I grew up in Wilmington,
Delaware (east coast, USA) and after graduating High School, I got a call
from Rosalind
Kind (Barbara Streisand's
half sister) to play with her in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Flamingo Hotel.
The gig was for
3 weeks and at the end Rosalind and company went back to New York. However
I wanted to stay,
so I asked her manager
to get me a gig. He said, 'Sure not a problem, meet me in the lobby tomorrow
afternoon"
And... so I did.
Where he then said, "I got you a gig! You are now a "Busboy" at this very
hotel! I was shocked and
said, 'But, but,
but..." Where upon he said, "If you're going to be a Las Vegas musician
you gotta join the 'Musicians
Union, Local 369,'
and in that the rules state, you must stay in town for six months, sign
in every week at the union....
and NOT work as
a musician!". The 'only' out was if you could convince a showroom conductor
that 'they' needed
only you and no
one else would do... (Obviously they don't want you stayin' as at that
time it was highest paid
musicians union
in the country).
And so I took
the job, changing in my tuxedo for a... spiffy busboy uniform. Good news
"Hey, I learned how to
make deluxe folded
napkins!" and after 5 (seemingly long and ahead of the 6 month rule)
a musician in one
of the showrooms
kept mentioning my name to a showroom conductor a lot.... and finally said,
"Alright, go get
your busboy, we'll
give him an audition". So he runs down and finds me in the back kitchens
of the hotel and
tells me, "After
your shift is over go get your bass and show up in the back stage area
after the second show...
you got a shot at
the showroom gig. "And So with electric bass in hand and smellin' like
a variety of all foods
I had bussed that
shift, I auditioned.
The conductor put
a bunch of music in front of me to read from the show that was currently
on.
I put a nice "rock"
edge on everything which at that time, unbeknown to me was what he was
looking for.
Something you only
do when you're young, inexperienced and end up doing the right things because
you don't
know any better.
He then asked if
I knew any jazz standards.. I didn't want to say, "No" because I knew that
it was very important
to know them so
I opted for "Yes." ("No", of course, being the truth) and pushing
the limit I added , "I know anything
you do."Like I said...young,
inexperienced and you end up doing the right thing because you don't know
any better.
He then proceeded
to play tune after tune on the piano...not realizing I could see his hands
and could see what
chords he was heading
for, between that and using my ear I held my own. Whew!
What made me stand
out among the rest was a combination of choices. One, I played a Rickenbacker
4001 bass
when everyone else
in town used a Fender Precision. This was back in 1974, when most showroom
musicians
if not all were
heavy jazz players. And two... I could read music well but that isn't why
I got into music.
I liked to create
my own bass lines. Again... young, inexperienced and you end up doing the
right thing because
you don't know any
better. Here's a side story to prove that point.
.
. The Ann-Margaret
Show came in. She had just done the movie "Tommy" which featured the music
of the "Who" .
You'll remember
the song "Pinball Wizard". So here we are with a 30 piece orchestra and
an elaborately written
charts of music.
The band starts and it's loud and glorious.... "I'm feelin' it.... and
so I off on my own, ignoring the
written music...
playing Loud 'n' Proud as I like to call it.
The tune ends and
as I look up I see the music arranger looking at me, he knows I didn't
read what he wrote and
not so happy about
it - and now heading my way. By the time he gets halfway to me.... Ann-Margaret
shouts out
how "Fantastic that
sounded, what a great groove it had, she loves it." And so he turns back
around, sits down
and says nothing.
Now the icing on
the cake.... Union rules state that an entire new orchestra must come in
and play the show once
a week to give the
current orchestra a day off. That orchestra's bass player read the chart.
After the show Ann-Margaret
says, "Where's the groove we had before". I was then asked and hired to
play all
7 nights. I did
that for every Star that came in. Then I started touring with them. The
hotel made a deal with me
that as long as
I said I'd return after the tours they would continue to pay me whether
I was there or not. "NICE!"
.
And that is how
I got started in Las Vegas and I was fortunate enough to play for Elvis,
Tina Turner, Sammy Davis,
The Jerry Lewis
Telethons, Ann-Margaret, Raquel Welch, Ben Vareen, The Letterman, various
television specials ...
it's a long list
but those are some highlights.
.
HOW I FOUND
THE STICK.
.
In the day I'd jam
with different bands and players that came into town. Tony Klatka from
Blood Sweat and Tears,
musicians from other
hotel showrooms and this time in particular Les DeMerle the drummer from
the Harry James
orchestra. He told
me of this guy in Los Angeles that plays an instrument that sounds like
bass and guitar at the
same time. WOW,
I thought and so that was my introduction to Emmett Chapman and
the "Chapman Stick!".
.
.
I visited, I met, I
saw, I bought one lol. One of the greatest moments in my career. Emmett
and I have been dear
friends all these
years since. I adapted a playing style on the Stick that Emmett described
as "creating chord and
rhythm parts to
support my bass lines". Which I didn't think about it at that time, but
that is exactly what I was doing.
What better way
to make my bass grooves more exacting and exciting than to have the perfect
chord voicing and
rhythm comping behind
it. LOVED IT! It was not Emmett's original intention of the instrument.
His view was more
a total musical experience in the instrument itself, not a bass, not a
guitar but a mirror to the
individual player
themselves. I imagine like a piano, two hands creating individual parts...
now with hands turned
in and tapping on
a fretboard grid rather than a keyboard. Ingenious no matter how you look
at it. In 1999 about,
Emmett invites me
over to give an opinion on his latest invention. A co-design with Ned Steinberger
called the
NS/Stick.
Again, brilliant. Now not only do have have tapping out music on each hand
like the Stick I also have
plucking, picking,
strumming back all in one instrument. I LOVE IT! I came up with several
techniques I hadn't
thought of before.
I put a Carabiner between in my first and second finger of my right hand.
I now can "Slide" slide
like a slide on
a guitar and Tap at the same time in one hand, play bass and chords in
the other. Ohhh I could go
on and on with techniques
that I use. E-mail me and I'll go on and on for you. (Further down in this
article there is
a Rocket Scientist
song link that will show that).
. . HOW I GOT STARTED
DOING SESSIONS WITH THE STICK
So now I turn my
attention to a move to Los Angeles. I pack the family and pets in the car
and off we go.
My dreams and goals
are to do record sessions, join bands, write songs. Serendipity leads me
to someone
I'd done gigs with
back in Delaware. He in turn says, hey I know this guy Frank. His wife
Tully sings and they
are doing a demo.
So I call, meet them and play Stick and electric bass on his wife's demos.
Frank is also building
a studio in his garage. We get a long so nicely, when the studio is done
he invites me
over and I start
doing session at his place. Tully also starts writing songs and asks if
I'd write with her.
As I get called
to play sessions I want to use the Stick. Generally no one wants you experimenting
around their
dime with an instrument
they never heard of like the Stick . So I would just pull out the Stick
and say it was a bass.
I was hired to play
bass, so the client thinks nothing of it. After they would love the new
style of bass lines and tone...
I'd then say, "Ya
know..." it's really called the Chapman Stick. I then develop a reputation
with it and then would get
calls to 'bring
that other thing you play'. I owe so much to Emmett, Frank and his studio.
.
"Serendipity
is my best friend"
Eddie Money comes into
the studio one day and needs a bassist. Frank jumps in and says, "I know
just the person'.
Also around that
time Tully and I had written a nice catalogue of music that we demoed with
Frank. Pat Benatar's
producer came into
the studio when Frank had one of our tunes up. He asks who the writers
are and can he take it
to Pat. We placed
the tune on her album "Wide Awake In Dreamland" with the song "Cerebral
Man"... We got gold
albums for it. .
Have a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_o5PtJNSfg I met Sherly Crow
through Frank and his studio and did some recordings with her after she
came off the Michael
Jackson tour.
Don Shiff &
Frank Rosato
.
A prog rock band comes
into the studio with LOTS of time changes and interesting songs. Frank
says, "Hey let me
call Don for your
session." I do the first album for Erik Norlander and Mark McCrite of "Rocket
Scientists".
They loved the Stick
and encouraged me to do whatever I could do on it. Afterwards they felt
it colored the sound
of the band enough
to make me an honorary member. I've been with them for oh my about 35 years.
Touring was
a blast, Erik would
bring the huge Moog, like 5 feet high, 6 feet wide with blinking lights
and wires all over.
I had my Sticks
midied so I'm playing my Stick bass lines with chord/rhythm accompaniment
and midied keyboard
sounds and Mark
had his Line 6 Variax guitar that emulated so many electric guitars and
acoustic guitars.
What a sound we
had. That was the core of the band and we would add other players drummers
in particular as
needed. We had Tommy
Amato, Greg Ellis, Gregg Bissonette, Nick D'Virgilio, Chris Quarte to name
a few.
.
This is a Rocket
Scientists song that features the NS/Stick. Rocket Scientists regenerate
:
. One of the earlier
bands I joined and played Stick in was "Desert Sun". A great folk rock
band. Brooks Posten on
vocal/guitar, Jane
Boltinhouse with an Incredible large beautiful strong voice. Brooks, soft
spoken, kind gentle man
and had a 'way'
about him that one day led me to ask. "You carry yourself like some big
event happened in your life,
famous like".. and
then he told me what it was. Yikes! A good man in-spite of what he'd gone
through. (google him
if your curious).
I met a manager through them who said, I know this guitar singer that could
use someone like you on
Stick. And so I
met Dwight Yoakum. He came over my house and we recorded some demos of
his songs that I later
heard on his first
album. A wonderful, kind man. It seems I had a roll on Country Stick, did
a tour with Pam Tillis as
well as an album
and tour with The Indian River Boys.
.
I like to say, "Serendipity
is my best friend". Stick Enterprises (Emmett in particular) referred me
as a Stick teacher
for someone that
wanted to play Stick. I gave a few lessons. A year later he becomes a successful
screenwriter.
Calls me up and
says, I have a couple films coming out, I've always liked your music, will
you score the films for me.
"Serendipity
is ..." well you know. He wrote one of my favorite movies... "Mr. Holland
Opus". When writing that
screenplay he would
ask me about growing up with music teacher parents. Then I see the movie
and some scenes
are the stories
I told. How fun is that! We have been friends all this time and still
do projects together. Through him,
I was introduced
to Felicia Day who starred and wrote "The Guild". I scored music for the
show and wrote the theme.
It lasted 7 seasons.
(www.watchtheguild.com).
- For films I've
scored music for And... even acted in! - visit : Don
Schiff - IMDb This is getting
to be a long story so lets zip forward a bit. I lived in Los Angeles for
39 years when my wife decides
she wanted us to
move to Napa, Ca. I said, "Wow, great dream but it is very expensive however
I'll dream it with
you. " I really
didn't want to move, thinking that all my contacts for work are here in
LA not there. She said, "When is
the last time you
went into a studio? You always get the music files, load it into your studio,
then send the tracks
back over the internet...
you can live anywhere". Hmmmmm, I'm still hoping/thinking... to expensive
to get a house
there. Well after
researching home buying/selling options it turns out you can sell your
greatly overpriced home in
Los Angeles and
get a greatly overpriced home in Napa! So we moved... found a lovely
home that overlooks a lake
from a mountain
side. I turned one floor of the home into a beautiful recording studio
and we live on the floor above
It turns out 'I
can' live anywhere and send my sessions out over the internet. One of my
first sessions here was for
producer Andy Kinch
(from England). He had Kelly Groucutt (of Electric Light Orchestra) singing
one of his songs
and hired me to
.... "Do what you do". So for that one I played NS/Stickbass and then arranged
a Cello and Viola
string section in
the ELO style and Mandolin. There's a nice YouTube video of the vinyl record
playing and inside
jacket! https://youtu.be/rmq0hDsk8P4
You can hear the NS/Stickbass and string parts nice 'n loud. Hey like I
say,
"Loud 'N Proud".
I would have liked to record at Abbey Road Studios, but at least my tracks
made it there.
..
So now I've established
myself as a session Stick player, bass player, song writer, film
score.. With the times
changing so rapidly
of how music is recorded.. having a studio and recording remotely.. well
after all is said
and done...It was
a lovely idea to move and the way to go. Oh she is quite the inspiration.
There is so much
more to tell, I should write a book of stories, maybe one day. For now
I'll leave you with the
same tip I tell
myself regarding how do I get from here to there musically. I have tried
planning, worrying, would of's,
should of's and
could of's, if only's. Those simply gave me nice anxiety over my life.
What did work:
I will always play
regardless of if I get paid or if I become famous or not... therefore persistence
along with my ability
to do what I do
best and love is on my side. My choice in life is whether to be happy at
the moment of where I am
or not. Strive for
happy and let the next day unfold as you make way and let "Serendipity
be your best friend".
