Finding the groove

I didn’t start out playing bass. When I was 8 years old I was introduced to the world of music through violin lessons and elementary school orchestra. At 9, I started playing clarinet in the school band, took piano lessons and began years of self-study on the guitar. 

But my true musical experience didn’t really kick in until I switched at age 11 from the violin to the big double bass (it was a full-size, blond Kay).  After only about a year, I was good enough to be considered for the high school jazz ensemble - where it was determined that my sound just wasn’t LOUD enough, so the band director lent me his electric bass (it was a blond hollow-body, maybe a Guild or Gibson).

The first electric bass player I really heard was Paul McCartney. That led me to James Jamerson, Carol Kaye, Jack Bruce, Donald Dunn, George Porter Jr., William Collins, Larry Graham, Chris Squire, John Entwhistle, Jack Casady, Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler, Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, Louis Johnson. Cats I’m still digging like they were new - like Johnny Flippen, Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, Victor Bailey, Billy Sheehan. Add to that Paul Chambers, Charles Mingus, Ron Carter and Ray Brown on acoustic bass. The rest, as they say, is history.