He continued with music through high school at Lincoln High and then SF State. There are people that aren’t musicians running the clubs, and you have to be able to put up with the fat guys with the cigars and gold chains, as I refer to them.”Ībe started piano lessons when he was six. I think it requires a certain temperament because you have to stay calm during adverse times. They did not become musicians, although Abe says they tried. His parents were not musical, but all of his siblings were. His father was in the shipping business and his mother was a housewife. Your parents have to support you in what you want to do.”Ī native San Franciscan, Abe grew up on Sloat Boulevard, across the street from Stern Grove, where he says wonderful orchestras and operas played every Sunday during the summer (and still do).

My parents didn’t mind me living at home until I was 26, because you can’t just get a job right away. He also returned to SF State to finish his degree. Paul was a first-call comedian in the booming club circuit in San Francisco, and he needed an accompanist.Ībe returned home and began his life as a professional musician. Just as the weather was getting bad, he got a call from an up and coming comic he had met in the army, Paul Desmond. So he went to New York and made the rounds at all the TV networks. When Abe Battat got out of the army, he was convinced he was going to be a musical director for a variety show. Abe Battat: “As long as I had my instrument under my fingers, I was happy.”

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