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A brief introduction

I am Lee Cronbach. For most of my life I have worked as a local or ‘journeyman musician – never getting nationally famous, but rocking quite a few cities in the US In my time.  I’ve played in all sorts of bands – R&B, rock, country, lounge, originals, and church – and in all sorts of gigs (jobs), from rock and R&B bands to jazz combos, jazz big bands,  norteño bands, voice class accompanist, leading church instrumental groups, and others.   During the process I met a lot of interesting and creative people: professional musicians tend to be pretty original folk. And I had quite a few wonderful and wild adventures.  Most of my living has been made from teaching – the performances helped spread my reputation which brought me students and funding from friendly families. And just as with the musicians I worked with, a lot of great stories came out of these families and adult students once you get to know them. In Berkeley, then in Boston, then in Los Angeles, I met and played with f
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MY SISTER MARIA THE STORYTELLER – DARK PLUMS

                      My sister reading her ghost story thrillers to me and my bother              Link to my composition, inspired by Maria’s first novel, Dark Plums:            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNMDJGH5pDo                               -------------------------- FROM MARIA TO KANSAS CITY BOB  INTRODUCTON  – “My goodness! I didn’t know anybody else in this college had soul!” I was seated at the piano in the student lounge, around 11 pm, and the person standing behind me was none other than the locally famous Kansas City Bob.  Bob was a White blind freshman from Kansas City, a master musician who could play Ray Charles note-for-note, and lead a brilliant, unforgettable performance of Miles Davis’s Seven Steps to Heaven.   So for him to listen to me play and say I had ‘soul’ was overwhelming!            After high school I spent a year and a half at Washington University, St. Louis, getting up enough ‘A’s to get me as an out-of-state student into UC Berkeley .  (This woul
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The Case of the Two Professors and the Knotted Portfolio

               “Why Do You Do What You Do?”                       It was an exciting morning for me.  I was going to be Interviewed by two jazz professors, and one might take Interviewed by two jazz professors, and one might take me on as a grad student. This was the moment I had been working towards ever since I had started lessons with Dr. Norden – to get some college degrees under my belt so I could teach community college, and no longer have to rely on gigs for a (bare) living.           Not only that – each of the professors had played in bands led by famous musicians before moving into the academic field: the morning professor – let’s call him Prof. A – in African-American ‘New Wave’ groups of the 60s the afternoon professor, Prof. B, in mainly white cool groups from the 1950s and early 1960s.             I grabbed all the most interesting compositions I had done for Charley Banacos – or that he liked the best – and a fugue I had written for Dr. Norden; and stuffed them into a br
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