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I started playing bass and recording electronic music with a drum machine and 8-track sequencer in high school, along with studying jazz piano with Philadelphia artist Eric Spiegel and winning several best soloist awards at local jazz band competitions. I became obsessed with 70's fusion during that time thanks to Marcus Goldberg's late-night radio show on WRTI, and in my senior year I dug out a Fender Rhodes Mark I piano hiding in the tuba closet at school. I fell in love with that thing, but everybody was trying to convince me that I didn't want to deal with an old, obsolete piece of **** like that. So it went back in the tuba closet after I graduated.
From there I went on to study electronic & computer music at Oberlin, where I was exposed to production techniques such as tape manipulation and algorithmic composition. But the best part was being able to use the Moog Modular V system, the Korg MS-20 and the Roland Space Echo. To me that's what electronic music was all about! And by my senior year of college I had found Usenet newsgroups (before Web browsers!) where I could locate a Rhodes Suitcase 73 for sale. I drove from Cleveland to Breezewood, PA to meet the seller (from VA) halfway and began working on the piano that summer. By 1996 I had bought the Rhodes Service Manual and several new/old stock parts from Harold Rhodes Jr's company, and with the Teach Yourself HTML In 7 Days book I created what would become the Rhodes Super Site, once part of BadRat.com, then FenderRhodes.org and finally FenderRhodes.com as of a few years ago. The site is definitely established and grounded as the worldwide portal for Fender Rhodes players, seekers and fans of the sound.
During this time I also started working with ReBirth (I think we all did) in producing electronic music, as well as MIDI-based songs in Thomas Dolby's Beatnik RMF format. As a Beatnik developer I ended up getting a job with them during the dot-com boom, being moved out to San Francisco and starting my life over on the Left Coast. I moved to Santa Cruz after a couple of years, and after making a connection with percussionist Ed Mann I was referred to Tommy Mars, who had retired into teaching professionals in LA after many years with Ed in Frank Zappa's band. Tommy gave me a lot of insight into his own playing style, taught me Hammond organ techniques and generally made a new keyboardist out of me. Plus he is the original owner of a 1972 Fender Rhodes Suitcase 73 that still sounds beautiful after all these years....
So today I am attempting to restart my professional music career, in hopes that it will actually take off this time. I started playing bass again this year (a fretless J-Bass, which sounds beautiful when I actually hit the notes in tune), and I'm taking advantage of the power behind my laptop to run VI's (Korg's M1 & Wavestation emulators are a dream come true). I'm also restoring a 1975 Rhodes Stage 73 Mark I, which I hope will be playable again within the next few months. But after all the work I've put into it, there's no way it's leaving my house!
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