Musicians are inspired by where they lived. Think of the Eagles nesting in the Hollywood Hills, Joni Mitchell taking in the views of Laurel Canyon, and Jackson Browne ruminating in Echo Park. Jim Morrison rummaged through trash cans in Venice, Neil Young lived on a ranch in Topanga Canyon.

Today, staples of the sound and music industry are discovering the South Bay. A group of them, many of whom grew up in the South Bay, gathered this past summer on Saturday morning at the Redondo Beach studio of photographer David Fairchild.
The 65 working musicians spanned three generations.
Some were national and international touring musicians, others weekend mercenary musicians. Click here to view the musicians in this picture

Roots
There may not be a Big Bang Theory to explain why so many musicians have grown up or moved to the South Bay. They’ve been here since before Brian Wilson was balancing brilliance with personality disorder In His Room in Hawthorne. The Minutemen were playing coffee houses in San Pedro during the demise of disco. Black Flag lived and rehearsed in Hermosa’s old Baptist Church, now the Union Cattle Company. And there was ‘The Redondo Triangle,’ where the Sweethearts of the Rodeo headlined at the Sweetwater Cafe before guys and gals decided to turn in the two-step for sweatin’ to an iPod in Gold’s Gym. The roots of music in the South Bay took hold in many forms during a long period of growth and change. Early names included bass player Howard Rumsey, founder of the Lighthouse Jazz scene in the early 1950s.

Howard helped make way for all us fledgling performers, noted Hermosa Beach musician and teacher Karl Grossman.

Grossman and some friends won the coveted Battle of the Bands in 1969 at the Hollywood Bowl.
The beatnik scene was a very real thing to my friends and me when we were young. And Howard let that all develop and soon we’d be playing the Lighthouse before any of us were of age, Grossman said. The establishment and fringe music was a lot looser back then and different types of music were more widely accepted.

You have to remember that this was a period of freedom and bonding with your fellow man (or woman if you were lucky), experimentation and being a part of an integral whole. People felt very connected to each other and it came through in the music of the day.

This set the precedent for the open door policies at the Lighthouse and places like the Sweetwater Cafe and Smokestack Lightning and Papa Joe’s Emporium. Unfortunately, the owner of Papa Joe’s had to relocate to Mexico for a questionable fire that was set. But that was then.

I was a very happy young man growing up around here, playing in bands like The Bros, and playing at the Sweetwater and surrounding myself with other really good musicians who are still performing and teaching to this day: Pat and John Dietz, my neighbor Dennis Renick, Mark Fitchett, David Benoit and a host of others. Hell, we were all Mira Costa high-schoolers looking to cut class and practice. I’m oddly proud of that.

Today, Grossman said, there are people promoting rock in school, like the Dietz Bros. with their own charity Keep Music in the Schools.

On a recent afternoon in Grossman’s Hermosa Beach studio, Music Focus, he was working with one of his prodigies, Dan Sugarman from Fallen Figure. The tablature and the music weren’t necessary reading assignments. There wasn’t even a music stand between them. Grossman just asked the kid, Hey Dan, what do you want to work on today?

Dan plopped in a CD of Radiohead’s Creep, and 15 minutes later the root was down and being covered by Dan with Grossman running a solo over the top.
Next up was Lauren Wallender, who boasted she was almost 14 in her Catholic school uniform and a tough-girl gig bag slung over her shoulder.

Jazz
Superstar jazz drummer Clayton Cameron, aka The Brush Master, lives in Manhattan Beach and can be seen occasionally at Sangria on Hermosa’s Pier Plaza.
Cameron is known for his brushwork and flamboyant drumming with the Rat Pack.

I quickly found out from the casino boss that my job was not to entertain people with bombastic drum solos. The only music to his ears was the ching ching sound of the slot machines. No matter how softly I played with sticks it was not quite soft enough. So for six nights a week…during an eight-month engagement, I played…you guessed it…only brushes.

He learned to emulate the tap and shuffle sounds of Sammy Davis Jr. while playing with a 40-piece ensemble and the Candy Man himself. The result was a dueling shuffle off. It was tough to tell who the winner was.

Cameron developed the one-handed roll, picking up and dropping sticks across the rim and atop the drum to create a percussive nuance no one could touch then or now.

You just find the sweet spot between the rim and the head and let your hand run a two-and-one like ‘mamma/daddy/mamma/daddy.’ It’s not really a signature, I just love the way it sounds.
Cameron earned a Grammy in 1994 for Tony Bennett Unplugged.

(A video of Cameron with playing with one hand can be found on YouTube in the MTV archives. Cameron has a new solo album scheduled for release this year.)

The Lighthouse was the west coast beacon for jazz throughout the fifties. Bass player Howard Rumsey formed a house band called the Lighthouse All-Stars. Members and guests included the now legendary Maynard Ferguson, Bud Shank, Sonny Clark, Max Roach, Shelly Manne, Conte Candoli, Bob White, Chet Baker and Miles Davis. There was a traditional afternoon jam session on Sundays and many albums were recorded with the moniker Live at the Lighthouse.
Thanks to the inspiration of promoters such as the late great Ozzie Cadena and his wife Gloria Cadena, Jazz, Latin Jazz, and Flamenco continue to prosper in the South Bay. Sangria has flamenco on Tuedsays and jazz performances on, Wednesdays. The Ardmore has occasionally hosts weekend jazz with South Bay icons such as Joy Rushing singing the great standards. Other restaurants also occasionally host jazz on weekends. The Hyperion Outfall Serenaders, the official band of Manhattan Beach, continue to delight crowds at public events with their Dixieland jazz. And Brazilian music is offered in Redondo Beach at the renovated Samba Brazilian Steakhouse.

Teachers
Grossman and Cameron, like most musicians, are teachers by nature. Teaching is an obligation musicians feel they must pass along , just as it was passed along to them.

Music schools are now flourishing along Pacific Coast Highway and Aviation Boulevard. They include Hermosa-Redondo School of Music and Dance, Music Rhapsody, Dietz Brothers, Harbor Music, Fantasia Family Music, Coast Music Conservatory, Robin’s Drum Works, Fitchett Guitar School, Music Focus, Production Company, Russ Mallory, Maggie Vaughan, Emily’s Piano Studio, and Hermosa Music.

John and Pat Dietz, are the area’s most prominent music teachers.
Man, we quit that club scene years ago. It was about the time when we opened the store in ‘76, John said. Not that I didn’t like the clubs, Sweetwater’s was our stomping grounds.

The core of musicians who played at Sweetwater got their start at the Straw Hat Pizza in Goat Hill.
Who could forget listening to Janis and Kristine Oliver (who would make the county hit lists under the name Sweethearts of the Rodeo) over the loud speaker at the Straw Hat Pizza at Goat Hill? Janis would be singing a ballad (probably to her soon-to-be-husband and country star Vince Gill) when you’d here ‘Hey! Number 49, your sausage and mushroom is ready. Ah, good times, John recalled.

Mostly we do corporate gigs now, but we’re still playing at least 100 shows a year. Along with the lessons and running the shop, I can barely go watch my boys Fitz and Louie play Suzy’s. Plus, my other boy, Jim, has his own stuff going on.

John modestly attributed his good fortune to a combination of luck and good judgment.
Music is beautiful and it can be a great business. It can also be an incredible headache, but so is the beach when it’s crowded.

When you start thinking about what you want to do, you seek out those nearest to you with the most talent (who you can stand being around for more than five minutes) who are doing the same thing you are ‘ and you feed off each other. You eventually hook up with them and then you realize you are winning the Battle of the Bands, playing with guys like David Benoit, Karl Grossman, Phil Bunch, Mark Miller, Kelly Preach and Brice Martin.

We were just kids from Mira Costa who had a very lucky turn of events in a short four-year period, he said.

Pat expressed a sense wonder and appreciation at how everything comes back around.
We have got this amazing underground scene right now. It’s like we’re reliving the ’50s, which only makes me more excited because right around the corner is the ’60s. And I was having a damn good time in the ’60s and ’70s.

It’s those who realize what they want to do then finally give back who make the most difference. I have Gavin Heany (Latch Key Kid) teaching for me when just a few years back I was giving him lessons. That’s when you know this young man will have a bright future as a musician and someone who will give back. Music is a gift, or even a privilege. It’s not something that gets handed out by waiting in line.

Students
Another local who gives a considerable amount of time and knowledge (up to 80 lessons per week) is Robin Bailey of Robin’s Drumworks!

He operates out of a sun-bleached store front on Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach.
Hey, it’s the only South Bay’s pro drum shop with hourly lessons, drum purchases and drum rentals.and it’s a pretty damn good gig.

You just missed Bermuda Schwartz (weird Al Yankovic’s drummer). Ya, he comes in all the time. He lives in Torrance, Robin Bailey said.

In the eight years I have been on PCH, hundreds of aspiring artists have sat in my studios and crafted their art. It’s odd to know you’ve made a difference in someone’s life like that ‘ like my mentors did for me.

These are real musicians in training, not just some half-an-hour drop off while mom goes to The Coffee Beanery, he said. No, this is for real and I am no babysitter.
His students range in age from 4 to 60, and in talent from Bermuda Schwartz to Ray Luzier (Korn) to kids and adults just getting set up for their first time.

We had Wee Man (Jason Acuna from Jackass!) get a set up here not too long ago. It was a little tricky because we had to marry up some adult-sized drums with a kid-sized throne and stands. But I bet you he is rocking it right now in some warehouse near Valley and Ardmore, Bailey said.
About three-quarters of my students are what I would call, kids or teenagers. And of them, half are girls or young women.

It’s like over time the drums have become more widely accepted as an instrument that isn’t just for guys and it seems adults (parents) have taken more kindly to the idea of their daughters playing drums.

Robin carries a wide array of models and kits that the chain competition can’t offer.
If a man needs a Premier stand or missing component to his kick drum, he might just be able to find it without bearing the torture of the trip to Hollywood and The Professional Drum Shop where everything is crated. Robin’s is a little home away from home for the fledgling drummer with hopes of the flam-diddle.

Part two of three parts to be continued next week. ER