I recorded my father in the Summer of '84 on a TEAC four track. He was a master at the Broadway nightclub cabaret style and played piano and sang with the lovely ladies and harmonized with the mad men of his post-war generation, also known as "The Greatest Generation." They had it all after getting through the hell of WWII. They did mostly what they were told to do but he held court at our baby grand (this recording is with his Steinway Grand in '84) at many a festive gathering with their many friends with my mom Sandy looking swell and serving up all the best treats only depression survivors could truly appreciate. They deserved their just rewards. My father was a Veteran, Navy man, although he never saw more action than singing and playing piano at bars in Michigan where he was posted awaiting to be called into combat for the invasion of Japan which was never to be. Truman ordered the bomb dropped and the war ended.  That's what he always said to me, "If not for the bomb you wouldn't be alive today." He supported my musical career, my business career, my law career and any career I chose as long as I had a nice loving woman beside me. He loved my wife Anne and was never prouder than when we got married in 2005. All he wanted was for me to be happy. I buried my father in The Grapes of Wrath in 2012 as Uncle John but in real life he was cremated and died without much to show for it but us. I love my father more now than when he was alive. Here's to you! This three-song epic journey is what I owe him, to give him a shot at immortality: When It's Sleepy Time Down South (Clarence Muse, Leon René and Otis René popularized by Louis Armstrong); Wagon Wheels (Lyric by Billy Hill. Music by Peter De Rose from Ziegfield Follies); and What a Difference a Day Makes... indeed! (a popular song originally written in Spanish by María Grever, a Mexican songwriter, in 1934 with the title "Cuando vuelva a tu lado" "When I Return to Your Side" English lyrics by Stanley Adams.) He could turn any song into his own and he could turn any party into an event. Artists today couldn't hold a candle to him, certainly I can't, but I try to bring what he gave me to every performance. Like Frank Sinatra said when asked what he owed his fans "A good performance." God Bless Us, Everyone! And I was particularly blessed to be his son.

Live! From the Vault #9 Hal Gabe... at the piano "When It's Sleepy Time Down South" (Satchmo)

From NYC / North Jersey now in Greensboro, NC.  For more stories, podcasts and free music go to:

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