The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/114745
Biomedical engineering professor Glenn Gaudette gives Salwitz and Klein a tour of his lab at WPI's Gateway Park. WHAT I NEVER, EVER LOST WAS THAT DEEP INTEREST IN PHYSICS WHICH TO THIS DAY, HAS EXPANDED INTO A HUGE INTEREST IN COSMOLOGY," SAYS SALWITZ. reunion at Klein's 60th birthday party in Cambridge. Since then, the band has played together periodically, including at the House of Blues in Boston in 2009, Fenway Park in 2010's "Double Play" when they shared the bill with Aerosmith, and a seven-date tour in 2011 that included the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston. More gigs are planned for 2012. By now, it seems clear that the J.Geils Band has secured its position in rock and roll history. In fact, the band was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011 along with such rock and pop luminaries as Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Donna Summer, Neil Diamond, and Tom Waits. A lifetime of tour dates and album releases has left its mark. The founding members are older now and partying a little less ("I get my drugs at Walgreens now," jokes Klein.) Geils opened up a vintage auto restoration shop in Groton, Mass., for a while, but has lately immersed himself in the jazz and swing of the 1940s and '50s. A 2009 disc, "Jay Geils: Toe Tapping Jazz," might surprise fans expecting hard-driving '70s rock or catchy, riff-laden '80s pop. He keeps a low-proƂle and did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. Salwitz maintains more visibility. He has used an interest in physics to design a new style of harmonica and continues to reƂne his technique in various groups, including the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue and Mark Hummel & The Blues Survivors. Klein's interest in chemistry morphed into an interest in cooking, which led him to cooking school in the years immediately following the band's break-up. He's been a chef and part-owner of several culinary ventures, including the now-defunct Cambridge restaurant Z Square. Today he's back to mostly music and plays in a band called Danny Klein's Full House, specializing in performing J. Geils Band tunes. In some ways, life has come full circle back to the Worcester Tech quad where the J. Geils Band members Ƃrst met. Salwitz says of his endeavors in recent years, "I've been doing, without a degree, some of the very essential stuff we were learning about then." Winter 2013 25