Kalani

moving gear

me aand Dave

Doug can Sing!

me and Doug

Recording

In the late 70’s early 80’s U.R.ONE was just starting out and didn’t know it yet. I met Doug after moving back to LA from San Jose. After getting a job, I started looking at want ads for bass players. Not just any ad. Progressive rock ads. I was a Gentle Giant, Genesis, Premiata Forneria Marconi fan – and of course many other greats of that period.

After auditioning for what passed as prog rock garage bands, I came across Doug’s ad. Again, I lugged my heavy acoustic bass amp out to another night of playing in someones converted garage.

Doug and I immediately hit it off. I could not believe someone with such large hands could play a Roland Jupiter 8 like a smoothly flowing stream. I was instantly accepted as the bass player for the band. Later the bands name became “Gateway” and we rehearsed and wrote songs till we couldn’t. After playing out among rave reviews (at least from party goers intoxicated with who knows what flavor of the month) band members began to drop like flies. Gateway was no more. Eventually I joined an R&B Band where I met an amazing drummer, Jeff DeYoung. Actually, I met him at a friends house during a jam, but it doesn’t matter where. We needed a keyboardist and Doug was perfect. Yes, there were other keyboardists as well but Doug was my goto man.

Again, the personal drifts occured and we all went different ways. Years later, Doug called me and said “hey, I redid one of the old Gateway tunes. Come and listen” I replied, “so did I!” so I drove over and we each played the versions we had done. That was the beginning of U.R.ONE

Sadly, after a few years of working on tunes for our CD, he passed in the night before his 40th birthday. Everyone was crushed, his wife and I devastated with no words to express the taking of someone so talented in life, so early. I took all the tapes and files we had and put them in storage. I could not work or play the tunes without breaking down.

Fast forward 17+ years and with the wonderful unconditional support from his other half at the time, Jolie, I have been slowly rebuilding the tunes from recording sessions and digital files. There are more tunes in the wings that may come later. I am adding a few new spacer tunes to keep all the material from going out at once. Being a guitar/bass player, it takes time for me to reproduce the keyboard parts that have only been recorded in practice sessions. The very long tunes such as “Public Plane and Gateway” had quite a few tracks of Doug playing that I just moved over to the CD. Melody’s Theme is a song Doug wrote for his first daughter. I include it here as his family was a very big part of his life.

This CD is very important to me as Doug’s legacy and mine. If you like the music let me know. I would love to hear from you.

 

Release the Prog!