Whaaaaaaaassssssssss Uuuuuuuuuuuuup!!!

My name is Mel Brown and I'm a bassist from Denver, Colorado. I started playing the bass when I was about 15 years old and dreamed of playing on records and touring the world with great singers. I first started learning music theory in high school from a teacher named Steven "Gonzo" Gonzales. He was the bomb and he taught me how to learn anything about music that I wanted to know. Gonzo also got me into Jazz and he also taught me to never upstage the singer. That turned out be some really great advice! From there I taught myself how to read music on bass & I took a couple of music theory classes in college. I've never had a bass teacher but I did study acoustic bass in college.

I always wanted to be a Musician but sometimes you do what you have to do. Denver is really not a big music town and after college I had to get a day job. I was working a full time job doing something that I hated when I was told that I was going to be laid off. So I went and got another job at the phone company. After a while they were going to lay me off too. I lucked up on still another job at a bank but 4 1/2 months later, that's right - I was told that I was going to be laid off. I decided to take a serious shot at being a professional musician that day! I figured that musicians work just as sporadically as I was working so I'd at least be happy with what I was doing.

I called my mom from my desk at work the next day and asked if I could live at home rent free for a year so that I could practice. She was horrified to say the least but she and my father agreed. I got up from my desk, put my coat on and walked out. I went home and practiced for about 10 hours that day.

I worked on scales, harmony, reading, dexterity and most of all I learned as many songs as I could. I had help from some other established musicians and some genuinely good folks in Denver at the time. Yvonne Brown, Joe Clemmons, Lannie Garrett, Joe Keel, Leslie Drayton, Hazel Miller, Gino D'Quinzio, Pat Emerine and the Great Larry King were all totally cool & gave me chances to play on their gigs. My good friend, Bassist Thomas (TJ) Jefferson gave me some pro level gear to get started. Bassist Dave Randon gave me tips on how to groove and let me sit in on his gigs so that I could get some experience. Bassist Billy Rich turned me onto Dean Markley Strings, Bassist Mike Friedman taught me how to pursue endorsements. Bassist Vernon Barbary was always encouraging me and so were Bassists Reggie Smith and Kyle Smith. Bassist Kirwan Brown shared his books with me and turned me on to other great learning materials. Kirwan would try to get me on gigs he couldn't make even though some of the people who hired him were resistant to my presence. (Sometimes they would cancel the gig rather than let me play. Some of them laughed and made jokes when I would ask them how to get gigs in town.) I'd been a full time musician for about 3 months when I realized that I could never succeed unless I found a way out of Denver. So I started looking for a way out -- and that's when I heard about this contest on TV...

The Arsenio Hall show was having a contest called the "Flavor of the Future" contest. I sent Arsenio a video of me playing the bass. I asked him if I could just sit in with the band -- not actually be the contest. I told him that I was trying to get my career started and that playing on his show would be a great credit and a huge help. Nineteen days later I got a call from the show -- they hired me to front the band for 1 night. In November '93 I did the show - Arsenio gave me some pretty massive hype and I met some great cats. I was off and running!

Stop. Rewind. Time for a little extra background info. As I said before, I always wanted to be a musician. From the time that I got out of college I'd been pursuing a gig in Denver with a smooth jazz artist called Nelson Rangell. I'd started going to his gigs in town after I learned that he recorded in LA and New York. He also toured the country regularly. I knew that If I was going to get out of Denver that I'd have to:

A) get the gig with Rangell or
B) move to a major music city like LA, New York or Nashville.

I chose to go for the gig with Rangell. First, I went out and bought all of his CD's and then memorized every song on all of them. Then I started going to his gigs and taking notes on his live repertoire and song arrangements. Steve Ivey, the drummer in the band at the time allowed me to copy the charts in his book which was a huge help. I was also trying to get to know Rangell a little bit. This was a frustrating process because sometimes Rangell would say "Hello," and we'd talk a little. This made me feel like progress was being made. Other times he'd be totally narcissistic, elitist, dismissive, or self-important, all the while feigning humility. I couldn't be deterred - I stayed focused, resolute and determined to achieve my goal. Eventually Rangell asked me if I wanted to sit in. It was a packed house at a spot called the "York Street Cafe" in Denver. At the time my chops were up and I knew all of the material. A funny combination of fear, nervousness and determination drove me to play very well that night. Mission accomplished... Rangell told me that he wanted to talk to me about the gig. I thought for sure that my quest was over but 7 months after that day Rangell still hadn't hired me! I was frustrated to say the least. That's why I was willing to take that chance and send a video to Arsenio Hall. When I learned that I was going to be on the show with Everette Harp I learned all of the tunes on Everette's CD. When Everette showed up to Arsenio for sound check I was ready. When the sound guy asked me to check my bass I did so by playing a bassline from Everette's album. He heard it and joined in. He asked how many of his songs I knew and I replied "All of them." Everette told me that If I was in town he'd use me as a sub in his band, and that I should consider moving to LA. (After the show we went flying over LA in a small plane -- man that's ANOTHER STORY!) Anyway, when I talked to Nelson again I told him that I was moving, I guess it prompted him to take me a little more seriously because he hired me soon after.

The truth is that I was scared to move away from home and I really felt that I needed to get some more experience under my belt before I'd be willing to stake my livelihood on my musical ability. I thought it prudent to use Rangell's gig to network all over the country, get some much needed recording and playing experience, and still be safe at my mom's house! (Just in case I changed my mind about being a musician.)

I toured with Rangell from '94 till '97 and I recorded on two of his CDs. I also practiced hard, networked hard, and was able to score some other gigs recording and/or playing with Chuck Loeb, Michel Camilo and Norman Brown to name a few. In '97 I felt it was time to see what I could do in LA. I gave myself 3 months to get ready for the move.

I was trying to figure out how to introduce myself to the LA music community using multimedia. Since I had done some TV commercials, CD's, and gigs I wanted to be able to profile what I could do in each of these capacities. My friend Vernon Barbary suggested that I check how a mutual friend called Joel MacCluskey put resumes on CD-ROM. I went and took a look but knew I needed something different and much more dramatic. A few days later My daughter was playing a Barbie game on the computer. When she clicked to start the program it was like BAM POW POW BLING BLING!! The computer was putting on a show like movie or something! That's when I realized I needed my Profile to hit hard like this! I asked Joel if he could help me make it happen. I needed the CD to have videos and pictures but I also needed it to play music in regular CD players. He said he could do the graphics and animation and that he had a friend named Stelios Stylianou that could make the disc totally interactive.

I went to work on the content. I taught myself how to edit video, edit audio, scan pictures, and most importantly, how to share these files with Joel who was a huge help to my learning process. We finished the first Mel Brown Profile in the middle of the night on Oct 6 - 1997. I left for LA on the same day. The pressure that I felt to succeed was enormous. I paid a heavy price for a rush duplication job and the day after I moved in to my apartment in Pasadena I began handing out my invention to musicians that I thought could help me get gigs or hire me. I'd been in town for about 3 or 4 weeks when my friend Land Richards checked me out and then recommended me to Gladys Knight's Musical Director, Benjamin Wright. (You can check out the story in Ben's own words in the "Word Of Mouth" section of this site.) I got the gig. I was now a full time musician living in LA, had a gig making great dough, a place to live, a decent car and a new invention that was helping to get my name around. I was so happy! I was also so relieved that I was not going to have to go back to Denver a failure - and there were a few folks that would have loved to see that happen!

So there you have it folks. You can check out the rest of my site to see what all has happened since then. Thanx for dropping by, please sign the Guestbook, and most of all believe in yourself! If you ever feel discouraged just remember the story about a self-taught (aka-special-ed-acting-peanut-head havin, Wanna-be-a-bassist-but-had-to-be-a phone-company-workin', credit-card-bill-sendin-gettin-laughed-at-and-judged-by-a-bunch-o'-non-playin-but-even-now-still-think-they-can-play hackers) guy that got over. If he can do it - so can you...

Peace!

Mel Brown