Today’s bass players are much larger in numbers than when I first began to play the instrument. When I think about it, my father bought me my first electric bass guitar at a music store (Sam Goody’s) when electric bass guitars had been sold on the US market for only 19 years at that time. It was a young and mostly unexplored musical instrument that many people thought would play a background role in its working history with modern music. And for many of its early years in the popular music industry, it did fulfill the roles of support in the many genres of modern music. But it appears in the 1960’s, the electric bass playing heard in modern popular music began to change and evolve into something new for the music listener.
The 1960’s brought about electric bass guitar playing that was both imaginative and stimulating for the world’s music listeners. Electric bass guitar players in many genres of modern music began to play a more featured role in the music, and the electric bass guitar was gaining the attention of new music listeners as a result. The list of men and women who played the electric bass guitar and brought the instrument into a more prominent role began to grow. The word of mouth about music artists during the 1960’s by the music listeners was a sure way for those artists to gain more fans for their album sales and their concert ticket sales. Rock, Soul, Jazz, Country & Western, Blues, Reggae, Latin, Gospel music and more were finding very talented electric bass players to add to the music that was recorded and released to the public. It was a heady time of experimenting by the artists of that era who released music, and many in the music listening public received much of it with great enthusiasm.
Enter the following decades of the 1970’s to the present, and electric bass players are far more numerous than they were in the 1960’s. Both men and women stepped out into the spotlight as songwriters, players, and band leaders all while playing the electric bass guitar as their primary musical instrument. Music recorded by many artists saw the electric bass guitar play a strong melodic role as a lead instrument in the music, something that was certainly new to many. Thanks to the early electric bass pioneers of the 1950’s and especially the 1960’s, inspired music artists have been able to add new levels of listening palates to the musical landscape that we all enjoy today.
I have been blessed and thankful to have been associated with such a great musical instrument called the electric bass guitar for nearly 50 years. The inspiration that I have received from the men and women who have played the electric bass guitar over the now many decades has been an awesome experience. I have been privileged and fortunate to have played the electric bass guitar on the beautiful continents and islands of our planet. It is humbling to me how many people around the world have accepted me and my own electric bass guitar playing while there are so many elite electric bass guitar players in the world. To have experienced this is something that I will be truly thankful for all of my days.
Recently, I have been honored to have been invited to be interviewed by Raul Amador of Bass Musician Magazine. Raul conducted what I thought was a great online video interview about myself and my history with the electric bass guitar. Raul, in the past, has already been gracious enough to have first placed my CD titled “Life This Time” on his now archived CD review page originally posted in 2009.
Fast forward to the present, my interview with Raul Amador that was recorded in March of 2018 is absolutely special to me. I am honored to be included by Bass Musician Magazine among the men and women in the world who play the electric bass guitar as our primary musical instrument. I have continued to be inspired by other electric bass guitar players over the years, and I have pressed forward on my own to play the music that I have been hearing in my mind. And I have been grateful and fortunate to have recorded and published the music that I wished for music listeners to hear. In addition, I am thankful to the music listeners all over the world who enjoy the music created by those of us who play the electric bass guitar.
Enjoy the video interview with myself and Raul Amador of Bass Musician Magazine at the link below and thank you for visiting!