The Jim Fielder Connection
For those of you who don't know, Jim Fielder was the
original bass player with Blood Sweat & Tears. Not only
did the band chart new worlds in music, Jim's bass playing
had a profound effect of my focus and direction as a
bassist since the first time I heard the band in the late
'60's. I guess it's interesting, to me anyway, that Jim is
not only at the top of my "Top Ten Bassists" but also one
of the earliest of members and he remains at the top of the
list to this day. Just in case you are thinking "You've
Made Me So Very Happy" (which is fine), go out and listen
to "More and More" or "Smiling Phases" from BS&T II,
"Somethin's Comin' On" from BS&T III, "Go Down
Gambling" from IV... OK, I'll stop!
Fast forward to the early '80's... Louise and I went to see
Neil Sedaka at Westbury Music Fair LI, NY. Yeah, I know
what you're sayin'... Neal Sedaka! OK, so you sell 40
MILLION records in 5 years (1958-63) and then I'll go see
your band, OK? Anyway, the bassist looks totally familiar.
Jazz bass sitting way up high... Yup. It's Jim Fielder.
Fast again... I am looking for cool old stuff to download
(anybody got any Ten Wheel Drive-Genya Ravan-NO, not Ten
Years After-Alvin Lee) and I do a search on Jim Fielder. Up
comes Neal Sedaka (OK, would you guys stop bashing Neal
Sedaka-the guy is a friggin' LEGEND, OK?). I see a
Lancaster PA date for May 21. I compose an email to
Sedaka's management people asking if Jim is indeed on this
gig (of course I had to tell them about Jim being one of my
influences and how my son, now 15, is also a Jim fan,
etc.). The following day I get a message from Alyse Fielder
(Jim's wife) who said that she cc'd Jim and he was thrilled
and would love to meet us at the show in Lancaster!
A week before, Alyse wrote to let us know that we were "ON"
for pre-show and that Jim was looking forward to meeting
us. 10:00am day of the show, Nick and I were "hanging out"
with a couple of guitar players from our church who are
just back from college finals (needing some advice and
guitar mods from Dr. Hack) and the phone rings... "Oh Todd,
it's Jim Fielder on the phone!" I know that at 52 you're
not a schoolgirl anymore but I have to admit that I was a
bit light headed. It was Jim calling to verify the details
and that he was looking forward to meeting Nick, Louise,
and I.
Alyse was right. Jim IS a really sweet guy (after all, she
lives with the guy, she should know). Even though pressed
for time (their limo driver got lost), Jim took us
backstage to see his instrument, the setup, etc. and spent
a lot of time with Nick, Louise and me (Jim seemed MUCH
more interested in Nick-probably because Nick was full of
questions and excitement and I was unusually quiet and at a
loss for words as 37 years of listening and loving this
guy's playing were floating around in my head). We got to
snap a couple of photos and hang out for sound check. Even
though I have "bummed" 100's of tickets for friends and
customers over the years, I usually pay my own way and I
guess that surprised Jim as he was all set to comp us. When
he found out we had tickets, he personally made his way to
the box office mgr. and made sure we got "best available"
so we could be down in front for the show.
The show was, as is usual for Neal Sedaka, top shelf,
meticulous, and letter perfect, although predictable. The
audience LOVED the guy (the average age was probably 72 at
this venue-lotsa Buicks and Gray Hairs). After the numerous
encores, Elvis left the building (Neal shows up about 2
minutes before the show and leaves immediately following),
and as we were instructed, we hung out at our seats. Jim
came by after the show to hang a bit. Again, he was mostly
focused on Nick and the two of them talked animatedly about
music and bass and instruments and practicing. I had a
great night but I think Nick got more out of it than I did
(or so we will let him think) as much of the advice offered
up by Jim are things that I tell Nick but they are much
more "heard" when coming from someone like Jim Fielder (not
a surprise here).
OK, enough of me. Here are some photos. The folks you don't
recognize are Vince and Jeanine. Jeanine knows Alyse
Fielder from a classical education forum in which they both
take part. While waiting for the band to show, we had some
very nice conversation and experience some TOTALLY fine
dining at the Lancaster PA WENDY's (yuck!) as the average
wait at the other restaurants was about an hour. We very
much enjoyed the company though and I although I treated
them to my driving as we drove from restaurant to
restaurant, they didn't seem to mind.