Take It From the Top

Cecil has been playing piano since age 5.  As part of a military family, he's lived on the East and West Coast and in the Caribbean, with a new piano teacher in each city.  He recalls "When my parents started me on piano lessons, we didn't have a piano yet.  So I would practice on a cardboard fold-out keyboard, the kind that came with the piano method books, laid out on the kitchen table.  When I got to my piano lesson, that was the first time I had actually played those songs on a real piano."

It wasn't until his high school years in Puerto Rico that Cecil began to develop a direction in music.  Guided by his music teacher, Theresa Perry, Cecil got to learn about many different styles of music.  Of his long-time friend, Cecil says "Theresa was great; she would take me to concerts in San Juan to see groups like 'Blood, Sweat, and Tears' and we'd go talk to the keyboard players.  One time, we went to the Palmas Del Mar resort to check out a lounge pianist named Avo Uvezian; back then, his claim to fame was that he had written the song 'Strangers In the Night'.  (Today, Avo is best known for his eponymous brand of cigars, one of Cecil's favorites.)  Avo let me play a few tunes while he was on break.  That was my first piano bar gig."

The Old College Try

Cecil got into the Music Conservatory at University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA at the age of 16.  Studying theory-composition, he followed in the footsteps of UOP's most famous musical alumnus, Dave Brubeck.  Cecil remembers meeting Dave Brubeck his sophomore year: "We were going to do his 'La Fiesta De La Posada' for a Christmas concert that year.  The piece was for choir, orchestra, and soloists, with a jazz trio.  During a break in one of the long rehearsals, I got to talk to Mr. Brubeck and I asked him if he had any advice for me as a theory-comp major.  He smiled and said 'Two things.  Always keep writing.  And don't listen to what they tell you here.'  Legend has it that Mr. Brubeck's faculty advisor had told him that he should consider getting a teaching credential, because he probably wouldn't amount to much as a composer."

While in college, Cecil got together with some musician friends and put together "Pacific Crossing".  He says "It was a fun band to play in; we had a full rhythm section and horns.  Because the guys all read charts, we could play a wide variety of music.  We got a gig at the Silverado Country Club in Napa's wine country, playing for champagne maker Hans Kornell's birthday party.  All the famous Napa wine makers were there, so it was a pretty high-brow event and we all wore tuxedos on the gig.  So for the first two hours, we'd be playing these full-blown big band charts of standards like 'Pennsylvania 6-5000', 'Stardust', 'Mood Indigo' and stuff like that.  Then for the last two hours, we'd be playing Top 40 tunes like 'Celebration', 'Ladies Night', 'Start Me Up' and all those 70s and early 80s hits.

Lounge Lizards

"Pacific Crossing" changed members, changed the name of the band, and went to work on the casino circuit traveling between Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Las Vegas.  "The PC Band" became a fixture at the Palace Station Casino in Las Vegas."  Cecil remembers his years there.  "It was a wild time.  Live music was everywhere.  Our shift at the Palace Station was from midnight to 5 AM.  And the lounge would be packed all night.  I got to share the stage with Jon Smith, a monster sax player who had just come off the road with Toto.  He had played with Edgar Winter and Boz Scaggs before that.  He was an amazing, strong player; what a sound!"

"I also got to meet a lot of musicians working in the other casinos.  There another sax player who had a gig with some friends of mine in a band at the Maxim Hotel.  Back then, he sounded great.  Of course, he's still a great player and quite popular on the smooth jazz scene today."  That sax player is Paul Taylor.

Session Cats and Jazz Gigs

Coming off the road, Cecil got work in several recording studios in Northern California, playing on sessions, writing jingles and film scores, and doing some audio engineering.  "I worked for my friends, Ralph Stover and Diane Risk, who owned a recording studio.  After work, we played in a jazz group called "Matches".  It was a large band and we did some pretty challenging stuff; tunes by Fattburger, The Yellowjackets, Janis Siegel, Seawind, Patti Austin, Michael Brecker.  Each week, we'd put in at least two days on rehearsal and did gigs on the weekends.  So we learned a lot of music and the band sounded really tight.  One year, we were the opener for Richard Elliot, just as he was getting popular.  That was a fun gig."

Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Player Piano

Today, Cecil records music for PianoDisc, a popular player system that can be installed on any piano.  The PianoDisc system records what a pianist plays, and then faithfully plays that performance back on any piano equipped with a PianoDisc system.  The list of artists who have recorded for PianoDisc includes smooth jazz stars Tom Grant, Freddie Ravel and Brian Culbertson.  And an aspiring smooth jazz artist named Cecil Ramirez.