ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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All of my steps have been ordered. I have never followed the rules, doing everything “ass backwards." I went from prison (as a teacher, not an inmate) to the Ivy League. I sang in nightclubs weekly and then dropped it all and returned to the scene of the crime as a full-time faculty member. I have been teaching on the stages of the world for years. It is called “edu-tainment”.

I have funded the production of three successful CDs on “shoestring” budgets. Special thanks goes to Paula Gallitano, who stuck with me and put in more hours than you can imagine, Alvin Foster, who has been a rock and wore many hats, Utar Artun for some incredibly fresh arrangements, and Desmond Scaife, Jr., who “stood watch,” making sure we kept it real. A special thank you to Mike Moss who always made things right at Soundscape Studios. 

I thank and still love Johnny Mathis, Jeffrey Osborne, and all the Motown acts. Thank you Johnny Hartman, all the male R&B groups, Nancy Wilson, Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach, Walter and Tramaine Hawkins and the Hawkins Family, Ashford & Simpson, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, in particular, Sarah Vaughan and all the traditional church singers. I honor the thousands of musicians who studied their craft and never received the credit they were so deserving. I thank all the great musicians I have had the honor to share the stage with over a 40-plus-year musical career. 

I dedicate this CD to my mother Thelma Watson and my dear friend Professor Charles Ogletree, both still going strong. I also miss my support system, but each day I get a sign that they are watching over me. I call on the spirit of Steward Bialer, Dorothy Donegan, Dr. Loretta Williams, Yasko Kubota, and Carmel Reese-Harris. 
 

“I am because we are.”

I mourn each day our murdered children all over this country.

Lawrence “Larry” Watson