GARY

I'm a Musician / Percussionist / DJ / & Teacher that also does Music Production, Photography, Poetry, and Art. I'm also considered to be one of the pioneers of the NYC Graffiti Movement... Please check out my pics and that will tell some of the story about me. To check out my music and some of my friends music - please check out my music page at WICKEDGARYFRITZFRIENDS or just click on the cute picture below of me playing the drums when they were bigger than I was (the 1st box in my friends list). The pictures there will fill in some of the missing pieces of my story which I will tell in detail sometime in the future... Thanks for taking the time! Peace! Gary...Music is my life! My mother was a dancer / model and my father was a drummer / percussionist. I was blessed to be exposed to a lot of musical experiences from an early age by going with my parents to shows they were doing and performing on all the time. My mom would take me to dance classes with live musicians and I would be facinated by the sounds of the drums and the movement of the dancers that the drums would stimulate. I would always be moved by the dancers and found myself wanting to be able to make them move like that from me playing the drums. This was just a part of the equation that helped form my dreams for myself and music... My father came from a large musical family where all his brothers played percussion and worked every week at all the happening music places and dance halls in NYC. He also played for dance classes and for a big band called The Frank Anderson Orchestra. Going with dad to his gigs made up the other major part of the equation that definitely determined for me that music was the answer to the questions in my life about my direction to follow... When I would listen to the band, and watch how they made the crowd react to the wonderful sounds they were making - it truly made me see the beauty, the power, and the magic that music is. I wanted that magic in my life forever - from that moment of discovery... I started playing the drums every chance I could after that, and then I took it a step further by trying to play every instrument I could whenever the opportunity would arise. If I was at a gig with my dad - when they took a break from playing and put their instruments down, I would ask if I could try to to play it - no matter what the instrument was. People would usually say ok and I would be nonstop until it was time for them to play again. That started my real experimentation with musical sounds, colors, and flavors... The music that my dads band played would stay with me for weeks at a time as if I were being sweetly haunted. I began my search for the instrument and sound that would be my tools for musical expression. I started to take piano lessons soon after... I took piano lessons for a short time before my piano teacher moved out of the city. Just about that time I really started hearing horn sections differently - and then the tool shifted to trumpet... In the 3rd grade my parents bought me a trumpet and got me to take lessons from my soon to be 4th grade music teacher at P.S.11 (Brooklyn) Mr Frank Manzella. Mr Manzella came to my house for my lessons and was a great teacher. In a few months I made great progress. By the time school started again for the 4th grade (which was to be my beginners music class) I was a little bit ahead of my peers and classmates. We all started off learning how to play the recorder in week 1. By the end of week 2 - I had finished playing everything in the music book that the class took all semester to learn... Mr. Manzella told me to go in the instruments closet to pick another instrument to play for class. I brought out the percussion box with all the shakers, triangles, clave, cymbals, and bells then started playing them all. By the time the semester was over I had also added the snare, bass drum, and drum set. My love for percussion was starting to be nurtured and it began to bloom and grow...