Don Mopsick
Don Mopsick
Photo ©2001 by William Carter
I was born on November 7, 1950, and grew up in Linden, NJ, where I attended Elementary School #1, McManus Junior High School (where I was President of the Student Council), and Linden High School. I studied trumpet privately with Charlie Leeds, legendary New Jersey jazz teacher and veteran of Louis Prima's band. I also played tuba and electric bass from age 9 onward.
As a teenager, I worked in a polka band which played at the Polish National Home and other Slavic venues in Linden (which had a Slavic majority in those days). My classmates and I formed a rock band in which we covered Beatles and Stones hits and played for school dances and college beer blasts. After graduating from Linden High School, I attended Rutgers College from 1968-1970, majoring in Biology. I decided in 1971 to follow the Musical Path and enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston. My trumpet studies there were with Lennie Johnson.
My first notable gig during this period was a brief tour around Boston with the late Rosemary Clooney, who at the time had Ralph Sharon as her pianist/conductor. I remember Rosie and Ralph being very patient with us, a bunch of fresh Berklee kids.
My long college career finally ended in 1977 when I was graduated from the Manhattan School of Music. While there, I studied the tuba with Toby Hanks and got valuable experience playing in orchestras and chamber ensembles. While in New York, I worked regularly on tuba with The Paul Jeffery Octet (Birth of the Cool with an attitude), tuba and bass with The Smith Street Society (a popular local Dixieland band), and occasionally with Lee Castle (the late trumpeter who led the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra), Jim Chapin (Harry's father), John Carisi (the late composer who wrote Israel, among other things), Benny Ventura, and others. I also played lunch hours outdoors in the World Trade Center area with a killer brass quintet made up of Manhattan and Julliard students. We had a lot of fun bouncing Gabrieli Sonatas off of the buildings and made some decent bread besides.
An offer of a steady job lured me to Ft. Myers, Florida in 1977 to work with the Levee Ragtime Band (on tuba). In 1980, I decided to concentrate my efforts on the double bass and began private study with Lucas Drew at the University of Miami. I moved to Orlando in 1983 and began work at Walt Disney World, Rosie O'Grady's, and as a free-lance bassist.
LEFT: I backed up the great Al Cohn at the Villa Nova, Winter
Park, FL in 1988. Also on the date was Mousey Alexander (not shown).
While in Central Florida, I played concert dates for: The Jazz Club of Sarasota, The Treasure Coast Jazz Society (Vero Beach), The Gainesville Friends of Jazz, the Central Florida Jazz Society, and Valdosta (Georgia) State University. Here is a partial list of the jazz luminaries with whom I was privileged to appear at these and other venues:
Howard Alden, Mousey and Tracy Alexander, Mose Allison, Bill Allred, Dan Barrett, Harold Blanchard, John Bunch, Pete Christleib, Al Cohn, Richie Cole, Ike and Fred Cole, Kenny Davern, Spanky Davis, Buddy DeFranco, Allen Eager, Terry Gibbs, Don Goldie, Scott Hamilton, Eddie Higgins, Bubba Kolb, Don Lamond, Ed Metz, Jr., Buddy Morrow (with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra), Nathen Page, Ken Peplowski, Flip Phillips, Red Rodney, Bob Rosengarden, Ira Sullivan, Clark Terry, Warren Vaché Jr., Joe Wilder, and Dave Wolpe.
During this period, I worked in pit bands behind Bob Hope, The Smothers Brothers, The McGuire Sisters, Joel Grey, The Four Freshmen, Maureen McGovern, and many large convention gigs in cavernous Florida hotels. Also memorable were Florida tours with singer Lynn Roberts and florid pianist Carmine Cavallero shortly before his passing.
There were also lots of enjoyable gigs with many lesser-known local jazz musicians who nonetheless play very well indeed.
RIGHT: Milt Hinton and I appeared together at several jazz
festivals as well as on the Riverwalk radio series.
In October of 1990, Jim Cullum invited me to audition for his group, the Jim Cullum Jazz Band in San Antonio, Texas. I've been with the JCJB since January, 1991. The band and I (plus many guest artists) are featured on Riverwalk, Live from the Landing weekly radio series on Public Radio International. Since moving to Texas, I've recorded nine CD's and composed a number of tunes, one of which, Fantasy, was featured in the 1998 October Films release, Still Breathing, starring Brendan Fraser and Joanna Going.
I am also the electronic music copyist and webmaster for the band and the radio series. I publish the monthly Jazz Me News newsletter and occasionally help with producing the radio shows.
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