Recording - November 2011 - 51

NOVEMBER 2011 TAXI Road Rally 2010

Successful Members Panel, Part 1
PANELISTS
Bob Mete, Keith LuBrant, Gary Piatt, Vance Marino, Jeff Greenleaf, Joe Aukofer, Danny Infantino, Chris Ball, and Jeanna Murphy.

Moderated by Michael Laskow
I’ve got to say, this panel is maybe my favorite panel of the whole weekend, and you’ll see why shortly. Before we start this panel, I want to say thank you to two incredibly spectacular people. Bill Gordon, where are you? Get up here. Mr. Bill Gordon has been coming to these things forever. He volunteers his time selflessly for the benefit of everybody else and never asks for a thing. Every time I turn around, “Is there anything you need?” I just need your presence, that’s what I need. Bill, from all of us to you, the TAXI Community Service Award. Thank you, thank you. Bill kept asking me this morning, “Why do you want me in the room? Am I on the panel?” Kind of Bill! Rick Hayes, c’mon over here. This man is a superstar. I was in Nashville two years ago doing a seminar at the Loews Hotel, and at about 10 or 11 o’clock at night, I went outside and I saw Rick having a glass of wine, and we ended up talking for a couple of hours. I kept telling him about the Road Rally. I said, “You’ve got to come to the Road Rally.” So he said, “All right,” and he showed up last year, and became like a stage manager savant. The staff and I are so blown away. You guys have all seen him running around. There is nothing he doesn’t anticipate, and his help is so incredibly valuable. Rick, you are appreciated by all of us. We want you to have a Community Service Award just to know how much we appreciate it. Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.

Panelists (L to R): Bob Mete, Keith LuBrant, Gary Piatt, Vance Marino, Jeff Greenleaf, Joe Aukofer, Danny Infantino, Chris Ball, and Jeanna Murphy line up for a group shot with Michael Laskow following the panel.

All right, let me grab my notes and we will start this panel… Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mr. Bob Mete, our first member on the panel this morning. How are you, Bob? We’re gonna listen to a little bit of Bob’s music. Do you want to set it up and tell us anything about the music? This song I actually wrote 35 years ago in college on an old Fender Rhodes suitcase. It had three settings; I used to bring the reverb all the way up, so in this piece there’s a lot of left-hand arpeggio, and it actually sounded like a horse on cobblestones. I thought that was cool. But it was a pretty little tune, and every time I played it, people loved it. Then a listing came along for Minimalistic piano music. I submitted it, it was signed by a publisher and then it got placed. I know you’re not allowed to say how much, but I’m gonna say it anyway. The license fee was for a DKNY—Donna Karan New York—commercial. They licensed it for worldwide for TV; if they

put out a Donna Karan video game, it’ll be on there. Yeah, it was enough money to buy half a BMW—a 325i [laughter]. Anyway, I couldn’t be more proud of Bob. He’s a really sweet guy. It was funny. When it was all said and done, the publisher sent over an email that it was for PURE DKNY, and I was like, “Oh, that’s great.” My wife was in bed and I told her who it was for, that it was for PURE DKNY and said, “What is that?” And she looks up at me and she says, “Idiot. Go Google it.” I say, “Oh, come on, just tell me,” and she said, “It’s Donna Karan.” “Oh, OK, who’s that?” I now know who Donna Karan is. [laughter] All right, go ahead and spin the song, please. [music plays] So did you re-recorded this, or is this the original? Continued on page 52
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Recording - November 2011

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