now, 30 years later, I have mostly been studying guitar, and
listening and listening to good new/old music. I have been raising a
family and working a regular gig for quite awhile, but I plan on
playing again ASAP. Some of the bands I check out whenever they are
in town or on their websites are; Tower of Power, John Lee Sanders,
The Sons Of Champlin, Pat Martino, and Steely Dan. I just bought a
DVD by Steely Dan, Two Against the World, it is very a cool video.
Those guys can really write and play. Anyhow, That's all I can think
to add right now, I have to go practice a little more and get some
sleep. I'm playing at a party tomorrow with this guitarist named John
McCrea in Santa Cruz for a friend of ours 50'th birthday party.
Should be fun.