I am currently living in Orlando with my ravishing pregnant wife, Claire, and working as an English Professor at the University of Central Florida. In my spare time I play with a Cuban roots-music band called Kimbombo (Spanish for "ochra") and I collect music. I was born to a non-musical family in Montreal in 1965, but lived in Minneapolis with them from 1967 until 1992. At the age of five, I learned how to operate my father's record player; I listened every day to his collection, and my favorite records were Mozart's 40th Symphony and Missa Lubba, a recording of African chants.
The next year my mother started me on piano lessons but I refused to practice. She asked me what instrument I would rather play and I said "oboe" (I was hooked on Vivaldi oboe concertoes at the time) but my mother thought the better of it and got me a violin. I loved violin music but was always frustrated with my inability to sound like the musicians on the records. It took a long time for me to give up hope of becoming a concert violinist but I finally did by quitting violin altogether at the age of sixteen.
That year, a friend gave me the Sex Pistols record and I thought it was garbage heavy metal with a screechy singer so I returned it. Two days later I asked him to give it back to me. I got very into punk (the year was 1981) and befriended Minneapolis musicians-members of the Replacements, Husker Du, Loud Fast Rules (aka Soul Asylum) and later the Cows, Babes in Toyland, the Jayhawks, Boiled In Lead, and many others. I published Jailbreak!, an underground high school newspaper with an anarchist political bent and a punk aesthetic.
Later, I helped organize an anti-draft registration group, an anarchist bookstore, and a political action group called RABL (The Revolutionary Anarchist Bowling League). I enlisted the help of the musicians I knew in Minneapolis, as well as some out-of-town ones, to play benefits in support of our various projects.
In 1992 I moved to Gainesville, Florida to begin my graduate studies in English. There I began playing violin again with a group of female folk/country musicians. In that band, which became known as Look Here Sister, I also played guitar and sang lead and harmony vocals. Soon I was writing songs and became co-leader of the band along with Michelle Gould. Some demo recordings of the band were made but none released. I taught at the University of Florida's English Department for five years and designed a variety of writing classes including Writing about Literature, Argumentative Writing, Film Analysis, Writing Through Media, and Writing About Pop Music: From Armstrong to Elvis. I developed this last class with the help of Robert Ray, a film professor at the university and leader of the group The Vulgar Boatmen. In 1997 I moved to Atlanta to live with my then fiance. My old Gainesville band decided to continue with Michelle as the leader under the name The Rails (they are now defunct). I formed The Miltons in Atlanta and began writing music reviews for the Washington Times Newspaper (yes, the one owned by the Moonies -- no, I'm no a Moonie).
In 1999, I moved to Orlando to work as a professor at UCF and formed Kimbombo.
Desert Island Picks
Frank Sinatra: In The Wee Small Hours
Glenn Gould: Bach Goldberg Variations (1980 recording)
Robert Johnson: Complete Recordings
Elvis Presley: 50s Masters
Amadeus Quartet: Beethoven Quartets
Hank Williams: Singles Collection
Pablo Casals: Bach Cello Suites
Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
Mississippi John Hurt: Today!
Howlin' Wolf: Evil
The Beatles: Live at the BBC
Louis Armstrong: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Otis Redding: Love Man
Buddy Holly: Collection
The Replacements: Stink
Aretha Franklin: I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)
Jimmy Cliff: The Harder They Come
Ella Fitzgerald: Sings The Gershwin Songbook
Stan Getz: Getz/Gilberto
Golden Gate Quartet: Travelin' Shoes
James Brown: Star Time
Duke Ellington: Blanton/Webster Band
Richard and Linda Thompson: I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight
Wire: Pink Flag
John Lee Hooker: No Friend Around
Beny More: Serie Platino