In 1938 a 15 year old Sol Yaged would follow Benny Goodman around constantly and Benny would refer to him as his "shadow." Sol gained prominance in his own right and is today considered one of the greatest living jazz legends having performed with Billie Holiday, Jack Teagarden and Cozy Cole. In 2002 Doug met Sol at a Manhattan club and has been performing with him ever since.

In 2003 Doug began volunteering at B'nai Jeshurun Synagogue soup kitchen which serves 150 people every Thursday 12-1. At the beginning he roamed from table to table with his accordion but soon he brought his keyboard and microphone. Since then Doug has brought dozens of clients, volunteers and other musicians to the microphone to sing and create a sense of joy and celebration which has transformed this soup kitchen into a weekly party.

Also at B'nai Jeshurun Synagogue in 2003 Doug joined a musician's group. There he met two other musicians Jody Prusan and Steve Silverman. The trio began performing at the New York Foundling Hospital for Severely Disabled Children. In addition to performing with the other musicians Doug would sometimes roam the halls with his accordion and entertain the children in their rooms.

In 1975, when Doug's band "Main Squeeze" was performing at a club at La Guardia Airport, there were US soldiers at the bar who liked the band very much. At that time, The Department of Defense was looking for bands to perform at 45 US Army and Airforce Bases in Europe. The group was invited to participate in a battle of the bands at Max's Kansas City in downtown Manhattan. "Main Squeeze" won and traveled to Europe to entertain thousands of our troops.

Doug formed a band in 1972 "Celebration" and performed in fifty cities in Canada, US, and Puerto Rico. They appeared for Hilton, Marriott and Sheraton all over the US. At left they appear on the 1972 Cerebral Palsy Telethon with Steve Lawrence and Edie Gormé. In this group Doug created arrangements, custom clothing design, lighting, and played all keyboards.