Bass Player Profile Billy Sheehan

Billy Boy From Rock to Jazz maybe a freshman in jazz industry, but for the lovers of rock the bassist who is also known as Billy Boy is very famous and he even becomes the senior for young bassists around the world. Who is Billy Boy actually?. Billy Boy is not merely the late 1980s famous rock band, Mr. Big. He is also the founder of jazz band Niacin, along with his two pals: Dennis Chambers (drums) and John Novello (keyboard). It is not a wondering one if Billy decided to taste jazz world, for he thought every kind of music is good, it must be explored and learned. "Moreover, a good musician should be able to play any kind of music. They should not choose one music style only and forget other styles," said Billy to me, long time ago, in a lovely occasion. Ironically, there are many musicians who is fanatic with their music and insult other music extremely. "That doesn't make sense. A musician should not do that," Billy told. Billy is a bassist who is always "thirsty" of knowledge. He won't feel ashamed to learn from his two mates Chambers and Novello. He even always reads jazz literature in order to improve his ability in jazz. Surfing on internet he does patiently also. Billy also tries to visit other countries which still have traditional music. Some countries in Africa, Japan, and even Indonesia have been visited many times.

For Indonesia, Billy said he loves the varieties of Indonesian traditional music. Indonesian traditional music that he loves most is Balinese music. Javanese instrumental music also becomes the collection of his cassettes and CDs. What is the aim of Billy finding the traditional record? It's a simple answer. Jazz needs exploration, inovation, and improvement. So, how can he --and Niacin-- produce the qualified music if he himself does not have knowledge about other music? Exploration, inovation, and improvement can be found easily by learning traditional music, right?. Back to personal, Billy is a huge and great bassist. He can easily change his style. His first carreer happened when he became the member of Talas band. With Talas, he has produced three records. In 1989, Billy became the member of Mr. Big. The first record of this band had been sold for more than 6 million copies. With Niacin, the quality of Billy is getting better. Three jazz albums had been released, Niacin (1997), High Bias (1998), and Deep (2000).

Photos from G3 live in Denver.
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