Hello My Name is: Jay Allen
Special thanks to Jay Allen for being the subject of our first feature on getting to know our neighbors.
Jay is married to Kathy and the Allens live in village 1 of Glenbrooke. You may have seen them in the early morning with their canine companion, Becky, riding shotgun for the morning drive around the neighborhood.
Jay is a retired teacher and musician. Music for Jay was not a hobby, as you will soon discover. He is a native Californian and is very familiar with the north state. Let's start at the beginning:
Q: Jay, where did you go to school?
A: My schooling started in Lakeport, CA and progressed through Courtland, CA, Jefferson School in Sacramento. In the fourth grade I went to Fruitridge Elementary in Sacramento and then to Stanford Jr. High and finally Sacramento Senior High. During the summer of 1951 I attended the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. I continued on to Sacramento Jr. College and Sacramento State graduating in 1956.
Q: What did you do after graduating?
A: In 1956 I was drafted into the U.S. Army and was sent to the band at West Point, NY. I got out in 1958 and finished my teaching credential and started postgraduate work on my Masters degree which I received in 1964 from Sac State. In 1968 I took sabbatical leave for a year from teaching and attended The Academy for Music in Vienna, Austria for one year.
That was a special year although I didn't know it at the time. While I was there the U.S.S.R. decided to do a "1956 Hungary” on Czechoslovakia and every language was spoken for a time in Vienna. My absolute favorite music is opera so what a blast I had in Vienna. Tickets only $.25.
Q: Is that how you became interested in music?
A: My professional music career began at about age 17 when I first received pay for playing. I remember it well because when they paid me $4 for a four-hour dance job. I asked what it was for because I couldn't believe that people got paid for having so much fun. Boy! Did things change fast.
Q: You were hooked?
A: Yes, when I was about 18 I was accepted into the Sacramento Symphony. I played with the Symphony on a permanent basis for 25 years +. It was during this time I got the job with the Music Circus. That was by far the most enjoyable musical experience I ever had.
Q: With all those productions, which was your favorite?
A: I would have to say FIDDLER ON THE ROOF followed closely by JESUS CHRIST SUPER STAR.
Q: You also taught music?
A: As far as my teaching experience is concerned it has been quite varied. My first contract was for one semester in the San Juan District as the band teacher at El Camino High School. From there I went to El Dorado High School in Placerville teaching band and after a couple of years went to James Marshall High in West Sacramento as the band teacher. A new high school was built in West Sac after a few years and I finished my high school teaching career at Washington High School.
I attempted to make a full time career out of professional music next and found that Sacramento is just not large enough to support that kind of work. I kept my professional music contacts alive but began a two-year saxophone teaching stint at Sacramento State in 1977-79.
Around 1982 I worked as a musician's advocate for the American Federation of Musicians in Sacramento as the secretary/business agent. This position required that I no longer play professionally. What a bummer that was.
I resigned my union job in 1990 and I finished my teaching career at Alexander Hamilton Middle School in Stockton, CA teaching band, math, English and social studies from a1990 to 2002. This experience was the best of all my teaching activities.
Q: Do you have any children/grandchildren?
A: I have a son and a daughter and one grandchild. Jason lives in Carmichael and Jennifer lives in Oakland. And of course I don't get to see them as often as I want.
Q: What was the one thing you looked forward to doing when you retired? Are you doing it?
A: I expected to play a lot of golf when I retired but it hasn't worked out that way. My heart condition makes very much walking too difficult.
Q: What was the last book you read?
A: I read quite a lot and have been going back over books I read a long time ago. Right now I'm in the middle of CHESAPEAKE by Mischener. I have particularly enjoyed all the World War II by Stephen Ambrose. I like Ken Follet and have read Pillars of the Earth about four times.
Q: Is there anything else you would like people to know about you?
A: You can recognize me by the little white dog that leads me around on a leash. Her name is Becky and she gets at least one walk per day and three rides.
Readers, please feel free to respond to questions, ask questions, or make a comment below as it will help us get to know more neighbors and find common interests. Remember the first time you comment on this site it may take a little longer to post as we only allow neighbors to post on GlenbrookeNews to keep out the spammers.
Again, we want to thank Jay for getting the ball rolling on this new section.
Jay shares this parting with us:
“I remember a comment a dear musician friend of mine made some years ago describing one difference between some professionals:
If you get onto an elevator with a doctor, a lawyer and a musician:
The doctor will probably tell you about some of his fantastic saves
in the operating room.The lawyer will tell you how difficult his last case was and how he
pulled it out at the last minute.The musician will tell you a joke.”
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Hi Jay, are you interested in attending the Met Opera HD series? They are shown at the Bruceville theater on Saturdays. The next one will be March 19 Donizetti's "Lucia de Lammermoor" with Natalie Dessay, Joseph Calleja and Ludovic T zier (Encore: April 6). Paul would enjoy going with someone that really appreciates opera/classical music!
Becky,
I would love to go. Let me know the particulars.
J
Wonderful to be able to connect people with like interests!
True confessions of a traveling, hobbyist publisher
This is what happened:
When we left for vacation last week, I left the Spam filter on for GlenbrookeNews. In the past, I have personally approve every person who posts on Glenbrooke as being a resident
However in the car on the way to our destination, I was sent a cell phone email to approve two nice sounding people “Jason” and “Jennifer” that were commenting on Jay Allen’s article.
I don’t know why, but since I couldn’t verify residency in the car, I just hit approve without verifying residency thinking the Spam filter catches almost all non resident comments (mostly porn and business pitches).
At the time, we were on the road and it looked like an innocent response to Jay's piece with nothing offensive. What can I say,? I was thinking beach not residency requirements.
This came to light as someone thought “Jennifer” might be a pianist for the Chorus group and was looking for her. So I have removed both Jennifer's and Jason's posts - as nice as they were - and the post asking if Jennifer was a resident.
I can tell you it has never happened before. I take your trust seriously. My sincere apologies for any confusion this may have caused. I promise it will not happen again.
That is why (usually) the first time someone posts it takes awhile to appear; so we can verify they live in Glenbrooke and keep GlenbrookeNews our neighborhood newsletter
Hey, Jennifer,
Combining teaching music with playing show type music required that I learn quite a few instruments. In doing so I became very appreciative of the difficulties of most of the instruments. I learned music on the clarinet and in the natural course of a clarinetists musical life added the sax and then flute. Those three instruments are my favorites but the clarinet is the very most difficult. I studied the clarinet in Vienna. I played clarinet, all the saxes (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone) and flute and piccolo professionally. I added the bassoon in high school but I only played bassoon professionally on a limited basis. OH! I almost forgot the most important instrument. I played the tuba in the first band at Shakey's Pizza Parlor on 57th and J streets in 1955-57. This was strictly a hobby but I did get paid while creating some fantastic memories.
I'm glad you picked up on my comment about not enough musical work in Sacramento to make a living at it. I was quite aware that the best chance I would have to make my lively hood in music would be to move to a larger venue. In fact a lot of my friends and I discussed this and they did move and almost all of them made their living in music until they died - some with quite famous organizations. But two things in the end made me decide to stay in Sacramento. One was, I didn't think I was good enough and the other was, and still is, that I'm a stay at home kind of person and get homesick really fast.
When I got drafted my clarinet teacher at Sac State arranged with the commanding officer of the band at the Presidio in San Francisco to take me in the band there. My position at the time was that I would not extend any time in the military for any reason. I have wondered many time if I made the correct decision there because San Francisco would have been practically home and of course would undoubtedly provide many more musical opportunities than Sacramento. Most of my friends who left town ended up either in S.F. or New York.
Favorite joke?? Good Lord. You have no idea the number of jokes we hear in our lifetimes. Most of the jokes in a musician's archives are not musical jokes. Let's go with this one:
A friend of mine was an out-of-work- school teacher. He tried everywhere he thought possible but no luck.
Just about the time he was about to commit the big S he discovered that there was an opening in a very small school in the Western part of the United States. So he hit all his friend and family up for bus fare and rushed there full of hope.
The principal explained to him that the only position available was teaching a mixed group of mentally retarded adults and children. Well, he had no choice. He took the job.
After several weeks of attempting to quiet his class down to a manageable roar, thinking of ways to get their attention, etc. he hit on the old carrot and the stick ploy.
He offered to give each one of them an apple if they would try to do something. Since he was a musician he tried to teach them a song. Well, it seemed to work because after several more weeks of rote teaching and handing out apples they could sing "Mary Had a Little Lamb." My teacher friend became absolutely thrilled to finally succeed.
But things started to go down hill about this time. He realized that he needed another gimmick to keep their interest. He couldn't give them any thing with processed sugar in it of course but he tried the sugar free soft drink TAB. IT WORKED. By alternating treats between Apples and TAB he was not only to keep their attention but go on to much more difficult lessons and thereby more difficult music. By the end of his second year, yes, he stayed on in spite of everything, his group was performing Bach, Brahms and Beethoven like professionals. His principal decided he should enter his group in the State Championship contest.
To shorted this story down to a reasonable length it is sufficient to know that, as you might expect, the choir won everything so easily that a professional agent offered to represent them and my teacher friend to the national media a sign them up for a big buck concert tour.
The only thing that was now needed was a name for the group and it was this: The Moron Tab and Apple Choir.
Thank you Jennifer. Are you a musician?
Hey Jason,
The theory behind not allowing a paid Union official to play professionally is that it would be unfair competition with the regular membership. The Secretay/business agent of the Union has first access to available jobs. Not true, especially with a job that the Union official has already had for a number of years. Those are the kind of rats I worked with. And Stan Lunetta was one of them.
For a number of months I have had a very strong urge to play the flute again. It is such a beautiful instrument and because it was difficult for me to learn and I had to put so many hours in on learning I think my mental attitude toward it is "work still unfinished".
I always wanted to play the piano with virtuosity. You know how hard it is.
Thanks for the questions, Jas
J