The Musical Experiences of Rhan Wilson

Rhan Wilson grew up in Santa Cruz, CA and has performed with such locals as Tammi Brown, Matt Bohn, Jimmy Norris, The Great Morgani, Ukulele Dick, Pipa Piñon, Daniel Lewis, Gary Regina, Erin Schwartz, Bob Burnett, Pete Coates and Max Drake as well as many others for the past thirty plus years.

In 1989 he started the publication MASC (Music and Art Santa Cruz), a monthly which covered local music and art and featured interviews with local groups. The October earthquake brought about the end of the publication, but not before a noticeable shift took place in local music coverage. At least one MASC knock-off briefly surfaced, but fell short in it's commitment to local arts and music.

In 1992 Rhan made the short move to San Francisco where he began playing percussion with the group Haunted By Waters, which featured other Santa Cruz locals including David Hannibal, Cait McWhir and Greg Stone. The group's CD, "Like The Dust" achieved national distribution and widespread air play.

Soon establishing himself in the SF music scene, Rhan appeared by invitation with Zakir Hussain, Pete and Sheila Escovedo, Michael Shrieve, Baba Olatunji, Mickey Hart and the rest of the surviving members of the Grateful Dead for the Polo Field Memorial for Jerry Garcia. People Magazine, The Grateful Dead Almanac, Rolling Stone Magazine, and the hardback book "Garcia" were among those publishing photos of Rhan's performance.

David Gans' book entitled, "The Online World Remembers Jerry Garcia" included Rhan's written account of the event entitled, " "My View From The Stage".

Shortly thereafter, Rhan began working with the group THOTH as a backup drummer. When THOTH's main percussionist left, Rhan became principal percussionist, playing a "kit" comprised of djembes, bongos, kick drum, misc cymbals, shakers, a tympani-style rototom, and assorted noisemakers.
Together, Rhan and violinist THOTH toured the West coast to a loyal following before eventually parting ways to allow THOTH to move to New York.

Continuing his role as producer, he recently completed the CD "Little Lanikai" (2007) for California based singer-songwriter Celina Gutierrez, cuts from which have been played regularly on stations KZSC and KAPU.

Rhan can also be heard on Bob Burnett's new CD, "When You Hear Music" also released in the fall of 2007.

INSTRUMENTS

Thanks to a couple of great music teachers from Junior and Senior High Schools, I was able to borrow and learn to play any and all instruments I could get my hands on. Violin, cello, clarinet, trumpet, timpani... I tried as many as I could, and in time settled down to focus on a few in particular:

Ukulele - Who would have thought that I would fall in love with this little four stringed instrument? Not me, but here I am playing several times a month: teaching and performing, recording and producing.

Guitar - I began playing the guitar when I was eight years old. I still have the old steel string acoustic my father handed down to me when I began. I learned to read music right away, a skill I am thankful for learning. I have studied flatpicking, fingerpicking, blues, jazz, you name it. I love it all.

Percussion - Djembe, congas, bongos, tabla (Ali Akbar Khan College of Music), and a host of miscelleneous hand percussion. At the age of fifteen, my mother gave me my first conga drum (a "quinto" which I still have). Having been brought up with Latin American music, I easily picked up the feel for this style of playing. Behind my house was a studio where a local salsa band practiced. Whenever I heard them playing, I grabbed my drum and went over there, eager for them to show me how to play. They did teach me often, instilling a strong sense of rhythm in me. Two of those musicians were/are Dennis Broughton and Michael Spiro, who have quite a reputation amongst percussionists from all over. In addition to collecting instruments that I find here and there, I am also utilizing recycled materials to create rhythm makers and hope to encourage others to do the same!

Fretless Bass - I started playing bass originally because at the time, the group I was forming needed a bass player more than a guitar player. Since then, however, I have grown quite attatched to the bass, play it a lot, and have recorded with it several times.

Keyboards - My keyboard playing is mostly for texture and rhythm, though I have developed a certain solo style. I tried to learn to read both bass clef and treble clef, in order to play and sightread classical music, but I found it a bit too involved to master entirely. Someday perhaps.