Bass Guitar
I began my musical journey by singing
in the Euclid Noble Elementary School Choir. My mom has always sung in
the church choirs and even today in her mid-80’s is the vocalist for the
Lake County, OH based “Remember When” band. She offered to buy me a
guitar and pay for lessons. So, at age 12 I began my guitar experience by
taking lessons at Petromelli’s on E. 185th St. in Cleveland, OH.
I played guitar in several basement
rock bands while attending Euclid Shore Junior High. It wasn’t until high
school that I picked up the bass guitar (borrowed) for a ‘40’s big band
and learned to sight read the bass clef. I further refined my bass skills
in the Euclid HS Talent Show where I backed up vocalists and
instrumentalists and played in the house band. We finished the show with
the classic Stones tune, “Sympathy for the Devil.” It was this stage
experience that hooked me.
My next musical experience happened
quite accidentally. One day as a senior in HS I was practicing the
borrowed bass through my Traynor YBA-3A head and eight 10’s bottom in my
dad’s basement when a neighbor two doors down, John Abjanic, who had heard
me playing, knocked on the door. John (guitar) and his buddies from St.
Joe’s HS, Dave Urick (keys) and John Franks (drums) with Eastlake’s Gary
Schultz (vocals) and I formed a band and played the club scene for almost
a year. I finally bought my first bass at Sodja’s Music located on 185th
St. at the time.
With this live band experience and some
original tunes Dave, Gary, and two other St. Joe’s friends Ken Consolo
(guitar) and Gus Oswald (drums) (I’m not sure of Gus’ last name but he
went on to become the house percussionist for the Front Row), and I headed
for the studio. We recorded several tunes at Agency Recording above the
old Agora in downtown Cleveland with producer, Arnie Rosenberg and sent
them to NY for a possible recording contract. Well, nothing happened, so
off to college I went. I learned to run a sound board and did FOH work
for the band “Jasmine” (Dave Urick, Ken Consolo, Gary Schultz, Gus and a
bass player) in the mid-70’s.
After college I spent all my time with
family and day job career building until 1981. I co-founded the band
“Those Guys” with a co-worker Dave Morgan (keys), Jeff Hartzel (guitar),
Dick Kandalec (drums) and high schooler Mike Winfield (sax), future member
of the Michael Stanley tribute band “Stage Pass” and dance band “The
Vibe”. We started out as a ‘50’s club band and over the course of five
years moved into ‘60’s – ‘80’s music and also played at many weddings.
The day job took me on the road from
1986 thru 1999. Magically, at the same time I was winding down the
traveling, Dick Kandalec called me out of the blue and asked me to join
his new project “Club Sandwich” with Dave Mansour (guitar) and Dan Karl
(keys/guitar). This band gave me the opportunity to return to playing
acoustic and electric six guitars in addition to the bass, and run the
sound system. We played classic rock-n-roll tunes all over Lake County
for years.
In 2005, Dick and I started a new
electracoustic project with Abby Road on the River Beatles contest winner
Colette Gschwind called “Stowaway”. We played many of Collette’s original
tunes in addition to many female vocalist tunes which were a new genre for
me. As Colette headed back into the studio for CD No. 4 in late 2006,
Stowaway was stowed away indefinitely.
I got a call in March, 2007 from Dick
Kandalac. He told me about a very entertaining band he had just seen at
Cabana’s in Mentor called “The Girls.” In the very same conversation Dick
told me about an ad on the backpage.com website where an unnamed band was
looking for a bass player. I responded, as it turned out, to Dan Rose,
set up an audition, and was offered the bass player position in “The
Girls” which I gladly accepted. “The Girls” is a unique opportunity to
not only play with very seasoned musicians but also back up some of the
most talented young vocalists in the Cleveland area.
My bass guitar influences are as
follows: Paul McCartney, Mel Schacher, John Paul Jones, James Jamerson,
Pete Cetera, Hugh McDonald, Tom Scholz, and Stanley Clarke.
