Making friends with someone is a special thing to happen in our lives. But to have a friend, a true friend, for many years in our lives is a pure blessing and something to be cherished by us all. I have had some good friends in my lifetime, most of us have, but there are always one or two people who stand out in our lives as true friends. For me, it was my friend Thomas Alvin “Block” Atkinson. You see, my friend Thomas passed away on April 2, 2017, from bladder cancer. He was as special a friend to me as I can ever remember. I just wanted to impart a few memories and feelings about him in this blog post.
I met Thomas back in 1982, in Apple Valley, California. I had returned from my service tour in Japan in late 1979 to be stationed in southern California, and I had the music deep within me. I had started my own band in 1981 that did original and cover modern jazz music; it was called Fat Sound Incorporated or FSI. The band practiced at my little apartment that I had gotten off base from where I was stationed, and I thought that we had developed our own sound. Once that happened, I had the confidence to book the band around the southern California area. We developed a bit of a small but steady reputation in the area, and the word got out among the music lovers in that area. From what I remember, the guitar player in the band knew Thomas before I did; he had told me that he knew a good percussion player who lived in the same area that we were living.
The band was expanding; we had started out as a three-piece band but had added a keyboard player and a saxophone player as well. By this time, we had begun to rehearse at the home of the saxophone player, in the art studio that was detached from the main house. It was there that I met Thomas, he had come over to our rehearsal and brought along his percussion gear with him. He set up and began to play music with us, and he added something to the band’s sound that I liked. Our early conversations were about that music we loved and about the music artists that we admired. There were a lot of laughs between us as Thomas had a sharp sense of humor, but he was also a very intelligent person to converse with. He understood a great deal about the world that we live in as well as its history. Often, I would be quiet and let him speak about what he knew, and what he was learning about.
The thing about Thomas was that he never stopped learning; he was hungry for knowledge and sought out the answers to the many situations in life that so many of us find ourselves in. He knew about food like nobody that I have met, and once we got to know each better, he would invite me over to his home and cook some of the best meals that I have had. He knew through our conversations that I also had an affinity for good food, and he was fascinated with all of the countries that I had traveled to and sampled the local cuisine. From speaking with him, I knew that he would have loved to have traveled to the countries that I had visited to also sample the local cuisine.
The thing that we did the most though was to play music together. Once he had joined FSI, he truly loved the shows that we did, and I booked the band in as many venues as I could. He enjoyed the regular shows that we played at the local air base that I was stationed at; I had signed a contract with the manager of the air base NCO club to play weekly for a year at a time. It was a great time to play in those days; the club patrons appreciated our band coming in and playing music from our hearts for them. Thomas also loved the fact that I had booked shows at the famous Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach, California. He spoke glowingly for years afterward about those shows; he knew that the very best jazz artists had played there over the years and he was proud to say that he too had made some great music there.
The band stopped going by the name of FSI in the mid 1980’s, so Thomas came up with the name of the GUSS band, the name was a play on the some of the comedy work of a famous comedian at the time. We began to play cover songs for music, and Thomas took on some of the lead vocal duties for the band. He was a joy to play music with, and he always kept the audience in mind with his playful banter with them, during and in between songs. He also would book the band from time to time, and even though I had moved away to the Los Angeles area I would return to the High Desert region to do shows with Thomas and the GUSS band.
Thomas was smart enough to realize that the odds of becoming a financial success as a band were very small, so he left the band to go to college and earn his teaching credentials. Once he had achieved his degrees, he began teaching in the Victor Valley area, something that he did until he retired only a couple of years ago. Once I had moved away from the Victor Valley area to Los Angeles, we kept in touch by telephone and I would occasionally make the drive up to visit with him.
When I moved away to Europe, we were out of contact with each other for a few years. But like the special friend that he was to me, once I had returned to the states to live, I called Thomas up and he was delighted to know that I had come back. While I settled in Las Vegas, Nevada, it was only a 2 ½ hour drive to visit him in the High Desert region of southern California. I drove to visit him in 2010 for a wonderful band reunion with the GUSS band, and to also play music and celebrate the birthday of the father of the band’s saxophone player. We had a great time reminiscing about the early days of the band and the many shows we had done together. Thomas also had stories of his time in the classroom with his many students, I could tell how much they loved him as their teacher and how he had prepared them for life as the adults that they would become.
I visited Thomas once again in 2011 after I had gone through a breakup with a woman that I had loved dearly for many years. Thomas had soothing and kind words to help my spirit, and he had words of wisdom for me about what I had just gone through. I was so thankful to him during that visit, he really helped me and my emotions turn a corner toward the positive things that life has to offer. The things that he said during that visit still ring in my ears to this day.
Recording at home was of great interest to both of us. Thomas would call me on the telephone often with questions about his audio recording software; I would always give him the best answers that I could. He would then record more new music; he really loved exotic percussion instruments, and he added them to so many of his recordings. He spent time learning about Native American flutes, and it was through Thomas that I learned that there was a flute with a key center developed for each of the human body’s chakras. I loved the way that he applied these flutes to his recordings; he truly understood what they were for and how to properly utilize them.
Thomas knew that I was working in professional audio, so he asked me to add bass guitar tracks to his recordings, mix them down and put the recordings through the audio mastering process for him. I was more than happy to do so, and he sent me his recordings through the internet for me to work on. We completed many songs together using the internet as a conduit between us. I thought that it would be nice for people in the world to hear his music, so I talked to him about putting together an online profile where people could visit and listen to his recordings. He told me that he was not so adept at doing something like that online, so I offered to build him a profile at the musician’s website called ReverbNation. He said alright, and I proceeded to build him his own profile at ReverbNation. When I had completed the work of building his profile, he gave me a list of the songs that we had worked on together to be posted at the site. I did as he asked, and I posted the songs that he created to his new online profile at ReverbNation. He was very happy with what I had done, and he was glad that we both put in good time and effort on his music for all to hear. It is World Music that he created; it is not of the standard modern fare that is so widely available and common today.
Now that Thomas has passed on, I have been sad and filled with tears this week. But I know that Thomas would want me to be strong in spirit, and to remember our good times together. He was a joyful man even though he had been confined to a wheelchair for much of his life. He was loved by me and by so many other people, he made so many lives brighter with his kind words, his hearty laugh, and his deep wisdom. I miss you very much Thomas, and I am glad to have been able to have you as my friend, a true friend, who was as close to me as a brother could be. I love you my friend.
Rest In Paradise Thomas.
