Music

Music sparks my creativity and defines my worship. I started playing bass in 1977 as a 15-year-old high school freshman. I studied privately under Dr. Christopher Roberts (doctorates in bass and composition from the Juilliard School) and graduated in 1984 from the Grove School of Music in Los Angeles, composing and arranging program.

I put music aside for more than 20 years until my wife Anni and I joined a church in California with a vibrant worship program led by Dr. Doug Baird. I told one of the bassists that I used to play bass and he said, “What do you mean ‘used to’?” It took about a month for the callouses on my fingers to resurface. I was playing again, this time for the Lord, this time never to cease.

My biggest bass influences are Jack Bruce of Cream and Larry Graham of Sly and the Family Stone, both stars of the classic rock era. I enjoy Bruce’s freeform bass lines that frequently stretch to higher registers. Check out “Crossroads” on Cream’s 1968 album Wheels of Fire. Graham is recognized as the pioneer of slap bass on the electric instrument (decades earlier, string bass players often used a slapping technique for jazz, jump blues, and rockabilly). Check out “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” a Sly and the Family Stone single released at the very end of the Sixties, the first “slap” song.

My main instrument is an Ibanez SR606E, a six-string bass I nicknamed “Blue Thunder II” (“Blue Thunder I” was a G&L L-1000 that I played for more than 30 years). I also play a Dean EAB acoustic bass guitar (great for worship in the park). My amp rig is a Trace Elliot ELF head with Trace Elliot 1X10 speaker—compact yet plenty loud, although I go direct in most churches and halls.

Returning to bass gave me the courage to return to writing. Jesus is the difference this time for both!