I met Joey in 1970 when he accompanied a friend who had come to look at a car I was selling. The friend bought the car, but I did not see Joey again. In a discussion some years ago on ShadowMusic (on a “standing-wave” acoustic problem I had in my home studio), Joey—a Shadows fan—recognized my name, and we began to communicate.
Joey is also a Ventures fan and had a good friend, Milt, who was active in Underground Fire. Milt was quite interested in Japan and began to communicate with a Japanese member—Yoshi. In time, Joey met Yoshi through Milt, and so did I, through Joey. We spoke through email, but never actually met. We agreed we should some day get together to play Shadows and Ventures.
Last week, Joey and Yoshi visited Manila, and yesterday we finally had what Yoshi calls our “Dream Jam.” It was wonderful playing with them pieces well known to all three of us. That was the first time I saw Joey again after 46 years.
One of the Shadows fans who jam with Joey in New York is Freddie, who used to play drums in a band in the early 1960s. When Joey mentioned my name to him, Freddie said “We were neighbors when we were kids.” Indeed, Freddie lived just a few houses from ours, but I last saw him when we were little boys in short pants. He was in Manila too, so we made sure he came over to play with us. He played like the old-fashioned drummer he is, which was great. I had not seen him since 1960, 57 years ago.
The theory “Six Degrees of Separation” suggests thata chain of "a friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. That seems true. Thank you, ShadowMusic and Underground Fire.
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