When I was in 7th grade, we moved from a rural neighborhood in Michigan to Milwaukee, where I found myself in a tough junior high school. In music class, I scored well on a statewide test for musical aptitude and they recruited me for the orchestra. I jumped at the chance, not for love of music, but for a chance to get into the orchestra homeroom with nicer kids.

They needed cello and bass players. My dad said “Play cello, and you can always play in an orchestra. Play string bass, and you can play anywhere.” That was good advice.

Within a couple of years I was studying with the principal bassist in the Milwaukee Symphony. I also bought a bass guitar and started playing rock, with a band called the Delrons (back when nonsense names were all the rage) and later with Sir Benedict and the Traitors. Look, it was a different time, and names like that were cool, OK? We played a lot of R&B, Sam and Dave and Wilson Pickett, lots of Beatles and Rolling Stones, and later on, the big harmony songs like Miles and Miles, and Pictures of Lily, by the Who.

I played in the Milwaukee youth orchestra, which was called Music for Youth in those days. It was a humbling experience, sitting eighth out of eight basses.

I quit the classical studies when I was a freshman in college. Rock was fun and kept me in pizza and beer, and I had no interest at the time in playing professionally. Studying physics and math didn’t leave much practice time.

Those were the Vietnam days. One by one, guys in the band would disappear into the military. Two drummers I had worked with died over there. I graduated about the time they did away with draft deferments for graduate students and for defense workers. There was no place to hide. In April of 1970 I found myself in the Army.

Fast forward to about 1995. I hadn’t played a note since 1970 when a guy at church talked me into dusting off my old bass guitar to accompany the church choir in a cantata. The guy was Rick Jobe, an active local musician. I ended up in his band, Rick Jobe and Tuxedo Junction. Rick was a jazz player, on guitar and saxaphone, but his musical roots were in 60’s rock. Tuxedo Junction played wedding receptions, playing jazz for the dinner hour and then switching to oldies rock for dancing.

Rick and I played together for years, and through him and the band I met many of the people who were active in the music scene here.

These days I play with a 17-piece big band, a couple of small jazz groups, a small orchestra, and a blues band. I occasionally sub for other bands, including the Charlie Lyle Quintet and the Blue Savoy combo.

Huntsville has an active local theater scene, and I have played in about a dozen musicals in the last few years, including Nunsense (the four-piece band was on stage, dressed as priests), Guys and Dolls, The Secret Garden, Pageant (band on stage again, wearing tuxes with pink bow ties), West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Fantasticks, Li’l Abner, Sound of Music, and two productions of Annie.

Page last updated: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 [ 12:00 pm ]