Chet Gardiner Music Autobiography

What do Dorothy Morrison, David Maloney, Faith Petric, Fillmore Slim, Jon Fromer, Dave Lippman, Gary U.S. Bonds, The Temptations, John Sebastian, John McCutcheon, Kathy Mattea, Tom Dundee, Sukay, Jimmy Collier, Joe Louis Walker, Chuck Brodsky, Mitch Woods, Frankie Lee, and Lucy Lee have in common? Chet has performed with all of them and many, many others. From beginning on ukulele in the 50s, Rock and Roll lead guitar in the early 60’s, acoustic lead guitar and bass from the 60’s to the present, Rock and Roll, Gospel and Blues bass guitar from the 70’s to the present and Folk-Rock Acoustic guitar and vocals from the 60’s to the present, Chet has been there on stage and in the recording studio through it all and is still rockin’ on. And he can be heard in Hawai’ian now TOO!

1953-1956: All alone in my bedroom in South Carolina, I Taught myself Arthur Godfrey style Ukulele from my dad's chord charts.

1955: I got my first guitar for X'mas. A Gretch Burl Ives Junior 3/4 size instrument that couldn't be fingered above the 4th fret I don't think my mother ever really forgave my grandmother for that.

1958-9: I got out of PE with a very scary PE teacher by hustling over to the band room to begin playing in the Concert and Marching Band and finally the school Dance Band at Radford High School on Oahu Island.

1960-1962: I began playing in a "REAL" band. My dad bought my first really GOOD Playable guitar and amp, a 1961 Gibson SG Special and a Discoverer Tube Amp. (I recent bought a 2019 Gibson '61 SG Standard reissue that was like going back home). We played 50s Rock and Roll. Our first REAL gig was at the Shamrock Bar & Grill in Georgetown, DC. My first bar gig, too young to buy a drink when the age was 18. We auditioned for Ted Mack's Amateur Hour. We didn't get picked and the Amateur Hour was cancelled not long after our audition.

Just before that audition in downtown DC, we recorded ONE 78 RPM record and cut 4 copies, one for each band member. I still have my copy - but nothing to play it on.

1962-3: At the University of Georgia, I played lead guitar in a band called the Vigilantes (named after the airplane, not the evil bad folk) with three fraternity brothers. We played numerous quite well payinf fraternity gigs. During that year I also Sat in on guitar with Gary U.S. Bonds for a couple tunes.

1963-1966: Spent some REAL dead time in College, dropped out, spent some musically dead time but lots of motorcycle riding in Gainesville, FL. No music scene there.

1966-8: I heard rumors of music being played in San Francisco so hitched a ride across country and arrived 1966.

Where to Begin. I learned folk music from the bottom up with 3am breakfast shows at the Lion's Share in Sausalito, started with fingerpicking Dylan on a Gibson SG through a Super Reverb Amp. The other folk singers convinced me to buy an acoustic guitar so I got a 000-28 and began playin sets at the Lion's Share but most of the action and learning was done in the Green Room Jams. Occasionally the owner/bartender would have to ask us to quiet down 'cause they couldn't hear the group on stage. By mid 1967 I was playing lead and singing in a PP&M clone band called That Warm Feeling that played the No Name Bar the night before I got fired from Crocker Bank on Jan 31, 1968. I didn't heed the alarm the next morning.

1969-'72: In early 1967, I met and jammed with Robert Orban at a party in the Redwood City hills. We began recording using Bob's studio level equipment with a 4 track studio set up in my basement. We later moved the gear into Bob's living room in Menlo Park and upgraded the studio from the 4 track Ampex to a 3M 8 track. We recorded over 2 albums worth of material along with demos for my bands.

In 1970, I joked with my wife's pastor about whether the Gospel Choir he was playing drums for needed a bass player. He said, "YEAH!" Ooops, I had to go out rent a bass and begin learning to play it. I ended up getting up to speed rather quickly and played and toured with Voices of Joy until around 1972. When I was playing with the Voices of Joy I was asked at one of our gigs to play bass behind Dorothy Morrison, lead singer of Edwin Hawkin's Singers hit Oh, Happy Day. That is a FUN bass line to play!

In 1970, my brother Steve, Bob and I recorded my brother's version of Leaving on a Jet Plane. Chicken Hirsch added drums and that recording opens side 2 of a compilation vinyl LP released by Numero Group Records in 2022 called "Hits of the 70s".

So is was finally released only 52 years after we recorded it.

1970-1974: I played with a country/folk group called the Hand Band until early 1972. Then I joined Ramesh Markam in a folk duo. Then after Ramesh kinda' broke it up, I found new partner recently arrived from Chicago named Steffie Fuller. I saw her playing solo at the Holy City Zoo, before Robin Willams et al took it over for comedy, and asked if she'd like a sideman. Later we added Kieth Crossan and became Steffie, Chet and Kieth. I also played occasional gigs with Stephen Longfellow Fiske. Steffie, Chet and Kieth just missed playing the Newport Jazz Festival in '74. Then Steffie "changed the lineup" and I wasn't in it any more but Ramesh was. Hmmm. I moved to Eugene, OR.

1974-75: I formed the Oregon Sunshine Band in Eugene Oregon with a very tasty young jazz drummer and an excellent bass player. I spent what felt like 10 long years that one winter in Eugene. When the first drops of rain began to fall in Sept of 1974, I fled back to a blue skies of California.

1975-77: I played a few solo gigs, played on KPFA radio but I burned out in 1977 as a single at the Odyssey in Berkeley playing to what my bass player called "the Cast party of the Night of the Living Dead".

I took 7 years off to be a stay-at-home depressed drunk and part-time cocaine user. That really didn't work out that great.

1984-2004: I cleaned up in '84 and took some (a WHOLE LOT OF) guitar lessons from an outstanding player and teacher Marc Bonilla. WOW! Learned a LOT. I lucked out and got lessons from Marc for $10 an hour. He charges $350 a half hour now.

I began playing again with different folks. After playing in a duo for a while, I met and played off and on for 14 years (1988-2004) with guitar player/singer Jim Passard.

In the late 80s, I got hooked up with the Berkeley/S.F. folk scene and played with numerous other folkies. Among other things, I played bass with the Freedom Song Network led by Jon Fromer, played side man with Faith Petric, played bass for Jimmy Collier at Western Workers Labor Heritage Festivals. In the early 90s I gigged for a while with David Maloney including performances at Kerrville Folk Festival stages and Napa Music Festival. In addition to hanging backstage with folks like Lou Gottleib, David Ray, Rambling Jack Elliot and other, I played main stage at Napa with Tom Dundee one year and a headline set with Peruvian pan pipe band Sukay. I played some gigs with Dave Lippman and some great gigs as sideman with a fine performer from Texas named John Carrick that included Esalon Institute and opening for Jerry Reid at two concerts in Dixon, CA.

At the Strawberry Music Festival in 1987, I camped next to Jim Losee's trailer. We ended up jamming a lot that week and later that year I played in his band for a Marlboro Country Music contest. Over the years, we played a few gigs together and I produced 3 albums with/for him over the years from the late 80s through 2011. Alas, we lost Jim just a month ago.

Another feature of 1998 was playing in a comedy music act, the world's worst bar band called The Four Dudes.

In the 1990s I began producing a lot of CDs for various friends and family.

1988-2002: I played the Freight and Salvage many times with Jim Passard, Chuck Brodsky, The Four Dudes and as a solo Act. Picture below is from 2001.

2004-7: While Living in Oakland, CA, I began jamming on bass with some of the local blues legends. What followed was a wonderful gig backing up the Temptations Motown Review on bass with the Bay Area Blues Society Caravan of All-Stars.

I was Joe Louis Walker's bass player for a while during his early come-back in S.F. We also played behind Frankie Lee, Fillmore Slim and Kenny Neil.

Anyhoo, just as I was catching the wave playing bass with blues heavies, the blues scene in the bay area dried up.

2007: I moved to Tucson, AZ. With Jeff Shad Roberts, I co-founded a rather unique blues band called The Earthlingz. Drums, Bass, Guitar and Electric Violin!

I played folk around town a lot. I played the Tucson Folk Festival numerous times as a solo, sideman with other bands and formed the Chet Gardiner Band with the great Phil Anderson on bass and Randy Omdal on percussion.

I also played bass along with Randy and some others in The Foileros. We played classic rock and Latin music fronted by amazing singer, guitar player Pablo Peregrina. We were also the core of a house band that played Beatles songs live for a music and dance extravaganza at the Zuzi Dance Theater called Come Together in 2010 and 2011.

I moved back home to Hawai'i from Tucson, AZ in early 2014. One Sunday, I tossed my guitar in the trunk and drove up to the Auntie Leona's Pure Kona Green Market in Captain Cook. I encountered Solomon Choo who was set up on the north side of the market playing his music. I asked if it was OK if I sat in with him and thus made my first appearance here on Hawai'i Island. Solomon turned me on to the Farmers Market Circuit in Kona. As a result, I played dozens of wonderful farmers market gigs in Kailua-Kona and Captain Cook as a single performer and for the last few years we've been playing them as Solomon and Chet - then The Uncles. We're currently in "heavy rotation" at the Ho'oulu Community Farmers and Artisans Market at the Outrigger hotel in keauhou every week and often play with Mauka Soul on Sundays at the Pure Kona Market in Captain Cook.

The 2nd group of folks I sat in with at the Pure Kona Market in 2014 were Kalima and his dad Tony with their friend Luis on Congas. I sat in on lead and rhythm guitar or bass. I quickly realized that I needed to learn the Hawai'ian repertoire that they were playing.

So I went on-line and went back to the roots. I studied the slack key masters from Gabby Pahinui through Led Kaapana and glued my car radio to KAPA radio for a couple more years before I felt I "had a clue". Along with HPR, KAPA is still one of my 3 main go to stations.

Over our years of playing together, Kalima and I have developed a special blend between his slack key guitar and my embellishments in standard tuning that served as the soul of Soul. Kalima, Luis and I were eventually joined by Keoki Cortez and morphed into the 2nd Generation of "Mauka Soul". (Kalima and his dad Tony headed up the original Mauka Soul.)

In 2017, I produced our self-titled Mauka Soul CD. Shortly after releasing the CD, I was driving to our gig at Pure Kona on the first Sunday morning that KAPA's "Hawai'i Home Grown" program was on the air and was extremely pleased to hear our version of Ku'u Home O Kahalu'u as the 2nd song ever played on the show! In addition to some major gigs on the island, the original four of us played nearly every other week at Leona's Pure Kona Market until Covid hit.

In April of 2018, Solomon and I got together in my home studio and recorded the songs on our Hawai'ian Style CD live over a couple of afternoons.

To fill in the time during Covid, I recorded The Covid Years, 19 songs that includes a lot of Solomon on guitar and harmonica.

Since things re-opened again after Covid, Kalima, Luis and I have been joined by Solomon Choo and an outstanding drummer John Yoeman. We have become the "House Band" at the Pure Kona Market in Captain Cook and are usually playing there every other Sunday. Alas, Keoki has moved to the other side of the island!

In 2022, Solomon and I hooked up with road warrior Steve Kida on drums and then we morphed into The Uncles. Steve toured with We Five back in the day, played tons of club gigs and recordings in L.A. as well as touring often with Canned Heat. He added tremendous, steady tempo to the act. We have added guitarist Marty Kossoff when he's on island to build the New Improved (louder?) Uncles.

In Oct of 2022, The four of us played our first "Electric" gig opening for former Steve Miller Guitarist Greg Douglas last October at Tiki Mama in Ocean View, HI.