It was a beautiful Friday night in 1962 and I was walking down South Second St. in San Jose California and I walked in to a restaurant to drink a cold cerveza. I could hear music to the back of the restaurant so I followed the music and there was a club in the back....there were four guys playing an instrumental polka "El Sube Y Baja" and they were tearing it up! what blew me away was the chord progressions the accordion player was using.....flatted 5ths, raised ninths, and I'm going what Planet is this vato from??...........Steve and I finally made eye contact and he asked me if I was Tony the trumpet player from Texas after confirming he asked me to sit in......in those days La Onda was small and we all knew about each other through word of mouth. I got on stage and he kicked off Dizzy Gillespies "Night In Tunisia"
and at that moment I realized I had just met a genius! we remained friends forever after that night...........Rest In Peace Steve.