Brian on Bass

Want to create Activist music? Let's try to make things better and play events for people and organizations making an impact.

I have varied musical interests and I am always looking for creative musicians to make good music, have fun and gig. I like a variety of rock, blues, jazz, bluegrass and Americana and like to keep learning new music and playing with interesting people.

I am the bass player in Purple Albatross, a rocking five piece band from Berkeley that prides itself on tight arrangements of danceable classic rock and soul, peppered with deep tracks and originals. We gig regularly throughout the East Bay, and now Marin and SF, too.

I am excited to have joined a brand new jam band, Melted Crayon Theory. We played our first gig in September, 2025 and are scheduling more.

I have also been playing jazz with friends in Berkeley a couple times a month for over 10 years. We play occasional gigs in the East Bay as Back 40 - mostly swing, bebop and Latin jazz tunes made famous by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, Horace Silver, etc.

I've been in a handful of other gigging bands over the years playing covers and originals, Americana, rock, blues, country, surf, Motown and jazz.

I'm always on the lookout for a band that plays music in the style of Tedeschi Trucks Band, Derek and the Dominos, Jefferson Airplane, Little Feat, etc. (on bass).

In addition, a long-term goal is to join or form an Americana band. I still have a lot of work to do on mandolin and pedal steel to get to that point, but it's a fun challenge. Bands I've been listening to lately include Jesse Welles, Billy Strings, Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters, Fruition, Molly Tuttle, River / Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, Lukas Nelson, Tyler Childers, Chris Thile / Punch Brothers, Hot Buttered Rum, American Aquarium, Watkins Family Hour, Watchhouse (Mandolin Orange) and many, many more.

Other influences include New Riders of the Purple Sage, Joni Mitchell, Del McCoury, David Grisman, Neil Young, Hot Tuna, Commander Cody, etc.