The Origins of My Groove...

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my first blog!  I decided to start a blog after weeks of anchoring various childhood and young adult memories that have inspired me both to become and rekindle my love for studying, performing and collecting music on my Facebook page via daily posts.  Using the daily hash tags that have become commonplace on social media, I would share stories with my Facebook friends of different personal memories to which I have associated certain songs, performances or artists. With embedded links from YouTube or any other audio/visual medium, I wanted to hopefully remind others of similar memories that they have of their own.  Perhaps others might have similar “life soundtracks.”

 With the encouraging response I have received, I decided to take it a step further and share my memories with a broader audience. The objective is to share artists that have both risen to the height of fame and are well-known and well-regarded as well as the ones that are just as prolific, talented and inspirational that may not have been as famous, but might have even played an inspirational role to other artists that did attain a significant level of notoriety.   In other words, highlighting some of the underdogs in music that may have been given the credit they have deserved. 

My earliest memories of playing music start when I was around age 7.   My late grandmother noticed my fascination with the drums at church, and before I knew it, she seized on this musical interest.  The next thing I knew, I had a full five-piece TAMA drum kit.  Unfortunately, with little to no support and encouragement from anyone in the family other than from my grandmother, the kit eventually become nothing more than an overpriced toy.  My love for music and instruments in general continued, however performing did not start again until I was 11 years old and starting the 6^th grade.

When it came time to register into my new school for the 1993-1994 school year, I wanted to take computers for my elective class.  However, as it was told to me, my father---who was a high school history teacher---ran into one of his co-workers at my new school while registering me for classes.  His co-worker was the high school orchestra teacher that would be teaching at my school, as well.  Both schools were literally a five-minutes’ drive from each other.  As they say, “the rest is history.”  My orchestra teacher quickly became one of my favorite and most inspirational male role models in my young middle school life.  I quickly bonded with the acoustic bass, as soon as I learned how to play “JAWS” with the bow and there began my formal education in music performance.

Later that year and into my 7^th grade year, I remember my teacher (who was also a working bass player around town) bringing in his electric bass, and he allowed me to try it out in class.  I will never forget it.  It was a G&L 2000 with a Fender Jazz Bass neck on it.  Something happened to the original neck.  I think it was exposed to extreme temperatures at some point that caused it to be unserviceable.  I remember that bass sounding killer!  To me, it weighed a ton but that tone was worth the aching shoulder.  He eventually brought it more steadily for his 1^st chair bassist to play, and I even used it during one of our concerts. 

Learning the electric bass along with playing the upright bass more pizzicato style (playing with fingers), and staying after school to study jazz and practice became the norm.  Then, it was all over once I was introduced to the likes of Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Larry Graham.  I absolutely obsessed over the Clarke’s album “School Days.”  My teacher let me borrow his CD and I made a tape of it. What was particularly inspiring was the fact that I was a “doubler“ like him, playing both upright and electric bass.  And that is how I became a bass player.  I would dabble with other instruments much later out of functional necessity in later projects...