Canadian Musician - September-October 2022 | Page 56

EON SINCLAIR OF BEDOUIN SOUNDCLASH

On his Japanese-made Pan Jazz bass
In 1974 , my father Eon ( yes , that ’ s correct ) landed in Toronto after leaving his home in Berbice , Guyana at the age of 19 . After settling in , he found employment and joined the workforce as soon as he possibly could . Being a record-collecting family DJ and music lover , he thought he might pass the time in between shifts learning his favourite instrument , the electric bass , to play his reggae , soul and soca . Then he met a lovely young lady named Marilyn from Friendship Village , Guyana , and they got married in 1978 . He bought an electric bass sometime in 1979 , and managed to take about four lessons while working on his career and their young partnership and marriage . A year later , the two decided to conceive , leading the newlyweds
to dedicate themselves to work and higher education . Eon Sr . put the bass away . Soon thereafter , they had a son they named Eon Jr ., their first of two boys . The bass stayed and moved with the family the entire time from Toronto to Pickering , and across Pickering , but was never played for years .
Fast forward to my grade seven year , where all students had the opportunity to audition to play the electric bass guitar . Not fully enjoying the alto sax , I told my dad and we unearthed his Japanese-made Pan Jazz , a Fender knock-off with black nylon flatwound strings with Mel Bay theory books in the case . I learned eight scales to get an advantage for my audition ... and it worked ! My teacher gave me the position , and I never let it go .
It has been 25 years since my first experience playing that bass guitar , and I ( we ) still own and cherish that bass . It ’ s my favourite because it connects a personal family history with my
present career and whenever I play it , things flow easily . When I met Jay [ Malinowski ], it was the bass I was playing when he knocked on the door and brought
his acoustic guitar over to play . It ’ s also the bass that I wrote and recorded the entire Root Fire album with , so you can check out our debut to hear the tones !
PHOTO : EON SINCLAIR SR .

JAY DOUGLAS

On his Neumann U 87 Ai microphone
My favorite piece of gear is my Neumann U 87 microphone . It ’ s highly sensitive , so it works well for me for when I sing softer . I come through crystal clear and if I step back a bit to belt out a louder phrase , it picks it up perfectly with no distortion . There ’ s a warmth that it gives to my voice that cannot be reproduced . One of my heroes , Ray Charles , used that mic on a lot of recordings , and Stevie uses it too . What I really like about it is that it picks up the character of my voice and brings it out with a kind of richness that takes the listener right into my story . A lot of those rock artists have been using them for years and even in hip-hop and rap . The model I have is a U 87 Ai , which came out in the late ‘ 60s .
56 CANADIAN MUSICIAN