HOME		I am a representative of...
"The People who might not acquire musical abilities easily, but love music and want to play it for a living anyway" club. It's true. I have known guys that, out of the gate, just took off blazing on their instruments, with virtuosity, confidence and ability that I would just marvel at and wonder why it didn't come as easily for me. It's like that sometimes. Do you love the craft any less because it comes slowly to you? Not in my book. Determination shows that you must love it even more!
I remember Derrick Edmonson, at one time one of my best friends. We started playing together actually, I was 13, he was 12, although at the time, I was playing guitar, he was playing bass and Butch Alexander who was 12&1/2 was playing drums. We rehearsed a few times and tried to put a couple of songs together, fully realizing we were limited in what we could do. Even then though, I was a leader even though I wasn't the most talented for sure. I just had a knack for speaking up and taking up for my friends. Still do and sometimes it gets me in trouble, but back to the subject: I really put a bit of effort into playing the guitar, but it wasn't easy, and I saw Derrick taking off on his instrument like a bat out of hell...eventually Yackie moved on our street and I was smitten. Infactuated. She was a lively spirit, all smiles, long legs and afro and I had to hang with her, so the guitar was touched less and less...I remember I saw Derrick a year later, and he said to me, "man you been practicing your axe? Cuz I have!!" I felt guilty as hell. I picked it up from time to time and played Long Train Running by the Doobies, and Hope you feel better Love by the Isley Bros. and strummed some open chords but I was playing a whole new game. Girls!! Another year went by..this is two years in, and I see Derrick walking with his bass, and he says "Man you gotta start playing for real, I'm doing it André!" right after that his family moved off our street, and I didn't see him for maybe 2-1/2 years. I began to hear stories about this guy they called "Clarke". (A nickname given to some guy after Stanley Clarke of course) "He's young and badd...he was soloing!! " etc. Then one day reality hit me like a ton of bricks, inside a led safe, tied to a grand piano. Some friends take me down to "Clarkes" basement..and damn, it was Derrick!! and he was annihilating the bass!! I mean chewing on that thing like a man possessed!! Confident, attitude, loud and just like...ungh!! I was floored. Shocked!! My world was rocked that day. I had been wrong! I blew it! I chose the wrong path...all that was running thru my head. I was now 16 years old and I was too late. That day something was planted in my head...
A few months later there was a family Xams party at my parents house. I am in charge of playing the music because I had a fairly large record collection, around 400 records or so, and I remember a conversation with a guy (who was a cousin of my sisters boyfriend) standing there talking to me about music. I was describing all the parts of the music and pointing things out, especially all the basslines and bass licks. I am talking Earth Wind and Fire, Slave, Graham Central Station, Bootsy, Yes, Sly & the Family Stone, Motown..We talked for a longtime and he stopped and said to me, "Man what are you doing??" I said "What do you mean?" He said, "Man you are so inside this music, you are supposed to be playing music!" and that was the pivotal moment. I got so excited at that moment, it hit me..."Thats right, its not too late, I'm going to do it!!" I remember running and telling my mom right then and there. " I am going to play the bass" She was like, "Thats real nice sweetie, now we're talking grownup talk so run along..." Why the bass? Honestly because I listened to the basslines so intently, and also because I thought with my late start it would be easier. (Damn was I wrong on that one!) So of course, i begin to pick up my old guitar and I remember Yackie who was still my girlfriend (and ended up being so for 6 years), said "Whats gotten into you...put that guitar down!" and I told her, i was going to play. "My brother Frank is going to help me get a bass and I am going to play it you watch!" Yeah, Yeah, yeah...But Frank did take me to the music store, put $100 down on a bass for me. A Rickenbacker 4001 natural finish, and I had to work my grocery store job and pay of the remainder. I don't know why to this day he did that, but he did and it made a huge difference in my life.
I think it took me two - three months to get the Rickenbacker out of lay-away, but I did and I think the anticipation and going to the store and making payments and seeing the bass created a monster. I began to play the bass all day. I would go to school, cut classes right after homeroom and go home and play all day, and all evening, until my sister would finally shout "Put that damn guitar down or I am going to break it over your head!!" My late start instilled in my something that has gotten to where I am today, exactly 30 years later. I have to have an unbudging work ethic. I have to be deeper into it than anybody else and I have to never stray from the path. And I haven't. I have to be determined and work hard and persevere no matter how many detractors or unbelievers there are. And there are and I have. There have been so many bumps in the road, forget that, life shattering earthquakes where the road opened up to swallow me, but, thru it all, I have never not practiced and I have never put the bass down. Ever. I have endured some life shattering, heartbreaking humiliations, (those stories are for the next chapter) but, no matter what, like Bootsy told me when I was 18, "you keep playin no matter what a mug tells ya" and so I still play the bass every single day and since I have been a road musician it has been many years of practicing 5-6 hours a night, and I still want more. I am itching for the time when i can play my bass 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week again like I used to, because I feel my sun rising. I feel myself getting ready to explode and I have waited a long, long, long time for it. My Derrick Edmonson moment. It's coming...I can feel it.
See for me, it hasn't been about phenomenal talent. Maybe because I started late, or maybe because of genetics of whatever, but it has come s-l-o-w-l-e-e-e-y, (let me slow that down some more...s-ah-ll-o-o-o-o-ll-ll-e-e-e-e!!) but surely. A teacher once told me... "Take notice André...to those it comes easy, it goes away easy. Easy come, Easy Go. But to those who it comes slow, it goes away slow too..." And that has been one of my self justifications if you will. (The other is arranging and hearing parts, and producing, which I feel I have a real knack for...probably due to examining all those albums in such great detail, but thats another chapter too...) Back to the bass: It has come to me slowly, but I am a determined SOB and I still say to myself daily " I am going to play this shit out of this mother!" and I get to practicing. I don't care what talent I do or don't have. It's not about that for me. It's about committment, Love and a work ethic that has carried me all over the world. All I know is, I moved to California for one reason: I am determined to play my bass for my living. In order to do that I have to be good, great even, and even when they say, you've made all the money you can make on this planet and there are no more notes you could possibly play, and noone wants to hear you play anymore, I'll say.."you won't stop me...my sister could stop me, but we don't live in the same house anymore!!" See, I'm going to be buried with my bass in my arms, and my thumb on the E String, still trying to thump that one last note!! I'll never stop...in fact, I'm just gettin started! See ya...gotta go practice...
*Dedicated to those who stand in awe of others monumental talent and wish it came easier to them...
André