Growing up in St. Petersburg, Florida, Cedric's passion for music
began when he was a child. He started out playing drums in the school band and
did so throughout his elementary and high school years. Although he learned a
lot technically about music in school, he relates that his most significant
musical development originated amidst his "garage band" experience when he and
his musical friends would gather at his house for jam sessions. He looks back on
this time in his life as being “huge” in his development. The jam sessions were
not bound by any musical borders; they embraced the full musical dimension of
their time and place. They played R&B, Rock, Fusion and Jazz. They particularly
tapped into the essence of the funk and played the music of groups like the
Parliament Funkadelic and the Ohio Players. “Those teen years were a
mystical, magical and musically fun time; I also picked up guitar around that
time.” This is when he learned how to groove and play as a unit he recalls.
"Playing well was not a big deal; all the guys in the circle were great
players". All the guys I jammed with loved music and strived to get better.
During these jam sessions people in the neighborhood brought their chairs to the
house to sit and "dig the music". In hindsight the guys never really understood
what musical prodigies they were. “We all pretty much stayed in this mode
throughout high school playing with each other and other bands around town.”
After graduating from high school, Cedric attended college at Florida A&M
University in Tallahassee, FL where he obtained a degree in Business. His
college years were markedly different musically because he was not immersed in
the music culture. While not actively playing in a band, he honed guitar skills
and began and to write songs. Periodically he would play guitar with his Alpha
Phi Alpha fraternity brothers for campus events. In fact, no one even knew that
he played drums although that was his primary instrument of choice. Cedric said
he wrote a number of the songs that would end up on future recordings with the
bands
Nemesis Bleu &
N-Groove while in college.
Out of college, Cedric returned to St. Petersburg. As chance or
fate would have it, Cedric crossed paths with guitarist
Roberto Tyson. They had not seen each other since they played together on
weekends during their "garage band" days. The two talked and connected again
musically. They agreed to write songs together and embarked on putting their
first recording project together. During this period Cedric taught himself piano
out of necessity. The piano became the foundation for much of his songwriting
and he performs much of the background keyboard work on his recordings to this
day.
Nemesis Bleu was the band that Cedric & Roberto formed. The other
musical collaborators in the band were Vernon and Derrick Burrell (the Burrell
Brothers) and vocalist Marcy Hamilton. Through this association, the musical
vibe was heightened as band began to work together on what would become the
Imagination CD. This project was Cedric’s introduction to music production.
Cedric said that this phase became a time of "mutual mentoring" on the part of
he and Vernon as they worked through the processes needed to see their joint
venture come to life. Cedric said the band creatively worked like two different
groups because each faction brought their own songs to the project. It was great
from a learning standpoint but it would eventually lead to the bands demise.
Imagination was released and received critical acclaim but the
group soon disbanded due to creative differences. The silver lining in the saga
was that several key relationships were born from the imagination project that
further advanced Cedric’s development as an artist and producer. One was
Cedric’s relationship with
Gumbi Ortiz who is guitar legend
Al DiMeola’s long time percussionist and the other was
George Davis who is best known as a songwriter for the song “Tell it like it
is.” Gumbi played percussion on the Imagination CD, “He really liked my stuff
and always encouraged me to produce and release my own music independently”. It
was a huge confidence builder coming from someone of his stature. George Davis
mentored Cedric on the business side of the industry. The two met while doing
some work on independent film project. “George really taught me the value of
building a catalog and maintaining the rights to your works” he recalls. In both
cases the gentlemen fostered a number of industry relationships that expanded
Cedric’s network of contacts significantly.
After the Nemesis Bleu Imagination project had run its course
Cedric went on hiatus for a few years. “I wore too many hats and burned out on
the business altogether”. He relocated to the Washington, D.C. area and really
didn’t do anything musically for a while.
Cedric got the spark again after having an opportunity to sit in on
stage with musical giant
George Duke. “That experience was catalyst for me to get back in the game
because of the admiration I had for him as an artist. That experience was a
blast. I felt I needed to go create my own legacy with my music.” He reached
out again to his old friend Roberto Tyson to collaborate with him on the new
project. Roberto relocated to D.C. and they began developing new material for
what would become the “It’s who we are” CD.
A new element was introduced into the writing with Senegalese
bassist
Cheikh Ndoye whom Roberto had met at a jazz band competition. “Cheikh and I
became great friends as well as collaborators, we really respected each other’s
musical ideas”, Cedric recalls. Cedric rebranded this next musical incarnation
as the group N-Groove. This time all of the writing stayed within the nucleus of
the trio. A cast of outstanding sidemen such as
Al Williams III and
Benito Gonzales were brought in to bring the musical concepts to life.
Cedric produced, performed on and engineered the project. The project was
released to rave reviews, radio airplay and garnered Grammy consideration. A
couple of the songs from the It’s Who We Are CD went on to be featured in the
independent films
Painted Smiles and
Clean Mic: Laughing until it hurts.
Cedric is currently working on the next N-Groove CD where he
revisits his R&B and Funk roots. “I’m really excited about the writing this go
around. I want the messages on this release to be timely and relevant. I want
the music to be organic. I want the grooves to be heartfelt”.
|
|