About Me
By day, I'm a mild mannered engineer. By night, I plumb the subterranean depths of the ostinato groove
(aka bass player).
My day gig is something called a design verification engineer. Basically, I get to break things. And
they pay me for it. Talk about having your cake and eating it too (which, btw, is something that
I recommend doing whenever possible).
I started playing bass when I was 11 years old, and in fact had
my first real gig in front of a huge audience
at that age. It was a trainwreck, and a good story. Suffice to say I never had stage fright again. The worst
imaginable had already happened.
As an engineering student in college, I was gigging nights in the seediest bars in Providence RI,
vamping soul and funk tunes till my fingers blistered. It was during this time, at the tender age of 20 years,
that I had an "epiphany moment" (another good story), and decided that the life of a road musician was not for me.
Not yet anyway.
Fast forward another 20 years or so of comfortable suburban life, becoming a dad (the greatest experience ever) and doing what I could via occasional gigs and recording projects to keep my chops, such as they were, intact. I finally decided that I still
had a dream, it wasn't going away, and to give it another run.
I haven't looked back since.
Current projects:
The Peacheaters (an Allman Brothers experience)
http://myspace.com/thepeacheaters
The Wildcats (from Ruth Brown to Savoy Brown!)
http://wildcatblues.com/
Sarah Levecque Band (simple is good)
http://myspace.com/sarahlevecqueband
Bird Mancini (occasional sideman)
http://www.myspace.com/birdmancini
The Birdz Sessions (no relation)
http://myspace.com/birdzsessions
Notable past projects:
Alternate Quartet (organic fusion)
Stacy Queen Band (one funky lady)
The Earth Movers (Big Bottom!)
The Blue Flames (legendary)
Ronaldo and the Smoothies (legendary and indescribable)
Recordings:
Bird Mancini, "Funny Day"
The Birdz Sessions, "High Above Manhattan"
Stacy Queen Band, "Cure for the Summertime Blues"
Alternate Quartet, "Rainforest Rhumboogie"
Ronaldo and the Smoothies, "Live at RWC"
People I've worked with:
Fatman Wilson, Louie Camp, Willie Love, Joey Vellucci, Boston Baked Blues, Shakey Steve and the Bluecats, Fiddlin Ed, George McCann, Tim Pike, Shinichi Otsu, Bruce "The Goose" McGrath, Mark "The Shark" Seibel, Billy MacGillivray, Lisa Marie and All Shook Up, Gary Backstrom, Lefty Collins, Ricky Berger, Jack Shanahan, Chris Ross, Jon Ross, Scott Bronnes, Ryan Fardy
Favorite onstage moment:
Wildcats opening for Johnny Winter at the Stadium Theater in Woonsocket. Drummer Dana Bonardi cracks a rimshot,
breaks
his stick, and the upper half goes sailing out into the audience
in a perfect arc to end the tune. Talk
about your rock and roll!
Favorite flavor of ice-cream:
Cherry Garcia, of course
