About Me - John Pfeiffer

Beginnings

Born in Zanesville, raised in Cincinnati, I started playing guitar when I turned 12. I got a Stella guitar for Christmas. Later, I saved up my lawn mowing money and got a 1965 Rickenbacker. My first real amp was a Casino, before that I had a practice amp using a speaker out of my parents's stereo (they never knew I had removed it!). My first band gig was for a high school party (being 14, we played the breaks), also the first time I drank beer. We were called ‘JC and the Water Walkers’, after drummer John Curtis. At age fifteen, I was teaching at Buddy Roger's Music, a job that would last off and on for 6 years. With money primarily from teaching, I purchased a 1968 Les Paul gold top and a Silver-face Fender Twin Reverb w/JBLs. I later replaced the Fender with a 50w Marshall ‘Plexi’ as I started playing in a blues band - Circus at Dawn. This band eventually morthed itself into a top 40 music cover band, beginning to generate steady bookings as I graduated from high school. We played the Flamingo Club in Newport, Kentucky (I found out later that unbeknownst to me, this club also sported gambling and prostitution!) and a top dance club; The Round-Up Club in St. Thomas, Kentucky. I took a job with another music store for that summer and my musical interest began moving to jazz - I had a collection of Hank Garland records (now very rare but available on the web). I also acquired a 1934 Epiphone Triumph. This was a non-cutaway acoustic arch-top, a prewar New York model. An excellent guitar, it was found hidden inside a piano purchased when Hughes Music went out of business (remember the song 'Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye, by GENE HUGHES and the Kasinos?)

After High School

I moved out on my own and played around the Cincinnati area after high school. School wasn't my priority as my draft lotter number was 21, not a good thing in 1971! I didn't get drafted though, which was a turning point. I began to think music as a career might not be for me - I wasn't starving as a musician (looking back I was doing well!) but I decided to go to school so I could repair guitar amps (another music store sideline). I enrolled at Cincinnati Tech. for Electronic Technology. I broke with Circus at Dawn (looking back, I'm not sure why) and went back to teaching at Buddy Rogers. I found more band work in a hard rock band, new SNAFU. We were LOUD - it was a good time, playing in/around the University of Cincinnati. I also got a co-op job mixing sound (among other things) for a Sound Company. I was house soundman at the Renaissance Theater (Jim Tarbell's club), mixing most bands that came to town. Notable mixes included an outdoor bluegrass festival, Pure Prairie League, Taj Mahal, and Raushand Roland Kirk. I had a 1000watt bi-amped PA with an original TAPCO mixer board design of Greg Mackie, who later established the MACKIE complany) and company equipment running up to 5,000 watts with 24ch mixes - I mixed a few bands that actually drowned out the PA, this was Rock and Roll! About that time I graduated from tech school and decided to go on to Ohio University and get an Electrical Engineering Degree.

Getting married

The primary basis for my decision to not go on the road but to look for other long-term employment was because my wife Regan and I had decided to get married. Secondary was a realization that only the gifted and lucky have anything other than a hard life making a living as a musician. Music is something passionate and for some, there is no other choice. Everyone must follow their own path. I felt I could be more sucessfull as an engineer though in retrospect, that was a hunch. The last thirty years has seen a continued decline in the live music business (especially regional musicians) as a result of drinking laws and continuing improvements in the distribution of recorded music. Even as I say this I must point out that Regan's brother Steve, and "my" keyboard player, Bob Kennedy (Circus at Dawn) both toured sucessfully during this era. It has been only recently that work has become more difficult. FYI, Bob toured with the Platters among others, playing worldwide but also Vegas and Vail, continuing to tour for thirty years. Steve is a graduate of GIT (just as GIT was launched) and toured Japan twice.

I met Regan through her brother Steve, the lead guitarist with 'Circus at Dawn'. I met her at one of our band practices in the basement of their house - our first date was to an Allman Brothers concert, back when Duane was still with us. Regan comes from a very musical family, her father Tom played trombone and keyboard and composed a few songs as well. His spirituals and a christmas song he wrote were performed by local celebrities. Tom also had personal connections to many of the big band leaders of the era due to his close friendships with Bob Braun (a local talk show celebrity) and Rosemary Clooney. Both Bob and Rosemary were friends from high school days and working at Cincinnati's Coney Island, either lifeguarding the pool or performing in the Moonlight Gardens Dance pavilion in the summers. Tom kept in contact with the Brauns and the Clooney's (yes George was Rosemary's nethew and yes, Regan remembers him as a young child growing up, well...not that much younger!). Tom did not choose music as a profession, but he did always have music in the family. He sang and played organ till the day he died.

Moving to the country for College.

When I got to Athens, Ohio, I started playing a new sound, country rock. There wasn't much work for rock bands that paid (students didn't have any money!) so I played in country bands and many very traditional country bands. Regan took a job at the local bank and for the next two years would provide our primary income. Meanwhile, I formed a band with some music school graduates; we had ourselves a vocal group for about a year. The drummer and I later backed a country singer for about six months, playing in a country bar 'downtown'. I also picked up a job as an instrument repairman for organs, wha-wha pedals, etc at a local music store. I ran out of money my last year, selling my Les Paul, Marshall and unfortunately my Epiphone as well. Now I was playing a '62 Stratocaster (I hated) through a Fender Princeton miked through the PA. When I graduated in 1977, I went back to Cincinnati but dropped out of music professionally. Frustrated I could not get a paying job as a recording engineer in the music field; my interests on my resume now said industrial controls and automation. I continued to play sporadically, replacing the Strat with my Electra Howard Roberts model but now I was playing jazz exclusively and not pursuing performing opportunities.

On raising a family

I found work in Cincinnati and close to our families. I worked for an engineering consulting firm and later a consumer products manufacturer. Emily was born while we we living in Mariemont, we moved to Beechmont as Adam was born. Rachel came four years later and is our youngest. All would eventually graduate from high school in Appleton (one from East, one from West, and one from North) but that comes later. My main hobbies during this time were working on cars and home type stuff - remodeling, landscaping, gardening, etc. I had a hot-rod '69 BMW 2002 and three other BMWs, and a '62 Austion Mini. I actually used my auto repair skills as income during a couple 'lean years'. Regan continued to work, though off and on due to raising our kids. One thing that impacted Regan's work, Adam got hit by a car out in front of our house (and we lived on the turnaround of a dead-end street, one would think this would be safe). He broke both his legs, was in the hospital for a month, and in a body cast for the whole summer that year. Those were trying times but one learns to count your blessing when you frequent any children's hosptial - we were lucky, Adam was lucky. Though he still has some lingering problems, he has recovered - he said he had one of his drunk friends convinced the other night that his scars were due to a shark bite!

We have brilliant kids, that's what parents say though but it is true.

Hiring on to Kimberly-Clark

I hired on to KC in Memphis, finally leaving Cincinnati after 12 years of work experience in process control design and engineering. Music was not much on my mind. I had loaned my guitar to my brother-in-law;- after all, my son had nearly disassembled it! The closest I got to music was when visiting Beale Street in Memphis. When I moved to Appleton in 1994, things changed. I bought my son a bass guitar for Christmas and figured I would get my old guitar back, my brother in law had not been playing it that much as the time. I started having trouble putting the guitar down at night, eventually resorting to getting up early in the morning to play. Shortly I was rehearsing with other musicians working at KC, eventually playing a few jobs - two with my wife singing! About that time I heard the Geriatric Jazz Group at City Park, a few blocks from my house. Well that changed everything. I thought, they are having a blast, I love their music, I sure would like to play in that band!

Music in Appleton

I started playing with the Geriatric Jazz Band in 1996. Dr. Mark Moore was playing drums with them at the Gibson Grill and invited me to play. I wasn't very good but I had a great time. I think Norm Beckman understood that when he invited me to stop in and play a few more gigs. I played over 200 jobs with the band and still get a few calls to play, a great experience. I will be forever indebted to Norm for being the "King Oliver" of Appleton and allowing younger musicians to get started (though I am NO Louis Armstrong, trust me).

I started playing in a duo led by Ron Hull in 2002. When we play as a combo with drums and trombone or sax, this band is called Island Jazz. I also played bass with Ron, either on guitar synth or with an upright. I played a few jobs with The North Coast Jazz Project, founded by Dr. Mark Moore. This band started as a quartet of guitar, bass, drums, and trombone but has also included keyboards, soprano sax, and vocalists. This is the picture above.

When Ron Hull left town by 3rd quarter, 2004, I polished up my solo guitar repertoire and my vocal songlist, preparedbacking tracks for solo work, and also identified music for a "variety band". As it turnes out, I started playing in a duo with Tom Powell which has worked out very well. We adopted a pop/country set to play (now about 6 sets of music) and we continue to find other musicians interested in this type of music. The songlist catagories haven't changed much since we started: acoustic 12-string with electric accompanyment, playing a variety of pop songs and oldies. We do blues, country, Beatles tunes, Eagles, some modern country, and a little rockabilly. I hope to continue to sit-in with 'Easy Pieces", Roger Teske's band. Roger and Joe Maas join us whenever we can book a larger band, allowing us to harmonize more vocal song arrangements.

Recent objectives include recording a demo and video for band promotion, and to use my creativity in developing a new sound for myself and the combos that I am involved with. What I am looking for in myself is to showcase entertainment through versitility (repertoire, instrumentation, arrangements, and vocals) and by connecting with the audience in venues where interaction is appropriate. My primary music roots will continue to be jazz and I will pursue this through my solo songlist and continued combo work. I will continue to develop my studio recording skills by recording myself, backing tracks, my combo bands, and other musicians that have an interest in recording. (see the the homepage link to my studio).

Changes

I recently made a career change that I am extremely happy with. I decided I wanted to leverage my business and engineering skills to advance renewable energy. I found a company actively supporting this industry work right in my own backyard - The Boldt Company. Kimberly-Clark is now behind me, I am very pleased with where I am taking my career.

I am excited to take part in driving an America strategy of energy independence. I will be adding more information on this topic in the future.

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