The Minstrels before heading off to Europe in the summer of 1961 after graduation. We played at Storyville in Stuttgart, Germany for 30 straight nights from 9pm-3am! Almost every night at midnight, the band from the Sud Deutscher Rundfunk (local radio station) would come to listen. At one point Wilma Rudolph and the US Track team came in. They were a rowdy bunch. Chuck dated Agneta Sandquist, whom I visited at her family's place in Malmo, Sweden. Fun times. What a great summer there, not to mention playing on the Holland-America Line's Groote Beer, a NBBS student ship (Dutch) where Heineken or genever were 10¢.

Our genius piano player, John Simon '63 could walk out of a movie and go home and write down the score. So we played all the tunes from the just released Kind of Blue album transcribed by John. After Princeton, John worked for Columbia Records producing Blood Sweat and Tears, Janis Joplin, and The Band. He was also on the road with Taj Mahal.

JJ Keyser '61

1960-1961: Phil Weinstein '61 Leader/Drums, JJ Keyser '61 Bass, John F. Coates, Jr. (Rutgers) Piano, Chuck Holt (Rutgers) Trumpet, Lee Adamski (Montclair State Teachers College) Tenor Sax, John Simon '61 piano.