Semi OT: Liz Curtis Cohn Aug 2, 1937 - May 2, 2022

[EscapeRocks]

I do what I do thanks to my mom.  RIP

She introduced me to a piano when I was 9 mos old

[S_Gould]

So sorry to hear of your loss. We lost my Dad just about a year ago. You don't get over it, but you move on, eventually.

[EscapeRocks]

Thank you 

[lightbg]

You’ll remember her every time you touch a keyboard. There is no better memorial.

 

Jake

[zxcvbnm098]

85 is a pretty good run David. We should all be so blessed. Huge condolences to you and your family on her passing. 

 

Saturday was 17 years since my dad passed at 75, and this October it will be 33 years since my mom died at 59 (8 days shy of her 60th). I've now lived longer than she got to, and she's been gone longer than I had her living. Both from lung cancer...an awful disease to say the least.

 

The passing of a parent or parents leaves a giant hole that does shrink over time, but never completely closes. Cherish your memories of her, and recognize the blessing to have had her as your mom. I'm sure she was proud to see you continue with music.

[KuruPrionz]

All best wishes to you and yours.

[MathOfInsects]

Sorry, David.

[stoken6]

My condolences. 

 

Lovely pic of a young David at the piano. I've got exactly that photo, except of my kids. 

 

Cheers, Mike

[Adan]

As young children we believe our parents will be with us forever despite abundant evidence to the contrary.  We then spend the next 50 years getting used to the idea that they won't.  

 

For me personally, I found solace in rededicating myself to the things they inspired me to do which, like you David, included music.

[wineandkeyz]

My condolences, David. Sending prayers for you and your family.

[Mark Zeger]

May her memory be a blessing.

[Al Quinn]

I'm sorry for your loss David. May she rest in peace.

[jerrythek]

Condolences.

 

[vonnor]

Sorry for your loss, Dave.

[kaptainkeys]

Dave, I'm so sorry for your loss.  May you and your family be comforted.

[johnchop]

Wishing you peace and comfort.

[David R]

My deepest condolences, Dave. 

[timwat]

I'm very sorry to hear this. It is the way of all things, for all the ones we love eventually. And it is always painful for the ones left behind. It is a wonderful thing to hear it was your mom who introduced you to the piano (so it was for me). Did she also get you started on lessons? I'd love to hear more about how she impacted you and contributed to making you the man you are today. I think it's important for us as men to acknowledge it and speak it out loud, and I'm genuinely curious.

[Docbop]

Deepest condolences. 

[jarrell]

So sorry for your loss.

[TommyRude]

peace and prayers

[allan_evett]

I'm sorry to hear of this, David. My condolences to you and yours.

[stillearning]

Sorry for your loss, sending healing thoughts.

[ProfD]

Brotha Dave @EscapeRocks, my sincere condolences to you in your time of bereavement.   

 

Super awesome that your mom got you started down the music path. 

 

Surely, you will cherish memories of your mom forever. Hang in there mayne. 😎

[EscapeRocks]

23 minutes ago, ProfD said:

Brotha Dave @EscapeRocks, my sincere condolences to you in your time of bereavement.   

 

Super awesome that your mom got you started down the music path. 

 

Surely, you will cherish memories of your mom forever. Hang in there mayne. 😎

Appreciate it my friend!

[EscapeRocks]

On 5/3/2022 at 12:42 PM, timwat said:

I'm very sorry to hear this. It is the way of all things, for all the ones we love eventually. And it is always painful for the ones left behind. It is a wonderful thing to hear it was your mom who introduced you to the piano (so it was for me). Did she also get you started on lessons? I'd love to hear more about how she impacted you and contributed to making you the man you are today. I think it's important for us as men to acknowledge it and speak it out loud, and I'm genuinely curious.

 

Thanks Tim,

It was pretty much a combined effort of my mom and dad (who coincidentally just passed 2 months ago).  Fun 2022 so far.  

 

My start in music came at an early age, as there was always music playing in the home. Classic, jazz, pop, etc..  My young ears were exposed to it all.

 

My parents purchased that Story & Clark in the photo in 1961 from Marshall Field's in Chicago.  My dad played a VERY little, and it was mostly a decorative piece in our apartment of the 3-flat we lived in in Chicago.

I think I was around 6 when I remember a classmate was taking lessons, and I heard her playing.     I clearly know I asked my parents about lessons.

We went thru the discourse of I had to commit to practice, and so forth.

 

When I was 7 thru recommendations, they found my piano teacher.  She came to the home once a week for an hour lesson.  A nice older lady named Mrs. Shapiro.  I went thru the typical kid stuff of not wanting to practice, stomping my feet.    Looking back, my parents were smart.  They used reverse psychology.  They let me quit.   After a couple weeks I remembered that "wow!  I forgot hot to play things I had learned."  I was 10 at the time I stopped.    I begged to have piano again. Took a bit, but I signed a blood oath to practice.

 

So Mrs. Shapiro was back on the scene.   Advancing thru rudimentary lesson books, and then being presented with the finger twisting (to me at the time) Hannon Scales book.  I still have it, and still run thru it now and then.

 

As I got older, I began taking the CTA after school to downtown on Mondays for my one hour lessons where she taught at the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue near Randolph St.

One hour every afternoon until 1978 when we moved to Arizona.

 

9.5 to 10 years with Mrs. Shapiro.   Both her and my parents encouraged, and more importantly, acknowledged they styles of music I wanted to play.  They knew I wasn't trying to get to Carnegie Hall, but I still needed a solid education.

Starting about 1975, I was allowed to bring sheet music of my choice to learn.  As long as I was doing and practicing the prescribed lessons, like Hannon Book, pieces from Chopin, Beethoven, Joplin, etc.. we would spend time learning tunes from The Who, Queen, KISS (Beth) and so forth.

 

A result of all this is long before I got the performing bug, and joined my first band, in Arizona, playing the piano became my vice, or escape (no pun).

A good friend of min and I, in fourth grade, would stand on a bench at recess, and sing 50's songs for all the girls.    Blue Moon, Great Balls of Fire, Chantilly Lace... all recorded on a cassette recorder we'd sit on the bench to provide the music for us to sing with.

 

To this day, when I go sit at my piano just to noodle around, I find I always break out Jerry Lee Lewis style jams.  He, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Little Richard are my favorites.

 

In 1973 when we moved to a new "apartment" in Chicago near Oak and Michigan avenue, my parents decided it was time for a Grand Piano.   My teacher, Mrs. Shapiro, went with my parent to the Steinway dealer downtown, Lyon & Healy, and audition a number of them before landing on the 1973 "L" Series.   It's interesting watching them move a piano to the 29th floor on top of the elevator.

That piano has now been mine, in my home, since 1994 and is maintained by the Steinway people out here in the Dallas area.

 

My freshman year of college at a college in Indiana, I was a dj on the school station.  I had already been a Journey fan since the late 70's.   1981, "Open Arms" was released, then the rest of the Escape Album.

You darn well knew I worked up "Open Arms" and wowed the ladies  

 

The rest is history.     For whatever reason, I find it a bit amusing that despite my classical knowledge and ability, to this day my very favorite music to play is rock, and Boogie-Woogie, and Blues.

I would not be able to play as well as I can without all those years of lessons way back then.

 

Who knew 52 years ago, that I'd be living out my own "rock and roll fantasy".   Thru everything, music has been the one constant in my life

 

For that I thank my parents who always encourage my creativity, and made sure not to pigeon-hole or impose their musical tastes upon me as far as what I wanted to play.

 

So:  thanks mom, thanks dad.   Of course thanks Mrs. Shapiro who made piano lessons fun.

 

 

[Joe Muscara]

Not OT at all, my friend. Condolences to you and the family. She clearly lives on (as does your dad) in you.

[timwat]

Man, that's the stuff right there. Thank you for giving us that gift, David.

[EscapeRocks]

1 hour ago, timwat said:

Man, that's the stuff right there. Thank you for giving us that gift, David.

Thank you much my friend. 
 

sorry for the typos.  Hard to type this much on a phone. 

[Tom Williams]

David, I can't add much to the others' posts, other than some empathy -- my parents died 17 days apart in 1998.  The next is for what it's worth: don't be surprised if you find yourself temporarily crippled by the grief.  I was very surprised when my parents' deaths -- both really just from old age, in their 80s -- took me down for 6 months.

 

I'll pray for you tonight.