I came from a musical family.  Everyone on my dad's side played music.  My parents had a piano. When I was 2 and able to stand up, I could put my hands over my head and reach the keys. I couldn't see the keys so I had to play by ear. I didn't know what "perfect pitch" was, but I knew that I could play melodies I heard on the radio with my little fingers.

        My dad realized what a hard time I was having with the big piano keys, so when I was 3 he got me a kid size accordion and started me on lessons. I could play this instrument well.  All of a sudden it seemed I was dressed in a cowboy suit and "Little Jackie Grassel" was walking out on stage to play solo gigs at 4 years old. I would get $10 for each of these gigs. I had to practice a half hour each day.  My mother used a timer. Music had been a lot more fun when I could play whatever I wanted to on the piano but I continued to play the accordion until I was 16, winning state contests, and playing weddings.

After winning the Wisconsin State Music contest in 1958

       When I was 10. Jim Brusky, the school band director, told my mom that he would give me free lessons on the upright  bass if I would play in the band.  My fingers were too small for the instrument and it hurt.

        However, it was great to get off the heavy accordion which hurt my back. Skip Wagner, another teacher, formed small combos and taught us how to play with each other and even got us paying gigs.

The next year brought another interesting development. There was a rock band (The Triumphs) of seventh graders that was very popular. They approached me and said that if I would get a bass guitar I could be in the band. They played for money at dances almost every Friday and Saturday night. Frank Cascio at the local music store said he would give me a bass guitar and amp immediately if I would bring in the money from my Friday night gig each week and he wouldn't charge me any interest. So here I was at 12 playing 2 nights a week. The bass guitar was easy, fun, and it didn't hurt my fingers or back. I continued this all through high school. It was a lot more fun than school work. I had this secret, exciting life at night. By senior year I was playing every night and bribing my future first wife with Twinkies if she would do my homework for me. Upon graduating from high school, I was burned out on music. I had been drinking, taking sleeping pills and caffeine pills. After falling down drunk in the middle of a gig, waking up 10 hours later in a strange house, and not remembering what happened in between, I sold my gear at 17, and started college to be a Pharmacist.

      College didn't work out for me.  After 2 years of no music, I was walking past a record store with the $30 my mother had given me for food. I heard jazz music coming out of the open door. I went in and spent the day there with the clerk, Mitch Covic, who played jazz records for me. I put the $30 food money on the counter and asked him to pick out 15 record albums from the $2 a piece "monophonic cut out bin". I took the records home, went hungry, dropped out of school, bought a guitar and decided to be a jazz musician. My parents said that I should enroll in music school. I did, and found out that I knew more about music than my instructors. I realized that there is a difference between being a musician and being a music teacher.  After 2 years of straight A's , without doing school work, I was offered my first gig as a studio musician. I took it instead of taking my final exams at music school and became a full time musician. When I was 21, I heard that the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music was going to offer a jazz guitar degree. Wow! I went to get the enrollment forms. While filling them out at home, the phone rang, it was bassist Dave Phillips.  He strongly suggested I go audition to be a teacher for the jazz guitar degree. I must have fooled them at the audition because I was hired. I was there 12 years, teaching 2 days a week, and gigging every night and doing recording sessions the other days, 10-22 gigs per week !

      In 1983, most of the studio work, show work, daytime gigs and six night a week bar gigs stopped. This was due to DJs, recorded disco music in bars, aids, fear of second hand smoke, stricter drunk driving laws, VCRs, and home based entertainment.  I went from playing 10-22 gigs per week for 13 years to 2 gigs per week seemingly overnight. Many musicians had to get non-music jobs to survive.                                                                                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                        2002 Hofner Guitar promo picture

     In the fall of 1983, with a family to support, I took a position as Chairman of the MATC (Milwaukee Area Technical College) music department. My job was to design the Music Occupations Program which generated a two year degree. I played jazz exclusively 2 - 4 nights per week.  I left that job in 2003 since it is once again possible for me to make a living as a jazz musician.

     All the hard work has paid off. I have never had a non-music job. I made a rough count the other day to see how many gigs I've played, and it's now over 11,000.   I've been to interesting places, met exciting people, and am having a lot of fun being a musician.