Anna Coppa – helping to understand the human experience Anna Coppa was born in Scarlets Mill, a small town about 50 miles from Philadelphia, PA. Her large family include parents Jessica and Justin Coppa along with three sisters and two brothers. The entire family of Italian heritage is very musically oriented. Anna’s Aunt Stein and […]
The Untold Stories Over the past 14 years I have interviewed 205 Key West musicians (and counting). I’ve written three books about them – the Soul of Key West, Volumes 1, 2, & 3 that included photos and very short biographies of over 160 of them. I record all my interviews they usually go for […]
Terry Wetmore “…There is something special inside the people you meet in Key West.” Terry Wetmore was born in Schenectady, New York. When he was growing up, the local school district emphasized the arts instead of sports. The school would win state awards for vocals, wind ensembles, and string ensembles. As part of his free […]
Dave Arndt Dave Arndt, the youngest of four siblings, grew up in the anthracite coal region of Frackville, Pennsylvania. He was recruited for the North Schuylkill High School band. Dave wanted to play drums but the music teacher said “we need trumpets” so he became a trumpet player. His grandfather was disappointed when he found […]
Earth Day & The Hippie Doctrine For the last three decades there has been a concerted effort to paint the 60s Hippie movement as a bunch of misguided, acid-dropping, and dirty hippies. Most of these comments come from people not old enough for the 60s or from well publicized minority view of out of touch […]
Zero Turbulence – inspired by the island that raised them Key West is a special place for live music. We have 55 live music venues on this tiny island. We average over 360 live music performances weekly in Key West. Music permeates this island right down to the coral rock. The Key West musical soul […]
Dave Burns By Ralph De Palma My good friend and pianist extraordinaire Dave Burns passed away January. I will miss him tremendously. We had some great conversations about Key West music and the many players he worked with. We both lived in Miami during the 60s and 70s and often compared notes. We even conjured […]
Music in VIV Wine Bistro It started when two gypsy jazz musicians, Martin Sedlak and Alexander Michael started hanging out at the quaint VIV Wine Bistro on Petronia Street around Christmas 2022. Julie De Cock, owner-operator of La Crêperie and Viv Wine Bistro, had Martin play Christmas songs one evening at her cozy bistro. Julie’s […]
Historic American Legion Post 168 The American Legion Post 168 is located at 803 Emma Street in Bahama Village. Its rich history begins with its namesake, William Weech, a black Key Wester who perished aboard the USCGC Tampa which sunk off the coast of Wales during WWI. Dr. Nancy Moulton, a self-proclaimed “fix-it” person, is […]
A Music Masterpiece family This past Friday, I attend the first “Soul City – Motown With A Jazz Attitude” which brought back some great memories …. Since this is a republished story from 2023, I thought it might be nice to start with a sentence or two leading into story The Key West Lopez family […]
