About Me
Among other things... I'm an American bass player living in Europe (Poland). I'm originally from Big Sur , California. For over 10 years, I played bass with the Grammy winning African drum legend, and cultural icon, Babatunde Olatunji 's band "Drums of Passion". It was a life-changing honor, inspiration, and privilege playing with and knowing Olatunji. I played with him up until his passing - including all of his last shows.
Concurrently, I spent 10 years playing in the band of the great blues/soul singer John “Broadway†Tucker . This was mostly as a 'big' soul band with full horn section. Played most of the West Coast festivals and did three European tours with John. I also played extensively with the Dave Workman Band in San Francisco which featured Hammond B3 player Big Ray Odoms and, later, piano and B3 player - "the Queen of Boogie Woogie" - Wendy DeWitt and the great Bili Turner (another great teacher and friend) on drums. I very much consider Dave a mentor and inspiration.
Some of those I have been fortunate to appeared on stage with (some in bands, some in sit in situations) include Airto Moriera, Flora Purim , Johnny Rivers , Joan Baez , Chris Cain , Roy Hargrove , Bruce Langhorne (Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man†and guitarist on Dylan's seminal "Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" & "Bringing It All Back Home" albums and on Dylan's original version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"), Fred Frith , Henry Kaiser , Lucky Peterson , Jim Messina (Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Loggins & Messina), Al Jardine (the Beach Boys), Leon Mobely (of Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, etc.), Vic Pitts (drummer with Bobby Bland, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone, Chet Baker, etc.), Tim Mitchell , Sikiru Adepoju (Grammy winning member of Planet Drum), Santana alum Ernie Johnson , Suru 'Frank' Ekeh, Mawuena Kodjovi , Soji Odukogbe (guitar with Fela Kuti), Rasaki Aladokun (King Sunny Ade), Gordy Ryan , Daniel Castro , Steve Freund , Curtis Lawson , Barbara Morrison , Della Flack (sister of Roberta Flack and also an amazing singer), Polish Hammond B3 greats Wojtek Karolak and Pawel Serafinski , Willie Pooch , Melvin Taylor , Davyd Johnson, Mar Todani , Val Serrant, Chris Cobb, Clara Bellino (played the 1992 Winter Olympics with her), Dave Mathews (Tower of Power, Etta James band, Boz Scaggs band), Chris Sandoval (Cold Blood, Tommy Castro Band), Viv Savage (yes, THE Viv Savage of Spinal Tap ), Yuji Tojo, Danjuma Adamu , Ginger Holiday (vocalist with Elvis Presley, Percy Sledge, and others at Fame, American, and Muscle Shoals Studios), Mike Russell, Zbigniew Lewandowski, Wole Alade, Fode Sissoko, Manas Itene (Michael Franti and Spearhead), members of String Cheese Incident, Camper Van Beethoven, the Doobie Brothers, Santana, and many others.
Have played in various informal situations (like at home, scratch recordings, etc.) with New Orleans 'guitarpist' Phil deGruy ("2 steps" in the music player), Billy 'Bass' Nelson (Parliament-Funkadelic), David Darling , Gordon Free (aka DJ Free - "Honest Man" in the music player), Tim Booth of the band James , calypso master Lord Superior , and others. Played on several Beach Boys demo recordings.
I produced and played on John “Broadway†Tucker’s CD " Impromptu Blue " which received world-wide radio play and great reviews (my favorite being "...approaches the aura and authority of an 70s B.B. King record, and I don't say that lightly" - wow...) This CD featured the phenomenal piano/B3 player Bill Heid with whom I also had the privilege of doing a number of live shows. Bill played with Grant Green, Muddy Waters, George Benson, John Lee Hooker, etc. and was the house keyboard player on most of the early Alligator Records recordings out of Chicago.
Have done numerous international tours and many live radio performances including iconic stations KPIG , KKUP & KPFA . Some of the venues I've played include New Orleans' Orpheum Theater, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the Monterey Bay Blues Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Shoreline Amphitheater, Yoshi's Jazz Club, Kimball's East, John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom Room, Biscuits & Blues (W.C. Handy award for number 1 blues club in the USA), the Mabuhay Gardens, the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, and had the honor to work regularly at "the best blues dive in the world", San Francisco's North Beach landmark: " the Saloon ".
Worked at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica and at Gary Brawer Stringed Instrument Repair/ Real Guitars in San Francisco (store clients/customers included the Rolling Stones, Metallica, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Neil Young, the Grateful Dead, Todd Rungren, INXS, Living Color, Joe Satriani, David Byrne, Chris Isaak, Dick Dale, Los Lobos, Slash of Guns & Roses, ZZ Top, Robben Ford, Richard Gere, etc., etc.)
Was the general manager of the Esalen Institute for 7 years.
Have worked for the last 19 years on staff at the Monterey Jazz Festival (I still return every year to California for MJF where I continue to work as a stage manager.)
Produced music events with my sorely missed friend Michael Hedges as well as Charlie Hunter , Roy Hargrove, Donovan , Phil deGruy, Psychefunkapus , Fred Frith, Henry Kaiser, the Mermen , 3 Fish, Broun Fellinis, and others.
In the early '80s, while attending the San Francisco Art Institute , lived in a warehouse loft space in San Francisco shared with the infamous Paul Rat (manager of the Dead Kennedys .)
Lived in (then West) Berlin, Germany 1988-89.
Since being in Poland, have played informally with members of TSA, Perfect, Budka Suflera (Marek Raduli - way good...), Ziyo (Wojtek Klich - also excellent), the HooDoo Band (great younger players), Sebastian Riedel, and Jerzy Styczynski (Dzem.)
I am currently working with top Polish guitarist Leszek Cichonski (his song "Thanks Jimi" in the music player)
Have started working on films - check out the photos for a laugh - and recently made my TV 'acting' debut on the Polish TVN series " Teraz Albo Nigdy " - playing the (unfortunately dead) husband of the far more talented, lovely, and gracious Agata Buzek's character - and have since done several others ("Ten Ratuje Cały Świat", "Londyńczycy").
Gear: (for those who care about that sort of thing) 1959 Fender Precision Bass, 1964 Gibson Thunderbird IV, F-bass fretted and fretless 5 strings, Ashdown and Walter Woods amps and Schroeder cabinets.
With Leszek Cichonski and Marek Raduli in Wroclaw, Poland:
With Olatunji (you can't see me but I am playing on it) - doing his song "Jingo-lo-ba" - which Santana covered and had his first hit with:
At Yoshi's in Oakland with John "Broadway" Tucker, Dave Workman (check out the solo at 4:10!), Chris Cobb, Mitch Fadem & Bili Turner:
And a slow one...
In Gdynia, Poland with John "Broadway" Tucker, Leszek Cichonski, Wojtek Karolak & Vic Pitts:
Review of the concert above (in Polish.)
With Tim Mitchell & Leszek Cichonski in Bialystok, Poland:
and, last, a scene from my childhood:
(Crosby Stills Nash & Young at Esalen - that's Joan Baez & Mimi Farina in red.) This was 1969 - right after Woodstock. I'm in there somewhere. Different times...
