When Darnell Gholston started playing on the family upright piano at the age of six, he found himself surrounded by talents of his two older brothers Dwayne and Darren. Dwayne was emerging as the preeminent lead trumpet player in town and was beginning to work with the Electric Oil Sump, Bakersfield’s “pro†big band at the time. As the youngest brother Darnell had seen his brothers at the front of St. John’s Baptist Church playing in the band for the choir and congregation. It was at St. John’s that Darnell met Mrs. Snowden who gave him his first piano lessons. At age 14, Darnell was playing drums at St. John’s him self. By then, his brothers were playing and recording with Mac McClanahan’s jam club and had been featured as the first band to perform at the first Bakersfield Jazz Festival. When Darnell turned 15, his dad bought him his first Casio keyboard which allowed him to record one sound and then play another sound on top of it. This led to multi-track recording with a 16-track sequencer. Using his great ears and knowledge of both keyboard and drums, he began to produce his first compositions. Certainly, it helped Darnell to hear his Brother Darren’s fluid sax style as well as his amazing grooves playing a drum machine. Tragically for the family and the community at large, his oldest brother Dwayne died in a car accident. Darnell was eventually able to take solace by throwing himself into his music, creating over 100 tunes with his sequencer and keyboards. As Darnell began to create music in earnest, he started dropping in at the house of Cal State Professor Doug Davis to share his latest creations and get some feedback and pointers. Listening to Darnell’s work, Davis offered to help him put together the musicians to perform his work at Cal State’s Jazz Coffeehouses. Over the years Darnell has provided numerous sets of his originals at the coffeehouses. It was these performances that he established his relationship with fellow musicians Gerry Huggins on sax and Leon Jones on bass. Darnell and Gerry have played numerous duo jobs with Darnell’s sequencer wizard providing the grooves. Darnell was also a featured performer at the summer concert series of Leon Jones at CSUB that brought the gospel and jazz communities together in celebration. It was at that summer concert series that Darnell met the gifted Luis Lenzi who joined him for the 2003 Bakersfield Jazz Festival performance. Besides his own compositions, Darnell has produced other recording projects such as the recent CDs for Wilson Mackey, Darren Gholston, Gerry Huggins, and the late Sonny Stokes. For his own most recent CD, Darnell created 13 tunes and, of course, recorded all the parts as well as doing all of the production and mixing.
Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor - Image Hosting
