Jessica Wachs with black sheep, artists, and dreamers Growing up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Jessica Wachs studied music and playied the French horn. She spent the summer months in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her mother. Jessica finally started singing in her junior year of high school, studying vocals as an alto with an inspirational choir […]
Bobi Loré – perfected the art of gathering Bobi Loré, originally from a Brooklyn Italian family, grew up on Long Island, New York. While growing up, he listened to his father and grandfather’s record collection of 30s, 40s, and 50s music. He played trumpet, until dental braces forced a change to the trombone. Bobi studied […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
What If …. By Ralph De Palma A while back, former Key West pianist Dave Burns and I were discussing Key West legendary performer Coffee Butler. Both Dave and I lived in Miami during the 60s and 70s when Miami Beach would see major artists, like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Guy Lombardo, and […]
