Steve Huffsteter:  

To no one's surprise, I have made my living [this is a living?] as a musician. I moved to L.A. in '59 and after a few bumps, [I had to move back to the folks' 3 times, each time with another child in tow]. Finally, around '64 we made it for good, thanks to my wife, Nena who took a job at USC. I had to be Mr. Mom for a few years, but that was something I'm glad I didn't miss, even if it did make it hard to get to the daytime rehearsal bands which are an indispensable vehicle for aspiring players here to hone their skills and most importantly, to make the connections that are so important to a career. I have been in most of the great L.A. rehearsal bands due to my jazz ability, my ace-in-the hole. Most of these bands I would never made it into just on my trumpet playing, though I'm a pretty good player. L.A. is a magnet for talent and there are so many great musicians here that you have to be outstanding in some aspect to even get a chair in one of the better bands. So I played the jazz chair with Bob Florence for 30 some years, ditto for Clare Fischer, still going on under his son, Brent. I recently gave up my chair with Mike Barone after 3 or 4 decades. Toshiko Akioshi's band led to 10 years of touring. I have been rehearsing one the most popular [among players] band for 15 years. I had toured for a year with Stan Kenton and some months with Sy Zentner in the early '60's, but now that Nena's job ensured our existence in L.A., I wanted to get off the road. In spite of this, I had to go out with Pearl Bailey and Louie Bellson in '66. I turned 30 on that tour. It was a good move because it established me as a lead player, something you have to do to make a living as a trumpet player. At that time, the typical L.A. recording session would use 3 or 4 trumpets. All of them would be lead players unless a jazz player was needed and even then they would usually get a lead player who also played jazz. The only thing that has changed is that the sections are getting smaller. The Bellson gig led to another 3 month tour playing lead with Ray Charles, a really fun time. That led to long gig in town at the Whiskey- A- Go-Go playing mostly Motown acts. In '68 I got my first TV show, the Donald O'Conner Show, as trumpet player and arranger, 6 shows a week. The Big Time! It lasted a year, led to a few more gigs and my studio career was winding down. So was everything else. It was the 70's and the U.S. economy was beginning to feel the first of what is proving to be a long decline. Latin bands have always been my "fallback" jobs. They were always there for me when everything else dried up. In the early '70s I made a recording with Joe Torres that used a few of my tunes. Willie Bobo heard it and liked one of them, "Night Walk" and ...Expand for more