Any discussion of my musical influences needs to start at the beginning, and that would be with my father, Vincent de Paul Heilker. My dad was born in 1924 and grew up in the Great Depression. He was also the youngest of 9 children in his family. His eldest brother was 18 years older than him, and the siblings born just before him were stillborn twins. In short, as he put it, he was lost and forgotten growing up and had no real sense of identity or direction — that is, until his elder brother Benny gave him a soprano saxophone when he was 13.
Music saved his life. He was very clear about that. In his high school year book, where his classmates had long lists of their hopes and dreams and things they wanted to achieve, he had three words: “To study music.” Eventually, my dad earned a degree in clarinet performance from the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, which, if you don’t know, is really saying something. Simply put, the dude could *play*.
After Juilliard, Dad went to Columbia Teachers’ College and then spent his professional career as the band director at Jerusalem Avenue Junior High School in North Bellmore, Long Island. I know firsthand that he was an amazing music teacher. I tried a wide variety of instruments in elementary school, studying trumpet and oboe and saxophone and drums, etc., with him for a few weeks each and then just giving up. The remarkable thing was that he never gave me any grief about quitting. He was just endlessly supportive.
So when I was 13 and said I wanted to learn how to play electric guitar, he took me see his friend, Bernie Gracin, who owned the best music stores on Long Island. And Bernie said, “Well, Vince, when you two leave today, you may take this Fender Stratocaster Deluxe or you may take this Gibson Les Paul Custom,” the two best instruments on the market at the time. And so here I am, 45 years later, playing that same Les Paul.
Way too much about my father and music for just one post, so let me wrap this one up by suggesting that you look at his brief obituary below -- to see his legacy with his children -- and watch the short video of him playing alto sax, also below. Listen carefully and you will hear his silly, endearing sense of humor as well as his remarkable chops.
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Here's a lovely postscript to my post above. I received the following email via this blog on 3 October 2024.
Dear Paul,
I had the great fortune to have been a student of your father at Jerusalem Ave. Junior High School in North Bellmore, Long Island in the sixties. I was a serious piano student and did grow up to have a wonderful career as a concert pianist. I am now 71 and have been thinking a great deal about the beloved Mr. Heilker.
The stories are too many to recount here, but I cannot adequately express how much he meant to me and the enormous impact he had on my life. He brought so much joy to the music he made. I'll never forget his great sense of humor and his old fashioned hipster way of talking. Legato became "smooth city"and adagio was "slow city."
He brought jazz to my life and brought me to the rehearsals of his wonderful big band at the American Legion Hall where he encouraged my skills as an arranger, generously playing what I wrote. I even wrote some stuff for your beautiful mother to sing.
I could go on and on. I kept in touch with him all through my years at Juilliard, but I moved to Europe and we lost touch. Years later, when I was on the faculty at Manhattan School of Music, I saw him in the hallway. He was visiting the old Juilliard building that Manhattan had taken over. I was overjoyed to see him and we had a warm reunion, but that was the last time I saw him.
In a life of meeting wonderful people through music, Vince Heilker stands as my favorite teacher and one of the greatest people I ever met. No exaggeration.
My best to you,
Steven Masi
