Hello! I am a musician, photographer, avid cyclist and all-around nice guy - well, most of the time anyway ;) - located in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. This site is about my musical experiences as both a player & a listener, and - having also received formal training as a photographer, this site includes galleries of some of my favorite photos through the years.
I'm originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts growing up in Vero Beach, Florida. I played trumpet and oboe in the high-school band & orchestra, then later studied guitar and (ultimately) bass after graduation. A lot of the early bands I was in were short-lived early-80's rock, jazz & 'fusion' groups like "Oaken Dagger", "Windblade" and "Oasis" (the latter several years before the popular Scottish alt-rock band of the same name). No future in a small town like Vero so around '86 I split for Fort Lauderdale, Florida to study photography at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale (AIFL). While in South Florida, I frequently attended the Hollywood (FL) Jazz Festival and was exposed to and listened to such influential jazz artists as John "Spider" Martin, Nestor Torres, & jazz legends like Stephane Grappelli, Dizzy Gillespie, Eddie Harris and Jaco Pastorius. I earned an Associate's Degree in Photography in 1988 (in those days AIFL was only a 2-year technical college), and as a result music took a back-seat to photography for several years, working in Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Tallahassee before finally settling down in Jacksonville, Florida in 1995.
I still have a great love for photography, though despite my 2-year education & degree I ultimately did not pursue that much of a career in that path. While living in South Florida from 1986 thru most of 1992 (moving to Tallahassee just days before Hurricane Andrew, I might add!) I did score a variety of freelance photo-assignment gigs mainly in the entertainment field: Miami Ice Frolics was a particularly fun gig working with professional figure-skaters, singers, dancers, circus-artists & magicians; I also had a chance to do a few concert-photos in South Florida of the then-just-reunited legendary 60's rock group Lovin' Spoonful which (in 1991) included two of the 4 original members (Joe Butler & Steve Boone). Some of that photography can still be seen in my old VigFoto website.
My re-introduction back to music occurred not long after I relocated to Jacksonville; it was not long after I settled in & went through a variety of technology-related temp-jobs before I finally got a day-job (as an IT "gopher" and help-desk technician) willing to tolerate me in the long term & provide me with enough of a steady income to further my music interests on the side. It was there where I met some guys who were bluegrass-enthusiasts so we formed a band called the River City Pilgrims, and that's when I got my first upright-bass. Actually, that bass was purchased when I was on a road-trip visiting friends & family up in North Carolina. I had it shipped back to Florida, took a few lessons from a local bassist (& UNF-graduate), not to mention additional music-training from Jim Mack. Jim's band was my first real music-gig here in Jax; the guy's a phenomenal drummer & bandleader & I was in his group for about 2-3 years. Played in the Jacksonville Jazz Festival with his band in 2004 & 2005.
Some of my more recent music projects included Legacy (3-6pc. jazz/standards combo), BP Express (oldies & classic rock-n-roll), Class Act (more of the same), The Cheshire Cats (ditto) and Laurence Walden and his Jazz Connection (led by vocalist, bandleader, mixed-media artist & playwright Walden) which specializes in "old school" jazz - his jazz revue dedicated to the legendary vocalist/bandleader Billy Eckstine, Me And Mr. 'B', has won awards in Chicago & elsewhere, and I've gigged with ol' "Blinky" through the years in Jacksonville, Gainesville, FL. and a few other locales.
There were some great cats I jammed & gigged with over the years, including such Jacksonville-area music-notables as saxmen Al Waters, Paul Grant, Richard Payne, Les Wing & Mandy Arter, trumpeters Teddy Washington, Phil Ramirez & Geno Valet, pianists Womack Howard, Angel Garcia, Joshua Bowlus & Eric Moore, flautist Linda Witsell, guitarists John Schaffer, Brian Lyndsey, Noel Glenn, Leo Errico, Pat Goin, Randall Keith (of Alpha Dog) & Calvin Newborn, vocalist-violinist-ukelelist-composer Rebecca Zapen, percussionists Tomas Chavez & Red Martin, drummers Jim Mack, Bruce Royal, Filberto DeJesus, Dave Ametrano & Sam Rodriguez, vocalists Walden, Candace LeSure, Dot Wilder, Angela Charles & Sarah Sanders, and composer/keyboardist Jimmy Glines.
All good grooves, and I hope they continue...
Even more recently I have renewed my interest in photography during a family-visit to western North Carolina at the time of the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017 (the path of totality crossed the entire continental USA on August 21). A 23-minute video slideshow of over 120 of my favorite nature-themed images is currently featured on the home-page of this site, and I hope you enjoy it. Also, there are new galleries on this site of my photography with additional emphasis on nature/wildlife subjects, music & entertainment.
R.I.P. Jimmy Glines, Angela Charles, Mandy Arter, Linda Witsell & Teddy Washington (this bio-page dedicated to their memory)
Bobby Ray's Bass Face is dedicated to the memory of my father.
I'm originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts growing up in Vero Beach, Florida. I played trumpet and oboe in the high-school band & orchestra, then later studied guitar and (ultimately) bass after graduation. A lot of the early bands I was in were short-lived early-80's rock, jazz & 'fusion' groups like "Oaken Dagger", "Windblade" and "Oasis" (the latter several years before the popular Scottish alt-rock band of the same name). No future in a small town like Vero so around '86 I split for Fort Lauderdale, Florida to study photography at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale (AIFL). While in South Florida, I frequently attended the Hollywood (FL) Jazz Festival and was exposed to and listened to such influential jazz artists as John "Spider" Martin, Nestor Torres, & jazz legends like Stephane Grappelli, Dizzy Gillespie, Eddie Harris and Jaco Pastorius. I earned an Associate's Degree in Photography in 1988 (in those days AIFL was only a 2-year technical college), and as a result music took a back-seat to photography for several years, working in Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Tallahassee before finally settling down in Jacksonville, Florida in 1995.
I still have a great love for photography, though despite my 2-year education & degree I ultimately did not pursue that much of a career in that path. While living in South Florida from 1986 thru most of 1992 (moving to Tallahassee just days before Hurricane Andrew, I might add!) I did score a variety of freelance photo-assignment gigs mainly in the entertainment field: Miami Ice Frolics was a particularly fun gig working with professional figure-skaters, singers, dancers, circus-artists & magicians; I also had a chance to do a few concert-photos in South Florida of the then-just-reunited legendary 60's rock group Lovin' Spoonful which (in 1991) included two of the 4 original members (Joe Butler & Steve Boone). Some of that photography can still be seen in my old VigFoto website.
My re-introduction back to music occurred not long after I relocated to Jacksonville; it was not long after I settled in & went through a variety of technology-related temp-jobs before I finally got a day-job (as an IT "gopher" and help-desk technician) willing to tolerate me in the long term & provide me with enough of a steady income to further my music interests on the side. It was there where I met some guys who were bluegrass-enthusiasts so we formed a band called the River City Pilgrims, and that's when I got my first upright-bass. Actually, that bass was purchased when I was on a road-trip visiting friends & family up in North Carolina. I had it shipped back to Florida, took a few lessons from a local bassist (& UNF-graduate), not to mention additional music-training from Jim Mack. Jim's band was my first real music-gig here in Jax; the guy's a phenomenal drummer & bandleader & I was in his group for about 2-3 years. Played in the Jacksonville Jazz Festival with his band in 2004 & 2005.
Some of my more recent music projects included Legacy (3-6pc. jazz/standards combo), BP Express (oldies & classic rock-n-roll), Class Act (more of the same), The Cheshire Cats (ditto) and Laurence Walden and his Jazz Connection (led by vocalist, bandleader, mixed-media artist & playwright Walden) which specializes in "old school" jazz - his jazz revue dedicated to the legendary vocalist/bandleader Billy Eckstine, Me And Mr. 'B', has won awards in Chicago & elsewhere, and I've gigged with ol' "Blinky" through the years in Jacksonville, Gainesville, FL. and a few other locales.
There were some great cats I jammed & gigged with over the years, including such Jacksonville-area music-notables as saxmen Al Waters, Paul Grant, Richard Payne, Les Wing & Mandy Arter, trumpeters Teddy Washington, Phil Ramirez & Geno Valet, pianists Womack Howard, Angel Garcia, Joshua Bowlus & Eric Moore, flautist Linda Witsell, guitarists John Schaffer, Brian Lyndsey, Noel Glenn, Leo Errico, Pat Goin, Randall Keith (of Alpha Dog) & Calvin Newborn, vocalist-violinist-ukelelist-composer Rebecca Zapen, percussionists Tomas Chavez & Red Martin, drummers Jim Mack, Bruce Royal, Filberto DeJesus, Dave Ametrano & Sam Rodriguez, vocalists Walden, Candace LeSure, Dot Wilder, Angela Charles & Sarah Sanders, and composer/keyboardist Jimmy Glines.
All good grooves, and I hope they continue...
Even more recently I have renewed my interest in photography during a family-visit to western North Carolina at the time of the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017 (the path of totality crossed the entire continental USA on August 21). A 23-minute video slideshow of over 120 of my favorite nature-themed images is currently featured on the home-page of this site, and I hope you enjoy it. Also, there are new galleries on this site of my photography with additional emphasis on nature/wildlife subjects, music & entertainment.
R.I.P. Jimmy Glines, Angela Charles, Mandy Arter, Linda Witsell & Teddy Washington (this bio-page dedicated to their memory)
Bobby Ray's Bass Face is dedicated to the memory of my father.
