I think it’s obvious that all musical people have been influenced by other musical people. Music has always been an important part of my life. Recognizing my musical proclivity, my father bought me a drum set when I was four. I’m not talking about an Ideal, Mattel, or Hasbro “My First Drum Set” replete with paper skins and tin cymbals. He bought me a real set of drums at Sam Goody in Huntington in 1966. It was a red sparkled simple kit, but I played those drums constantly in the wood-paneled, Kentile-floored basement that was the sanctuary of my youth. There was always music playing in my house. My father would come home from work, go down to the basement and listen to records on our Emerson stereo. It was the 1960s, the stereo was an all-in-one turntable, radio, and television. From that Hi-Fi, I heard the sounds of Basie, Sinatra, Mancini, filling the room with great music. Even today, I have a stereo in my basement-and I go down there to listen to music. Like father, like son. It is only fitting that in my first installment of “Musical Influence of the Week”, I pay tribute to my father for giving me the gift of music at a young age and always encouraging me to keep playing.