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| BOBZILLA - Waxahatchie, Texas |
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BOTTOM DWELLER
"It's All About the Groove"
I've been a bassist for 33 years. The Groove keeps me alive; the Groove keeps me movin'. I'm sure it does in your life too.
Bass turned me on and upside-down when I was a kid. It was more than the sound - it was a feeling that shook me right down to my very soul. A pulsating vibe that could be as subtle as a whisper, or as powerful as an atom bomb.
Iggy Pop once said, "Playing live is like flight... while elephants pound the Earth." Bass gives live performance that dual energy Iggy was talking about and I've always felt both sensations playing it. Of all musical instruments, bass is one of the few that can "fly" and "pound the Earth" at the same time.
Mom & Dad listened to big bands. Growing up I can remember feeling the thump of the big-bottom double bass on so many of those tunes. Cab Calloway's bassist Milt Hinton was the first musician I can call an idol. What a great start! Hinton was pioneer of the independent walking bass line - the first to give the bass a voice all its own.
I started out playing alto sax in school band, but it wasn't long before I picked up an electric bass. Many popular bands influenced me in the early days. Of course, The Beatles and Cream were going nuts on the charts when I was a pup and it was impossible not to have been influenced by the innovations of both Paul McCartney and Jack Bruce.
I started paying close attention to rock bass with my first two rock albums: Black Sabbath's Paranoid and Pink Floyd's Meddle. Both were released in 1971 before my eleventh Birthday and I remember the rush I had listening to them for the first time.
Geezer Butler's monster metal chops and the technical expertise of Roger Waters introduced me to the electric bass. I was like Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde: one minute I would listen to a stack of Genesis, Roxy Music, and David Bowie, the next a bombing of Kiss, The Ramones, and Alice Cooper. I was leading a double bass life - no pun intended.
The 1970's had a dreadful pop scene. Music hit an all time low with disco and in those days a guy could be seriously shamed if he admitted to giving a disco record a spin. I actually had a navy blue leisure suit. Ugh! Rock saved me though. I'm proud to have been a part of Disco Demolition Night at Comisky Park in Chicago. The White Sox will never forgive us, but this was a shining example of why rock music is so cool and why disco still sucks.
There was something else going on during the 70's - progressive rock. This genre (often credited to bands like The Beatles and Cream) combined technical expertise with deep lyrical ideas, theatrical expression, and concept themes. It began with writers like Syd Barrett and Roger Waters. I was in L-O-V-E!
I started listening to epic progressive bands like Rush, Queen, Kansas, and a new British punk/metal/progressive band, Iron Maiden. This would be a set of musicians (bass players in particular) that would lead me through a new decade of terrible pop music. This was also the time I refined my own musical journey.
In the 1980's, I played in a heavy metal band called Tytus. It was big fun rockin', partyin', and chasing/being chased by wild women. And we did a lot of all of it. I met my life-long fishin' partner, Pat, in those days. We never got to be "rock stars" like we often dreamed about, but we did live like rock stars every chance we could. I guess that's all any of us can ask for? I have posted some of those pictures (spandex and all) on this site for old times sake. Stop Laughing! (Just for that, I'm not posting the leisure suit pix.)
The LA glam days of metal eventually gave-way to a dirty more raw and rowdy version of metal from the San Francisco Bay Area and bands like Metallica. Seattle's contribution, Nirvana, was a bit more grungy. The end of the Tytus era left me craving more substance and I headed back-to-basics in my own groove.
In 1989 I went back to college to pursue a BA in Music. It was a jazz driven program with a whole bunch of hard-core working professionals at the teaching helm and an even greater number of young, cocky, and incredibly gifted musicians sitting around playing licks that you'd never hear in a million years of Headbanger's Ball. The intimidation factor was high at first and I remember thinking, "These players are gonna kick my butt!"
As it turned out, all my fears were a bit premature. This was maybe the most helpful group of people I'd ever met in my life, as far as music goes. They were encouraging not competitive. They were eager to show me things I could never have learned on my own. More than anything they would help me understand that to learn music theory is to forever say goodbye to doing things the hard way. I learned how important it is for a bassist to know the nuts & bolts of music theory, more than any other player in the band. Harmony, melody, and rhythm all revolve around the bass line and that line is the "glue" that holds it all together.
In the mid-1990's I hooked up with singer/song writer Heather Knox and got pretty familiar with the Dallas/Ft. Worth club scene.
Then in 2000 I set out in a completely different direction playing blues and classic rock with Big Cookie & the Crumbs. We played many Texas Harley-Davidson club rally events, including a number of charity gigs supporting Toys-for-Tots. We even played the infamous Leather & Lace Biker Ball in Beaumont, Texas where we released our album Heartbreak Hideaway. The rest of that story is "hush-hush" if you know what I mean?
The classic rock club scene rocked for a number of years, but it got stale. We eventually changed personnel and the band name to Mississippi Queen. MQ was rough, rowdy, and raunchy. We offered a bayou flavor reminiscent of CCR and Mountain.
Now a new musical seed has taken root, because of my renewed faith in God. When I became a Born Again Christian in November of 2007, the search was on for a new church home. My commitment to Christ following a twenty-six year absence was rewarded and so too were my life-long prayers to play music and share my musical gift. I joined Strings of Faith, a Christian band based in my new spiritual home - First Presbyterian Church in Ft. Worth, Texas.
Strings of Faith is an extremely talented group of players and singers whose wide repertoire consists of everything from early American folk music, bluegrass, jazz, contemporary Christian, and spirituals to classical hymns. Multiple six and twelve string guitars, electric bass, mandolins, drums, percussion, and a banjo are the backbone of the group. Our Music Director leads the way on her grand piano. And every so often unique instrumentation opportunities arise, such as oboe and flute. Oh, I can't leave out the awesome four-part vocal harmonies that front this band; they are really quite impressive.
Needless to say, it'll be a challenge for me coming out of years of improvising in blues and rock bands to keep time to arranged and written music. Heck, I haven't even used a set list for ten years.
The bass will always be a part of me. I have so many favorite players: Tony Levin, Geddy Lee, Steve Harris, Percy Jones, Roger Waters, Nathan East, Paul McCartney, Stu Hamm, John Myung, Milt Hinton, Jaco, Stanley Clarke, Jimmy Haslip, Chris Squire, and many more...
It is certainly true that bass holds a band together. I take that approach very seriously in the way I play the instrument. I understand the principles of "good time keeping" and "less is more" are far more important than individual expression. That's why they make guitar players, right? My job on any gig is to keep it on time and lay down a groove. If I'm sloppy, then everyone is sloppy, no matter how many notes I play.
Keepin' it Groovy!
Zilla
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