I grew up in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, and on Friday afternoons My Uncle Frank (actually my Grandmothers brother) he would pick me up in his 1964 Buick and we would ride to the beach, to my grandmothers house, where I spent almost every weekend of my life. Along the way we would listen to 8 -track tapes of singers like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Jerry Vale. And all the big bands: Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, PaulWhiteman and others. He would tell me stories about going to the Cotton Club as a teenager, and hearing Louis Armstrong and other Jazz players of the day in little clubs in Harlem. I listened with rapt attention and loved the stories he told as much as the great music we heard.