About Cliff Erickson
Cliff Erickson's musical life started in a junior high school
orchestra in the San Francisco Bay area. He started playing the acoustic
contrabass with a "French bow" at age 12 in 1967, then continued in
high school, and later with all city orchestra, for a total of seven years. He emerged with a basic knowledge of theory and the ability to
write notation. He discovered the genius of Bach and Beethoven, and
later, all periods of classical music, with a particular interest in Scarlatti, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Wagner, Debussy, and Stravinsky, all of whom he still appreciates.
After high school, in 1976, Cliff picked up an electric Fender bass loaned to him from an orchestra friend, and developed an ear for the "ethereal" sound of Moody Blues and Led Zeppelin. In the early eighties Cliff played rock and fusion with an electric bass and started singing, realizing that his voice could be utilized with the three and four piece bands that he was working with (Neon, Livewire, and Forge). He was developing musicianship, inspired by electric bassists such as John Paul Jones, Jack Bruce, James Jamerson and later Jimmy Johnson and of course the great Jaco Pastorius.
In 1982 Cliff became the electric bassist for The Bob Biagi Quartet, an established jazz fusion band with composer and tenor saxophonist Bob Biagi and drummer Steve Mitchell. However, he moved away from the acoustic bass's role in the jazz idiom due to the predictability of the walking or "swing" basslines feeling that more rhythmic or groove-oriented approaches offered more original and creative opportunities.
From that point on Cliff collaborated with numerous bands, projects and musicians, mostly in the rock-fusion genre, such as the exceptional talents of Alex Machacek, Thomas Lang, Gergo Borlai, Michael Barsimanto, Erik Torjesen (Starship), Mark Holzinger (Lost Weekend), Paul Mousavi (Jaco Pastorius), Joe Lococo (Jules Broussard), keyboardist Greg Rahn (Santana), and drummers Chris Sandoval (Steve Cropper), Don Rowlands (Madhouse), and Tommy Kesseker (Larry Vuckovich). Cliff's influences and tastes have developed over the years. He now cites the music of the Dave Holland Quartet/Quintet (in jazz) and Allan Holdsworth (in rock) AS THE BEST IN HIS BOOK.
Email Cliff
cliferik@gmail.com
