Hello. My name is Albert Estiamba Jr. I currently reside in Redondo Beach, California (a suburb located southwest of the city of Los Angeles.) Here in Redondo a hippy like me can afford to live modestly - in relative splendor - amidst mansions, palm trees, and condos.     I was born on the island of Oahu in the city of Honolulu, Hawaii on February 3, 1961. My family moved to Southern California when I was 5 years old. I attended Seaside Elementary School, Calle Mayor Middle School, and South High School. All of these ‘institutes of higher learning’ are located in the Torrance, California area.     Here is a haphazard and rambling synopsis of my musical career thus far:        As far as I know my percussive tendencies began at the age of four. At that age I began to take a keen interest in banging on all sorts of things. If it made a sound after being struck with a pencil, a toothbrush, or even chopsticks (which I always seemed to bring home after a Chinese dinner)...I was fascinated. The arrival of Beatlemania in America also helped to further my interest in music as well. Ringo Starr became my first drumming hero and I wanted nothing better than to emulate him on the drum set. Everything that Ringo played on any Beatles’ album was analyzed, processed, and then spewed back out into the world through my imitations. He was also the first singing drummer that I had ever seen. Though not yet being 7 years old, my parents purchased my first ‘toy’ drum set (my parents purchased my first 'real' drum set when I was 9 years old). When I was in the fifth grade, my parents encouraged me to join the school band at Seaside Elementary. ‘Mr. Taylor’ was the name of my first band teacher. Mr. Taylor taught me all the basics of symphonic drumming (which means that he taught me only that which pertained to the snare or bass drum mounted on a specially designed stand; or the hand-held crash cymbals). I learned how to read drum charts and I was then initiated into the art of drum rudiments.      A little further down the road, with the guidance of a wise middle school band teacher (Mr. Morris 0’Kelly), I was introduced to the world of Jazz. Up until that time I had been a huge Beatle fan and thought that their music was the most beautiful music I had ever heard, but after hearing the spontaneity and exuberance of Jazz music...I was hooked. I was especially impressed with 'Jazz Fusion' because of its eclecticism. In Jazz-Fusion I could hear the elements of Rock 'n Roll, Funk, Classical, and traditional Jazz all rolled into one ecstatic musical conglomeration. On top of that, all the seemingly dissonant chords sounded strangely familiar to me. I felt that this particular form of Jazz best suited my musical sensibilities. When I was 16, my buddy Don Willens (a friend from high school who later became the drummer for ‘Lone Justice’) introduced me to the music of maestro Frank Zappa. Impressed with my left-of-center musical tastes, Don lent me his copy of Zappa’s ‘Apostrophe’ and the ramifications of that particular event led me to explore further musical oddities.     While attending high school, my band teacher George Andrews introduced me to classical musical composers such as Strauss, Holst, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky. At this time I was also performing avant-garde pieces in the high school Wind Ensemble (Mr. Andrews conducting the orchestra while keeping time with tape cassettes of bizarre synthesizer sounds) under his direction. I also played in the high school Stage Band (which performed various Jazz arrangements of Neal Hefti and others). Mr. Andrews, upon hearing that I planned to make music a career, suggested that I attend the Berklee College Of Music. In preparation for Berklee, I took music theory lessons with Mr. Andrews and I also attended Harbor College In Wilmington, California for a year. Somehow, in between all of this, I played in a Top 40 band (named Mirage) with my cousins. Mirage played everything from high school dances to bar mitzvahs. I also had the honor of playing in a pop/avant guard Jazz unit named ‘Visions’.        Through my keen interest in Jazz, and with the gentle guidance of Mr. George Andrews’, I was able to study music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. I was accepted into the program at Berklee in 1980 and spent the next two years immersed in musical studies.     After coming back to Los Angeles in 1983, I was fortunate enough to land a top 40 Rock 'n Roll show band gig with a band called the ‘Gwen Brisco Show’. This show band traveled extensively. I was able to visit and perform in countries all over the globe. I have performed (and have been ignominiously stupefied and stoned to the gills) in Europe, Singapore, Jakarta, Malaysia, Australia, and South Africa. Here in the states, the show band took me to such places as Las Vegas, NV, Laughlin, NV South Lake Tahoe, NV Reno Nevada, and Atlantic City, NJ.     After my stint in the Gwen Brisco Show, I then joined a Top 40 unit named ‘Da Whiz’. Da Whiz played the Las Vegas-Laughlin-and-Reno loop and also played all over the Pacific Northwest. The band lasted a year and then broke up. I then joined yet another Top 40 band named the ‘Gypsy Beggars’ in the Orange County area and performed every week (from Wednesday to Saturday) for the next 5 years. (Hey…at least it was music and a great way buy groceries and pay the rent!) We were voted the 'Number One Top 40 Band' in Orange County - by the 'Orange County Register' - for two consecutive years.      Currently, I am involved with many original Rock 'n Roll, Jazz-Fusion, and Blues projects throughout the Los Angeles area. If you would like to contact me, please use my e-mail address. Let’s Jam! It’s been nice talking to you... Cymbalically Yours, Albert Estiamba Jr.