RHONDA SMITH says she gets the comment “You are so tiny to be a bass player” whenever people ask what her profession is.
She is not only a gifted bass player but also an outstanding vocalist and songwriter.
The Saturday Sun caught up with the artiste, in Barbados for the Sugar Isle Jazz Festival, as she relaxed before lunch at Southern Palms Hotel last Friday.
The self-taught musician, who has played from smoky nightclubs to concert halls and in garage bands, sparkles in several genres of music, including smooth jazz/funk and electrified funk/rock.
Her start in the music business can be attributed to her being nosy. “My brother at 12 years old brought home a bass and told me not to touch it,” she said.
She touched it and at age 11 was bitten by the bass bug.
With no lessons or formal training, she has honed her guitar skills that have led her to play with Sheila E in a band called Co-ed, with Chaka Khan, to be part of the musical promo for Beyoncé’s movie Austin Powers and to be in the backing band for the legendary Jeff Beck for the past two years.
And she was part of the ensemble that backed Prince and Beyoncé when they opened the 2004 Grammy Awards.
Speaking of Prince, Rhonda toured with the legendary “Purple Majesty“ exclusively for 12 years.
Rhonda will be part of an all-star cast tomorrow that includes the prolific Mo Pleasure at the finale of the Jazz Festival at the Wildey Gymnasium.
This is her second time here and she has also visited Jamaica for its jazz festival.
“I have worked with tons of people,” Rhonda says.
Prince has “a stringent work ethic that to be part of his cast artistic perfection is non-negotiable”, she says.
She related how her contact was passed to Prince by Sheila E. A few months passed and there was no call.
“I thought he wasn’t going to call . . . ,” she remarked. “But thankfully he did. I flew up to Paisley Park and my audition was basically a jam session with him and a drummer. Suffice it to say, he liked what he heard. The same day he had me in the studio recording bass parts on the Emancipation album.”
Rhonda released her debut record Intellipop in 2000 and her sophomore CD RS2 has a guest appearance by Prince.
“My approach to music is always 110 per cent and I love to play and write about what I feel at that moment and let what comes out of me come out and I hope that people dig it,” she said.
It’s no surprise that the ambitious musician with a storied career spanning more than two decades comes from a musical family. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the oldest black community in Canada, she and her family moved to French and jazz-influenced Montreal while she was a child.
There she was surrounded by the sounds of the piano, her mother’s instrument of choice, as well as a lot of rock & roll. Her three brothers are also musically inclined.
Rhonda attended McGill University in Montreal where she studied jazz performance. While at McGill, she began touring Canada with different rock groups, usually as the sole female artiste.
She won a coveted Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy) for Best Contemporary Jazz Album for her work with Jim Hillman and The Merlin Factor.
Since she went to the United States, Rhonda’s resume has read like a Who’s Who of the music industry. In addition to her work with Prince, she has performed with T.I., Erykah Badu, Patti Austin, Brenda Russell, Lee Ritenour, Larry Graham, Patti Labelle, Little Richard, Justin Timberlake, Najee, Candy Dulfer, Kirk Whalum and George Clinton.
Engaged to a musician, Rhonda says it’s a “struggle” to find places to do the “type of music that we like to play” in her hometown, adding that there are great clubs but not the ones she wants to play in.
Rhonda is no stranger to the camera either. She has been featured in numerous music videos, appeared on the covers of Bass Player and Bassics magazines and even some tv shows. She also has three Platinum Plaques on her wall.
Her instrument of choice is a Fender guitar but she is using a new bass – Xotic, from a Japanese company.
“It’s a little heavy but it’s great so far. I have used it in studio a lot but want to tweak it so I brought it here for the show,” she said.
When she gets back to her home in California, Rhonda will be in the studio with her own band finishing her third record. She also has a gig with piano player Patrice Rushen which she is excited about.
But for tomorrow, Rhonda says look out for her making beautiful music that will not only echo in the Wildey Gymnasium but also in people’s hearts.
