From the moment I picked up a Bass Guitar and tried to play it, I knew I had found the instrument that was to be my main focus for the rest of my life. I actually started playing drums in my High School years and while visiting a friend who had a Band I got to meet his Bass player Fred who had a Fender Telecaster Bass he was practicing with. Fred placed it into my hands as he saw my interest he offerered to show me some important aspects to learning the Bass and my journey began! I had just turned 18 and was completely willing to do what ever it took to become a Bassplayer who could make music that people would want to listen to. My friends Bassplayer Fred became my first teacher. I practiced every day for a few years while searching out every Blues and Rock record I could get my hands on. Learning the Blues was the way to the highway for me and it allowed me to understand where a lot of the Rock music in the sixties was coming from. As soon as I had some playing capabilities I was exploring other styles and loving everything coming from Motown as well. My first Band ventures were mainly rock oriented but as time went on and I got better, I moved into more of the R&B, Disco, Funk and Jazz styles. It was really getting to be fun now and I was playing 5-6 nights a week and supporting myself along the way. I eventually started to be a part of some original music projects and was a member of the "New York Hounds" who were a group heavily involved in the New York Rock underground scene at the time. We recorded a lot of material and sold our records the old fashioned way! We were playing with groups like Blondie, Talking Heads, The Ramones, Tuff Darts, Patty Smythe at CBGB's and other top venues and concerts regularly. We recorded for the CBGB's live album twice and were even producing records independently using studios like Electric Lady (Jimi Hendrix) and A&R etc. My schedule had me playing original music in New York City during the week and playing Top 40 music In New Jersey and the surrounding areas during the weekends. Recording became most enjoyable when I got asked to support other peoples projects and play with different musicians in between my regular gigs. I have to say that I am very fortunate to have met and played with so many great musicians over the years who have taught me and given me their experience to reflect back on. I was playing with signed recording acts and great local players at the same time. Some of the most enjoyable times for me were working with the late great Gene McFadden in 1989 (McFadden and Whitehead / Aint No Stopping Us Now top 25 all time Grammy Winner) when Gene was producing Melba Moore and Freddie Jackson to name a couple of artists. And Gene was producing song demos for The Isley Brothers, Ray Goodman and Brown, Melba Moore and Freddie Jackson at Giant Studios in New York and I was working with him on the Bass parts. I got to work with a Grammy winning producer who truly knew the business from the inside. That was a great learning experience! Little did I know that I was ready for the next major change in my career and it would be driven by the fact that "DWI" hit the nightclub scene hard! You see when the social focus changed and drinking and driving were not accepted with the same leniency as it was in the past, the Nigh Clubs dried up!! We were used to half hour lines of people waiting to get into the better clubs and all of a sudden the rooms were slowing down with less customers as the cops used to wait outside the bars to snag people who had been drinking. Yes it happens today but in the eighties there was a frenzy to launch the process. So the booking agents with the musicians and vocalists who were able to play all styles of music took over the wedding and banquet business with the talent that was coming out of the night clubs. This opened up a whole new era and level of playing for musicians and vocalists needing work. It also became the foundation of what has turned into one of the most lucrative areas for musicians to perform in. The catch is you have to be good and diversified with an openness to all types of society music. When someone says "oh your in a Wedding/Banquet band" and means it negatively, believe me they do not know what they are talking about. I have met the cream of the crop playing weddings and social events! I mean some of the best players and Vocalists reside there. I have personally played over 1200 such events and was a top agency staff bandleader for 20 years enjoying playing the top rooms with an 8-10 piece band. I played weddings, Corporate Parties for major Fortune 500 companies, Private Parties, Political events for Governor's etc. and The best thing about it is that it forces you to appreciate and to get to play so much music that you might never get to explore otherwise, from Jazz Standards, Ballads, Rock, Funk, Disco, Country, Ethnic and Hip Hop too! So it has been quite a journey and I have only scratched the surface because I have been in so many Bands along the way that I would take too much space talking about all of them! For me the shining star in fact the cornerstone in this all is the fact that I actually got to live my dream and become a musician, more a Bassplayer. All I ever really wanted to do was to be able to play the Bass and be respected by other musicians as a true Bassplayer. Now the fact that I also got to explore all of the incredible instruments that I have owned or played or worked on has only tempered my love for the Bass Guitar. No single material thing has given me more pleasure than the Bass Guitar and I am blessed to still be living my dream. Currently I am playing in the New Jersey area and backing a Nashville Recording Artist as well as other projects as I am always looking for more projects and musicians/vocalists along the way as time allows. In between I try to find Bass Guitars to share with my fellow Bass Players! This is my story in it's most simple explanantion, and truly as they say, "I have a million of them" but this is where my Life and Bass meet.
Johnny