<Begin Segment 13>

Tom Izu: And I wanted to ask you, so you were, you were exposed to, you were really into music and it seemed like your parents thought that was okay. You were exposed to a certain kind of popular music when you were in junior high, African American music, then you got exposed to rock and roll. Did your parents expose you to Japanese music at the time, and what was going on with that, like your brothers and your family, when you listened at home and with your friends at school?

RH: Well, my father and my mother, actually, they both loved to listen to the old Japanese folk songs, and so they had a collection of records that they, they would like to listen to, so, but they knew that was something they would just do. And so it wasn't, like, pushed on us that we had to really get involved with that, and it was also interesting, too, because my father, maybe because he worked at Bethlehem Steel, and I never could quite figure out why, but he was really into country western music, which I hated. [Laughs] I never got into that, but he would love the country western stuff, and I think it was basically because the guys he worked with at the steel mill were all, that's what they listened to and what they talked about, and so he would buy these, the early country western star stuff, so he would play that at home. Actually, my older brothers were getting, they were more into, when, they were starting to listen to, naturally, the Beatles and there was all the folk stuff like Peter, Paul and Mary, the Kingston Trio and all this kind of stuff. They were following all that kind of music early on, and so, and I was, so that's what my experience of learning music or experiencing was the Japanese traditional folk music and stuff and some of the pre World War II stuff, which was kind of very military sounding type of stuff when you listened to that music, because it was all kind of pro Japan type of stuff, and then actually the Japanese folk songs, something else too, which goes back dated much earlier, but, and then my father doing his country western stuff, and then what I would be hearing in, in school. In junior high school, one of my teachers that came into the school was, he just arrived coming out of college, so he was a very young guy and he was really into jazz and stuff, so he's one that really kind of mentored me learning more about that genre of music, what jazz meant, and so he would take me and show me, take me into other classes or get me involved in other programs or more jazz related stuff, and I studied privately with him for a while, too, both the trombone and piano. And so he was a very strong mentor for me. They call him Dr. Bill. His name is William Bell, Bill Bell, and he still plays in the area. You'll still see him playing in the area in different clubs and stuff. He's taught at Stanford, long time teacher at Laney College and Meritt College on the Oakland side.

TI: That's really interesting, because as a musician you're being exposed to lots of different types of music, from Japanese to soul to rock to country western, jazz, so that's...

RH: Right.

TI: And were you consciously listening to all these different types of music, in terms of the differences and, and what you liked and didn't like?

RH: Yeah, and when I, especially started high school, when I really started doing, playing more music, my, I was fortunate, I had some really great teachers who really tried to encourage me and just kind of push me by gettin' me out there to do stuff, so, but when I started just playing more I just really was trying to check out a lot of different things, and just in our neighborhood, naturally, too, just hearing different kind of stuff that was going on. So I was, I'm, I was really into the R&B, the soul stuff, so like the Temptations or Four Tops, the Supremes, all that kind of, that's kind of the music I really grew up listening to a lot of that, along with the jazz stuff I was hearing on top of that.

TI: So in high school, if people asked you, "Roy, so what music do you like best?" it'd be more R&B, would that be...

RH: Right, that would be, that would be the first thing I would say, yes. And, although the music I was playing most actively was more classical because in school I was playing in, like, the symphony orchestra and I was in, during high school at, by my senior year I was playing, like, in three different orchestras in, in the, in different kind of youth orchestras in the Bay Area.

Tom Izu: What kind of instrument? You weren't trombone anymore?

RH: Just trombone, yeah, basically still at that point. So, and so I was really kind of into it, because there was the Berkeley Youth Symphony, I was part of that and our high school thing, and there was, actually was sitting in with the Holy Names College Symphony, with them, so I was able to get out there and do a lot of different things. And on occasion, there would be other kinds of stuff I'd try and, get to try out and do stuff. Some of the guys I grew up with in, like, junior high school, some of the musicians from them, they kind of went off on their own track, and so I wasn't able to stay connected with them altogether, but kind of knew them in field. Some of them got into more the R&B and the early soul music stuff. Couple of 'em had a little bit tough time, unfortunately, too, in music, just the lifestyle they got involved with, unfortunately. Couple guys I knew were involved with, like, beginning of the Sly, Sly Stone band, you know, Larry Graham's band after that, so just doing that whole scene for a while, too.

TI: Well I was thinking, where you grew up, too, I mean, I'm a big Tower of Power fan in terms of the horn section.

RH: Right.

TI: And I was thinking that came out of Oakland.

RH: Right. So I was really into that kind of music and sound, so Blood, Sweat & Tears, Tower of Power, Chicago, all that stuff was kind of developing, like you said, a real strong horn section, but really kind of jazz influenced along with the R&B backing, and so I was really interested in all that kind of stuff, too.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.