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Gerald Veasley, bass guitar

Bassist Gerald Veasley clearly remembers the first record he ever bought with his own money. "It was a Curtis Mayfield song called 'We're a Winner,'" says Veasley. "He had this beautiful voice that was somewhat fragile but yet there was power in it at the same time." The impact of that soulful voice and powerful message still resonates in Gerald's music today. "What I try to do is make music that touches people in a voice that is authentically my own."

Born in Philadelphia, Veasley started playing bass when he was 12. His father died in the late 1970s, while Gerald was in his third year at the University of Pennsylvania. He worked through the emotional loss by redoubling his musical efforts and adding classical guitar to his studies. He immersed himself in music, from Curtis Mayfield to Charles Mingus, Wes Montgomery, to Jimi Hendrix and from Miles Davis to Marvin Gaye. In music, he found solace.

"There were several factors which led me to choose music as a profession," he says. "Mostly importantly, it always moved me emotionally and offered me a way to express things I couldn't find words for. When my father died, I had a hard time coming to grips with the loss, and the music proved very therapeutic. I thought, 'if music can have that kind of healing effect on me, maybe I can spend my life creating music that can do the same for others."

While the '70s proved to be a decade of transition in Veasley's personal life, he also remembers the period as "a golden era" in the evolution of urban music. "That was a time when I was starting to really take music seriously, and there were all these great sounds around," he recalls. "Music right about that time was starting to get very, very funky and people were taking a lot of chances. People came along like Sly & the Family Stone, Earth, Wind & Fire, and George ClintonlParliament-Funkadelic. There were all these innovative groups who were making social and artistic statements without losing their soulfulness. Meanwhile, all these fusion groups like Weather Report were experimenting with combining these funky sounds with jazz."

In the 1980s, Veasley had developed into a versatile and reputable sideman and session player. He joined Grover Washington's band in 1986 and played on six of the sax players recordings. Two years later, he moved on to the Zawinul Syndicate, led by fusion pioneer Joe Zawinul, co-founder of Weather Report. He would tour the world with his idol for the next seven years. "That was a real education, on and off the bandstand," states Veasley.

Among the many other credits on Veasley's resume are studio sessions and/or tour gigs with artists representing a range of genres, including Special EFX, Pieces of a Dream, McCoy Tyner, Gerald Levert, Teddy Pendergrass, Nnenna Freelon, Philip Bailey, the Dixie Hummingbirds, John Blake, Phil Perry, and Heads Up labelmate Joe McBride. Heís also played with a few folks who might surprise the average fan, such as fellow Philadelphians Odean Pope, Jimmy Bruno and Pat Martino. Whoever the collaborative partner, Veasley has always come away with valuable lessons.

The '90s were the launch pad for Veasley's solo career. The first step on that journey came in 1992 with Look Ahead, his solo debut on the Heads Up Intemationallabel that included guest appearances from Zawinul and Blake. He followed up that auspicious debut with recordings that have featured an "A" list of contemporary jazz artists. In 1994 he recorded Signs, which featured George Hnda and Chieli Minucci of Special EFX and now labelmate and Yellowjackets mainstay Russell Ferrante. Soul Control (1997) included guest appearances by Earth, Wind & Fire vocalist Philip Bailey, Dianne Reeves, Rick Braun, Geroge Howard and Dave Samuels. Eric Marienthal and Minucci appeared on Love Letters (1999), which was also Veasley's last album to feature Grover Washington J r. before his death at the end of that same year.