When I was six years old, I enjoyed sitting next to the phonograph and listening to my sisters records. As a matter of fact I loved music more than sports, although I did play sandlot baseball and football. At the age of seven I took private lessons from a wonderful man named Paul Blagg who had a history of playing with various circus bands. He was a patient man and I must have been a challenge to teach, but he taught me well. One day I took the trumpet apart and was going to polish it. I clamped it in the vise and polished away to a rather bright shine, but when I tried to put it back together the valves wouldn't work. I had crushed the valve casings in the vise...oh well.

I took the shiny trumpet downtown to Pop's Music Store and traded it for a Sax. I was very proud until I found out that it was a "C" melody Sax and was absolutely worthless. So back to Pop's Music Store to do some more  horse trading. This time I traded the Sax for a clarinet. This wonderful instrument was an Albert system clarinet which was, as I found out again......worthless.

Time passed and as I grew older my parents realized that I had a deep love for music and presented me with an alto sax. I was thrilled and I did take a few lessons and joined the band at Oakwood Junior High School. Along with my interest in playing the sax, I spent a lot of time at the piano picking out tunes by ear. Then I began copying classical tunes off the record. My best was Moonlight Sonata.

We moved from Dayton to Centerville and I joined the marching band still playing the alto sax. The next year we had a new band teacher and she didn't know who played what so I took the school trombone and sat next to my buddy who also played trombone. I taught myself how to play and luckily I didn't pick up too many bad habits.

By the time I was a  sophomore I talked my mom into letting me go to school in Ft Lauderale, Florida. Of course I joined the band there but I had a rough time keeping up because I couldn't read music as well as the other students. I shed a lot of tears over the fact that I couldn't join the dance band. Some people think it's cool to be able to play by ear....not so!!

I spent two years at Broward General High School and eventually returned to Centerville High School to finish my senior year. Unfortunately I got mad at my home room teacher, walked out of school and went downtown Dayton and joined the Navy. When I came home on leave at Christmas, my girlfriend and I ran away and got married. We both returned to San Diego and the Navy. During a training exercise I hurt my back and after spending two months in the hospital, I was medically discharged from the Navy. We moved back to Ft. Lauderdale where I worked as a motor scooter mechanic while still trying to find somewhere to play my trombone.

When "The Glen Miller Story" came out, I saw it and realized I wanted to have a band of my own. We packed and left for Ohio. I dropped my wife at her parents house and I went on to Columbus and Ohio State University. I signed up at the School of Music and was accepted. I was inspired by the movie and organized my first fifteen piece band complete with a female vocalist. I was still slow at reading music but I didn't let that stop me. I picked the name "Johnny Mack" because I thought it was easier to remember than my real name and this new band became the first "Johnny Mack Orchestra". We played a lot of "Frat" houses and other events around Columbus and when summer came I managed to get booked at Sandy Beach Park at Indian Lake, Ohio for the summer.

We worked there most of the summer. During the day I worked at a local radio station (WOHP) in Bellefountain, Ohio as a radio program host, and of course evenings with the band. We developed a "closeness" within the members of the band. We had to do "Park Plan Dancing" which was ten cents a dance so we couldn't make much money but we sure had fun.

After a taste of "so-biz" I was really fired up about the band but unfortunately we broke up and I temporarily came back to earth. About three years and three kids later I decided to move to California and see if jobs were easier to find. I took a job with Aerojet General as an electronic technician. I worked there for about three years and two more kids until I decided to go back to college and get a degree in music composition. I was in the marching band, concert band, and dance band at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. Sac) and took straight music courses. I wrote arrangements for the dance band and marching band and worked my way through three years at Mt. Sac. I also played in the Pomona Community Band and put together a "rehearsal" band. About that time I began taking lessons from Dave Wells who became my "hero". I studied with Dave for about three years and became a much better player.

I found a new band that I loved and decided to write a couple of arrangements in the style of that band. It was the Si Zentner Band and I was eventually invited to join the band in New York. I worked with Si and traveled all over the eastern part of the U.S. and Canada for about six months and then returned to Ohio and my family.

With five children it was only natural to end up in the bicycle business. I started small and in a few years I had three bike shops and twenty five employees. In 1970 I again started a big band and we rehearsed in the showroom of the bike shop. That band was called "The Johnny Mack Concert Jazz Orchestra". Also at about that same time I put together a nine piece group styled like the famous band "Chicago", and I called it "The Top Brass". I worked that band very successfully for about five years.

Meanwhile the Big Band turned out to be our experimental band trying all sorts of Jazz formats. We tried different time signatures like 5/4, 7/4, 9/4, and like that. We did concerts and clinics for young people.

Getting more interested in young people, I decided to form an all city big band made up of the "elite" high school players from the area. I called it "The Johnny Mack Junior Concert Jazz Orchestra". It was a good band with some great players, some of which went on to be professional musicians traveling with some of the finest traveling bands in the country. A few years later I started another all city band called "The Stars of Tomorrow Big Band". This too was an excellent band. Out of both bands came professional musicians, teachers, leaders, and good sidemen.

Eventually, I got out of the bike business and went back to college and took two years of mechanical engineering. I did contract engineering for several years and also put two new products on the market which I patented. The first patent was the "ANJ Cycle Stand". A repair stand for bike shops and the second patent was a hedge trimmer called "Clip & Clean". It was a trimmer that keeps it's own trimmings so there's no cleanup after your finished. Of course all this time I was playing part time with other bands. I have been with the Kettering Civic Band now for about thirty years.

In order to be close to music I accepted a job at Miami University at the radio station (WMUB) as an "on air host" playing big band music seven hours a day five days a week. In 1992 I organized my present band...this time as a dance band and I called it "The Johnny Mack Super Big Band". We specialized in playing what people wanted to hear and dance to. At that time we started playing at the Manchester Inn in Middletown, Ohio and did live radio broadcasts over WMUB. We weren't an overnight success but we kept going and eventually gained a lot of loyal fans.

In 1994 I left WMUB and underwent a five way heart by-pass. After a short recovery time I returned to the business of running a somewhat successful dance once a month with The Super Big Band. Now after eleven years we are established and doing well in the band business.

My goals are to record a CD of the band and promote it nationally. Also I would like to get the band on a cruise ship.

Over the years I have been fortunate to have met and/or worked with some wonderful people. This is my special list: