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April 23 2008
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A NOTAR STORY --- So I think I wrote the nastiest intro record of all time:) Ok maybe not of all time but shit I'm holding the shovel on this one you dig??? Ha-ha. So im on the "write" track now with the pen so let's see what comes of it.... Lucky Fans you!!! hahahahaLast night I had the chance to re connect with some really Great People. I went to dinner with my Father's Best Friend and Roommate from College (Berkeley School of Music) and His Son (Amazing Drummer). These two guys are some of the best individuals anyone will ever meet. They love life, love music and are extremely talented at what they do. (I will refer to my father's Best friends name as "V" from now on)We are sitting at Dinner and V starts telling me old stories about my father I had never known. (Some of you may know I lost my father to Leukemia in November of 1991) It was so great to hear stories about my Dad from someone who knew him best. V knew him when he was just a music student at school studying Jazz Trumpet and that was long before I was ever around;) V was telling me that my Dad use to sleep through music theory and aural skills class and he use to yell at him, "Get the Hell out of Bed you Lazy Shit" My Father was a good looking guy when he was younger so V would tell me he would be out late, gigging at clubs, hooking up with Girls and sleeping late. (Like Father like Son) except I don't sleep late. V kept telling me how much he loved my Dad and how much of a Great Trumpet player he was. I always knew he was great but to hear someone that knew him in his prime say it, it meant the world.V also told me that back in the day when he was a sophomore in college with my Dad; he had hit some financial difficulty and really needed a B3 organ for the music he was making. He came back to the Dorms one night and asked my Dad what he should do. My Dad suggested V come home with him for Christmas break and ask his parents (my grandparents) for a loan. V was hesitant at first but then eventually took my father's offer. My Grandmother agreed to loan him the money for his first piano. (I actually got to sit at that very same piano after dinner) Truly Amazing.As I approached the piano I saw a Grammy Award was sitting right on top of it. I was speechless. V had won a Grammy for an arrangement of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" he did for the Great, Late, Ray Charles and the Legend Johnny Mathis. While I was looking at the piano and Grammy V told me he paid my Grandmother back for the B3 piano years ago, but when he won the Grammy in 2004 my Grandmother (Noni) not to my knowledge sent him the check right back to let him know how proud she was. She wrote him a beautiful letter and I was in awe. WOW. If only my Dad was around to see that...In 2004 as I said earlier V won the Grammy for an arrangement of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and as I held this Grammy award in my hands, I was thinking about my father allot. I looked at the Title "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and I was instantly taken back to my 6th Grade Auditorium, First day of School at Ridge Road Elementary.Follow Me would you....When I was younger my father forced me to play the trumpet. He tried it out on my older sister but she wasn't very good, then he waited till I was old enough to throw it on me. I wanted nothing to do with it. He forced me to practice and even though I hated it with in a few weeks I started to get the hang of it. It was only about a month till school started and he told me I had to join band when it did. We had just moved to a new town and I didn't know anybody and the last thing I wanted to be known as was a band geek! I was pissed. Anyway at the beginning of every school year I guess this new school had an assembly where the band performs for the whole school. I have a younger sister Sara who at the time was playing piano and was a grade below me. Sara was so talented.Anyway a couple weeks before school my Dad calls me and Sara Downstairs before dinner and gives us these two folders and tells us to open them up. Me and Sara look at each other and slowly begin to open the envelopes. Inside there were Piano part and a trumpet part for guess what song...YUP! SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW!!!!! Arranged by none other that my father's best friend V.My Dad made my sister Sara and I practice for an hour every night and when he believed we knew the song good enough he hit us with some of the scariest news I have ever received. He told Sara and me that we are playing this song as a duet to open my school assembly in front of everyone!!!!!!!!! I did piss in my pants. I couldn't believe my dad was doing this to us. I was so nervous. Sara being the genius she is was like cool! Ha-ha. After a week of complaining and fighting with my Father I just decided to give in and say ok I'll do it. (Not that I had a choice) Guy was 6 5 240! HahaTHE BIG DAY I WAS DREADING WAS FINALLY HERE...I'm standing behind a closed curtain at the assembly and all I see is tons of new faces. Teachers and students packed the entire auditorium. My band teacher taps me on the shoulder and asks if im ready to take the front and do my thing and I look at him and couldn't even talk. I was shaking. I wasn't even paying attention to where Sara was at this point, but I gathered myself and stepped out. Everyone was loud, talking, kids throwing stuff, you know the regular things kids do.I remember Mr. Kahn saying "NOW we will have two of our newest students Michael Notarfrancesco and Sara Notarfrancesco play us a duet entitled "SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW". The entire place was silent and I walked to the front of the floor and just stared at all the new faces staring right back at me. I look over at my little sister Sara and her legs are shaking under her piano chair. She looks at me with this petrified look on her face and that didn't help the situation any. The genius was shook too;) I looked at her and mouthed "Are you ready sis"? She nodded her head and we were off. I raised my trumpet to my lips and began playing. I clanked the worst note ever! The worst! I don't even think what came out the end of that trumpet was a note. I was embarrassed. Everyone was laughing and making fun of me and my sister and I wanted to run off the stage, but I took a deep breath and tried to concentrate.As im reaching my height of embarrassment I look to the back of the auditorium and notice my father standing in the doorway. He must have taken his lunch break to come and see us.Now He was the best trumpet player I had ever seen so I wanted to make him proud even though I was mad at him for making me do this.I looked right at him and he gave me this wink. My dad would always give me that motivational, I love you, wink when I needed it. I then looked at Sara and she mouthed "I love u" and I proceeded to to pick the trumpet back up. I shut my eyes and played the song straight through with no flaws. When I re opened my eyes the entire auditorium was standing giving me and Sara Thunderous applause.When they sat back down I looked to the back of the auditorium and my Dad was gone. I think now what that drive back to work must have been like for him. I like to think he was proud. I like to think he was happy that he set all that up. I'd like to think he knows how much even today that moment meant to me.Funny how life works out sometimes.I'll be in touch, NOTAR