Doin' It My Way by Lasimmo

As you will notice on their websites, Doug and Lisa have done work for many renowned musical artists.

Now! The Road:

In July 1952 at age10, I left my paradise-like native island of Trinidad, West Indies to reunite with my parents in the bustling big city of Detroit, Michigan USA. Dad left in 1949 to get a foothold and Mom joined him a year later. Trinidad is where calypso music and steel drum music were originated. As you may have guessed, I am definitely dual-cultured now. Though it was extremely tough being repatriated, the move to Detroit afforded my siblings and me a special gift that we never would have received otherwise---personal interaction with future celebrities. Bear in mind that although the memories I will pen are vivid to me, they may not be so to the celebrities.

In 1953, I attended Crossman elementary school where Freda Payne (future singer of “Band Of Gold”) sat directly in front of me. She was cute, but her hair always seemed to be uncombed. Back then I had a thing for girls’ hair to look neat. Not so anymore! Lately, I’ve seen Freda perform on the oft-televised “Doo Wop” reviews, and now she’s soooo…sexy!!!!! As an interesting aside, I couldn’t remember how to spell Crossman (one ess or two), so I did an advanced Google search on the web to show only items that included the words “Crossman” and “Detroit”. The very first item that emerged was an interview with Lily Tomlin as she returned to the Fisher Theatre in Detroit with her show “The Search For Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe.” I wondered: What in the world does Lily Tomlin have to do with any article containing those two words? The answer came when I read the following excerpt:

Q: You were born right in the heart of Detroit. You went to Crossman Elementary, Hutchins Junior High and Cass Tech, where you were captain of the cheerleading team. What are some of your memories of the city back then?

A: I grew up on Hazelwood, between Byron and Woodrow Wilson, near John C. Lodge and Clairmount in the old neighborhood that burned down in the '67 riots. My old apartment house got gutted by fire and later it was torn down. My dad used to hang out on 12th Street, and I'd go to the bookie joints and bars with him. I was very socially conscious as a kid growing up in my neighborhood, which was a predominantly black neighborhood.

I was truly taken aback! I couldn’t believe that after all the years of seeing her on national TV, and in movies, that she lived on the next street over from me, between the same cross streets, and that we attended Hutchins junior high school at the same time. Approximately my age, Lily is a comedienne that is famous for her impression of Ernestine (a 1920s snorting telephone operator) on the once very popular Rowan & Martin's “Laugh-in” TV show.

While at Hutchins, I played basketball on the school playground almost every evening after school with two of the future Temptations: Otis Williams (originally Otis Miles and group leader and organizer) and Melvin Franklin (original bass singer). I was assigned to homeroom 223 and Melvin and Otis were across the hall in 224. I had no idea that they would be so famous. We lived on the corner house of Atkinson Street and the newly constructed John C. Lodge expressway. Barrett Strong lived on Atkinson also, but a block and a half away. He knew I had a heartthrob for his sister, Carolyn. Following his first & signature recording hit “Money,” Barrett eventually became a prime figure at Motown. He wrote many of the Temptations’ songs and for many other Motown artists.

My music involvement did not begin until 1958 when I joined my high school chorus at Wilbur Wright (now Murray Wright). There is a picture of me in either the 1958 or 1959 yearbook holding a xylophone and standing next to Brian Holland of the now renowned Motown song-writing team “Holland-Dozier-Holland.” Before I left Detroit in 1983 to relocate in Miami, Florida (the climate and scenery reminded me of Trinidad), I packed the yearbook and some other important memorabilia in a footlocker and placed it in a storage facility up there. When I eventually attempted to retrieve it, the facility no longer existed. Brian’s older brother, Eddie Holland (whom I never met) graduated from the same school a full year before I arrived there. Later, following the trend of Detroit youngsters, I started singing doo-wop with a quartet (I can’t remember if we ever gave the group a name). Geraldine Ashford, one of our members, is the older sister of Rosalind Ashford (a member of “Martha and the Vandellas”). I remember our group denying Rosalind her request to join us because we considered her too young. Our bad!!

While Motown Was Still In Its Embryo Stage

In late1959, my father decided that I was spending too much of my leisure time with the wrong crowd and he enlisted me in the U.S. Air Force. I did not start playing a musical instrument until 1963 after I found myself alone with a piano in the airmen’s club on Spangdahlem Air Base in West Germany where I was stationed. Since then, I’ve taught myself to read music and play the piano. Of course, a true musician knows that he/she can never stop learning about music and that the field can never be truly mastered.

When I returned to Detroit after my 6-year stint in the Air Force, I realized that Barrett Strong did not forget me. As he exited his car while I was entering Maul’s nightclub on Joy Road to see Dennis Edwards perform with his band (Dennis eventually replaced David Ruffin as a lead singer with the Temptations), he called my name. I told him how popular his song “Money” was in Germany and in Biloxi, Mississippi (Keesler Air Force Base was my first assignment). He shrugged and said something like “That old thing…” and then mentioned his new role of writing music for Motown.

Since then, and while working regular nine-to-fives, I’ve played keyboards with “Noble Wilson’s Caribbean Calypsos” band at the Michigan State Fair, bass drums with “Universal Steel Orchestra” in several U.S. cities, and keyboards with “The Force Band” at popular night spots in Miami like the “Clevelander” hotel on South Beach, “Sundays On The Bay” on Key Biscayne, and the “Pier House Inn” on North Beach. But never able to do what I’ve always really wanted to do.

Thanks to today’s technology, I have my first opportunity to play, record, edit, mix and place on CD some of the songs I like. It allows me to do all these things by myself in the privacy of my own home. It didn’t take long to realize that switching from musician-to-engineer-to-producer requires a lot of right-brain to left-brain coordination, and can be very frustrating at times. Nevertheless, I felt like a young boy with a new toy. For this reason, I apologize in advance if any of the songs disappoint you. I am not sure that what you will hear is truly the musical style or genre I will pursue in the future, but the songs are simply tunes I like that entered my mind while playing with my new toy for the first time.

The toy is a virtual home music studio composed of:

- A BR-1600 CD Digital Recording Studio made by BOSS (along with the wide variety of drum beats to select from, I can create my own)

- A Behringer B2 Pro microphone for vocals

- The SONAR 6 Producer Edition (a virtual studio made by Cakewalk for editing and mixing audio sound tracks)

- A high-tech computer to run the virtual studio ([Sytemax with AMD Athlon 64 processor 3200+] 2.00 GHz, 1.00 GB ram)

- And most importantly, a KORG Triton 88-key keyboard workstation. Read on!

With the exception of the vocal renditions, the Korg workstation is the source of all tones you hear on the CD. It looks like a regular electronic piano, but with its computerized insides, it does much more. For example, the actual sounds of drums, bass, horns, violins, etc. can be sampled into the keyboard and when the keys are played, the tones of the sampled instruments are heard instead of tones indigenous to a piano or synthesizer. That is how I am able to act as a one-man band or orchestra as needed. Of course, the ability to play a piano is essential. Separate sound tracks are created for each instrument played. All tracks are then meticulously edited as needed. The final step is to mix each track carefully to taste i.e., kick drum is too loud, take the sax volume up a little…etc. For an in-depth look at how it’s all done, see the video “The Making Of "Doin' It My Way".”

At the risk of seeming pompous, I must mention that the styling and playing of all tunes on the CD were done solely by me. I was not trying to be selfish, but with so many instruments at my disposal in the workstation, I had to see what I could create musically without the participation of other musicians. I also must mention that others composed all of the songs on the CD. However, I got the required permissions and I enjoyed applying my own style to each. I know that my vocalizations would never get me in as a contestant on “American Idol” but I don’t think you would throw tomatoes at me either. My next CD will consist of all original compositions. I currently have six ready for tweaking and many other ideas musically noted and pending development.

All artists appreciate reviews (good or bad) and I am no exception. The bottom of this page offers you that opportunity and believe me, feedback like that would help me enormously in future projects.

I constantly feel that my musical abilities should be much more advanced, but I thank God for the amount that I have. It brings me great joy, and my hope is that others will appreciate some of the music I produce.

Thanks for reading, and ENJOY!

LASIMMO (La-sim-mo)

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