Bob considers himself strictly an amateur, but still has a long history of being a music lover and a musician.
He and his musical partner, Jonathan Friedman, started singing together in 1986. At first they were part of a five-person rock and prog band, then reformed as Sirocco, with three members, in 1987, performing what he liked to call Electronic Folk, which ranged from prog to instrumental New Age.
Jon and he each wrote music and sang lead, and both played keyboards. His own musical influences were probably Moody Blues, Peter Gabriel, and Kate Bush. They played steadily through college, and intermittently until about 1995. Since then, they’ll get together to practice once a year or so and play a concert for friends every couple of years.
Music has been a great uplift during both his 2015-16 bout with cancer and now with the return of an advanced stage. He plays the piano every week when he is not going to chemo, and tries to play some songs with Jon every few months or so. It’s a tremendous rush of strength for him in this difficult physical and mental process.
