Chef, who didn’t like to sit still or be alone, had once told me he was glad he was Azorean so he could play music. In the Azores, they pass out instruments to kids in elementary school, and the children learn their instruments together as they learn to play as a band. Chef said if he’d had to be locked away alone to practice like an American kid, he would have never played a note. When music students got older, the ones who really loved their instruments would practice alone to become real musicians. But everyone who grew up on the island could play a little bit of something.
