Matt Doran

Check News on Wess Anderson @ http://www.wesswarmdaddyanderson.com/ Click News on Wess. How to Contribute to Wess' rehabilitation fund:Desimonae Anderson The Wess Anderson Rehab Fund Michigan State University Credit Union Transit 272479663 Act33469808 No Swift needed Talk to Rhodope Martin Phone 517-353-2280I started playing piano at age 5. My mother sang and played piano, my father played trumpet in LSU band and my Uncle Pat was a Jazz trumpet/flugelhorn player. I took my 1st lessons for about 3months, they sucked for me. Later I Took piano for 1 year from Mrs. Lemoine and learned to read music. Suddenly i found myself in the mid 70's, and everyone had to have Frampton Comes Alive double album-yes Vinyl was all we had-please don't break off the 8 track or cassette reference-i was there-they sucked. I didn't have any money and couldn't ask my parents to buy me a long-haired hippie album, so i pulled weeds in several yards to earn the cash to buy Framptons record. I copped all the songs off of it on my piece of crap keyboard-I wished I had a Rhodes. I kept playing by ear and joined a few bands in the 70's, including Reunion(circa 1978) where i pounded out ZZ Top tunes on an old beat-up Hohner Pianet combo electronic piano through extremely large Ampeg Amp. I later caught on to the new wave scene by joining Scooter and the Mopeds(Ned "Hoaky" Hickle more recently of Dash Riprock) was the bass player. We played Elvis Costello, British ska, punk etc...I also joined another band with some fellow Catholic High schoolmates called Size 5(i think there were 5 of us)-we played really nice friendly British stuff like Haircut 100, The Jam and even some Sex Pistols...I later gathered with my immediate family and 2 or 3 friends (4 brothers, Skip(Bass) Andrew(Guitar), my late brother Pete(Drums)(R.I.P.) Bill(Occasional appearances on lead vocal, guitar etc) and family friends Keith Simoneaux(drums),Mike Kennedy(Our 1st Guitarist and founder of Komet Amplification). We played British Invasion Rock. it was truly good times. Several bands later i was stuck in variety band hell---you know--The Freeze, Strokin' etc etc....barfarama! I got out of the variety scene not quickly enough, then joined up as "additional musician" to 3 Blind Mice-they already had 3 dudes and i didn't want to screw up the name-I had a great time, we played Al Stewart tunes(intelligent rock based on actual history), America, Steve Miller, Starbuck, Neil Diamond, some heavy Beatles tunes- very cool gig. We opened for the Guess Who sans Burton Cummings-so we had to guess who the lead vocalist would be. Nice guys, great players, soundman was a Canadian Drama Queen. I met Todd Westbrook and Kirk Holder worked with Todd 1st, then Kicks(he introduced me to Kicks)-Great Rock'nSoul Band. I joined Kicks and learned how to really play with a band and play a "groove" or "track" on the backside of the beat. Those guys taught me more about playing in a band than I had ever known. The keyboard player I replaced, George Enete was phenomenal Organ/Piano playerI spent about 3 weeks learning the ropes while remaining permanently drop-jawed and awed by his incredible energy on a B-3 organ. We played a few noteworthy shows in Las Vegas for Paramount Television parties(with Bobby Kimball lead singer from the band Toto), did shows in South Beach Miami for both Paramount and Fox Television.. We played parties in New Orleans with Crosby, Stills and Nash, Kool and the Gang, The Four Tops, and the Temptations. In the meantime I continued to do a few studio session jobs for Todd Westbrook, Chris Leblanc(Talent Show CD BMI 1998 Sweetroll records), Rittner (persona non grata, Druid records circa 1999), David Frazier (Kid Charlemagne), Kirk Holder(the Last Blonde on Earth), The Andy Pizzo Project (Bouncin 2006) and Ford Soundesign-Kip Holden TV commercial. I began to study Jazz Piano Theory and Technique privately with Don Gros, a great player teacher and person. matt Sept 2006