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Dennis<br />
Mackrel<br />
drummer<br />
and<br />
bandleader<br />
Taken and<br />
transcribed by Alwyn<br />
and Laurie Lewis,<br />
Melbourne, Australia<br />
October 10 2012<br />
101 | CadenCe Magazine | april May June 2013<br />
Interview Dennis Mackrel<br />
CADENCE: April 3 1962 in Omaha, Nebraska – does<br />
that sound about right for your birthdate?<br />
dennis macKrel: Yeah, that’s right.<br />
CAD: And your family moved around soon after you<br />
were born?<br />
dm: Well you know, it’s hard for me to remember,<br />
because my father was in the air force, but his family<br />
were long time nebraskans. i was just born there<br />
and then we were stationed some place else, i think<br />
we went south, maybe ohio or something. What i do<br />
remember is when we moved to hawaii and we were<br />
there for about four years. With the american military<br />
you’ll receive an assignment and you’ll be in that place<br />
for about four years, then move again, so i was born<br />
in to that, but i don’t have any connection to it. You<br />
know, in a way, i think God started preparing me for<br />
this job at a very early age, in that we were pretty much<br />
on the road right after i was born. We were based in<br />
california a lot because my father loved the warmth,<br />
in fact the reason he joined the air force was that one<br />
day in nebraska he went to where he’d parked his car<br />
and it was completely frozen solid – nebraska can<br />
be miserable in winter. so he went to the air force<br />
recruiting office and said “i don’t care where you send<br />
me, if it’s warmer i’m going”, so he signed up then<br />
and there, even left his car. so we kind of ended<br />
up in sacramento california, we were sort of based<br />
there for a while, then we went to hawaii, then back to<br />
sacramento, then we were stationed in alaska, which<br />
my father didn’t like so much, but we were there four<br />
years in anchorage. Then back to southern california<br />
again, where unfortunately my parents divorced, then<br />
again moved to san diego for another four years,<br />
then to las vegas, and that’s where i graduated high<br />
school and went to college, unlv..<br />
CAD: Your parents were jazz enthusiasts?<br />
dm: Yes they were, but they didn’t play anything,<br />
except records. as long as i can remember, there<br />
was always music in the house. They really liked ella<br />
fitzgerald and one of my mother’s favourite stories<br />
involving me, was that back then with the old 78s, if<br />
you scratched a record it would stick and skip back,<br />
then stay there repeating the same bit, and i would scat
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