Have bass, will travel: ‘Fuzz’ Samuel’s path from Antigua to Erie includes worldwide stops
John Chacona, Special to the Erie Times-News
USA TODAY NETWORK
While exchanging small talk before a videoconference interview, the distinguished- looking interview subject squinted at the small image on his screen while the woman at his left asked the two adorable, school-age children buzzing around her to play quietly upstairs.
“I like your shirt,” he said of a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt worn by his interviewer. “You know, I played with him. He was the shyest man you’d ever meet,” the man said, a fond smile stretching his kindly face. “Until you put a guitar in his hands. Then he was a lion!”
There was little clue that the man basking in the affection of his wife and children on the day before Father’s Day in the basement of a Millcreek Township townhouse was a member of one of rock ’n’ roll’s original supergroups, a lion of the electric bass.
He is Calvin “Fuzz” Samuel and he toured the world with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, America and Tumblin’ Dice, the band formed by alumni of the Rolling Stones, among other artists.
Like every musician, Samuel has dozens of road stories, but the saga of how a man who once played with Jimi Hendrix settled into the quiet contentment of suburban fatherhood is hard to beat.
Starting in the Caribbean
Samuel, 74, was born on Antigua, a former British colony in the Caribbean. As a kid, Samuel begged his mother to buy him a guitar. She did, but with no one to teach him how to play, Samuel copied the music he heard on his mother’s records by Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran and especially Buddy Holly. When the family moved to the north London town of Tottenham in 1961, Samuel fell in with musical neighbors such as Eddy Grant (“Electric Avenue”), Carl Douglas (“Kung Fu Fighting”) and Junior Marvin, who eventually joined Bob Marley’s Wailers.
Still a teenager, Samuel, started playing paying gigs.
“I would put cork on my heels to make me look taller and wear long pants to cover them so I could get in the clubs,” he said. The ruse worked and the bands formed by Samuel and his fellow West Indian musicians were suddenly in de-
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John Chacona, Special to the Erie Times-News
USA TODAY NETWORK
While exchanging small talk before a videoconference interview, the distinguished- looking interview subject squinted at the small image on his screen while the woman at his left asked the two adorable, school-age children buzzing around her to play quietly upstairs.
“I like your shirt,” he said of a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt worn by his interviewer. “You know, I played with him. He was the shyest man you’d ever meet,” the man said, a fond smile stretching his kindly face. “Until you put a guitar in his hands. Then he was a lion!”
There was little clue that the man basking in the affection of his wife and children on the day before Father’s Day in the basement of a Millcreek Township townhouse was a member of one of rock ’n’ roll’s original supergroups, a lion of the electric bass.
He is Calvin “Fuzz” Samuel and he toured the world with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, America and Tumblin’ Dice, the band formed by alumni of the Rolling Stones, among other artists.
Like every musician, Samuel has dozens of road stories, but the saga of how a man who once played with Jimi Hendrix settled into the quiet contentment of suburban fatherhood is hard to beat.
Starting in the Caribbean
Samuel, 74, was born on Antigua, a former British colony in the Caribbean. As a kid, Samuel begged his mother to buy him a guitar. She did, but with no one to teach him how to play, Samuel copied the music he heard on his mother’s records by Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran and especially Buddy Holly. When the family moved to the north London town of Tottenham in 1961, Samuel fell in with musical neighbors such as Eddy Grant (“Electric Avenue”), Carl Douglas (“Kung Fu Fighting”) and Junior Marvin, who eventually joined Bob Marley’s Wailers.
Still a teenager, Samuel, started playing paying gigs.
“I would put cork on my heels to make me look taller and wear long pants to cover them so I could get in the clubs,” he said. The ruse worked and the bands formed by Samuel and his fellow West Indian musicians were suddenly in de-
Continued on next page
mand. In one of them, Samuel added a psychedelic flavor playing through a distortion pedal that added a fuzzy sound to his bass and a memorable sobriquet to his name, although now Samuel prefers “Fuzz” over “Fuzzy.”
It was in this period that he met Hendrix at a London pub favored by musicians.
“I saw a fuzzy-haired guy and he bought me drinks,” Samuel said. “Six months later, when I was playing in R&B bands, I saw the same guy. He was playing in a town 50 miles away and he asked us to open for him. In the old days, the opening band played after the major act, but when he finished playing, we put our equipment in the car and went back to London with no money. No one had ever seen a Black guy play guitar like that.”
In January 1970, he would see Hendrix again, while the guitarist was recording Stephen Stills’ debut solo album at London’s Island Studios.
“I was basically homeless at the time and sleeping in the studio,” Samuel said.
After hearing him play, Stills hired Samuel for the record. That’s him putting the bounce into “Love the One You’re With.”
Five months later, when Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young sacked their bass player, Stills flew Samuel in from London. His first recording was the band’s hit “Ohio.”
Samuel brought to a rock rhythm section a unique style that extended beyond music.
“Fuzzy had the bowler hat and the striped shirts and the vest. Fuzzy was cool,” said Tom Semioli, creator of the website KnowYourBassPlayer.com and a bassist himself. “And Fuzzy came along with more of an R&B and reggae feel, which was really opposite to what players like Chris Squire and Jack Bruce were doing.”
That approach came from years of playing behind strong vocalists.
“You have the notes, but if the notes are going with the somebody singing, the vocal is not going to come out,” Samuel said. “So you have to be unselfish and play so simple that it’s scary.”
By the late ‘70s, CSN&Y had dissolved and musical tastes began to change. Samuel’s career took on a lower profile and touring became less enjoyable. He settled in a number of places, including Miami, Cleveland and, eventually, in Dayton, Ohio, with his wife, Andrani Rosalila Samuel. He played around western Ohio and one of the gigs landed on YouTube where Erie bassist Steve Trohoske found it.
He had long been a fan of Samuel’s work on record. Inspired, he called a friend in Ohio and got Samuel’s number.
“We started a friendship,” Trohoske said. “I invited him to play and said, ‘Bring your family up.’ We had a great gig. We did the funkiest version of (The Beatles’) ‘Eleanor Rigby’ I’ve ever played. He’s just filled with songs.”
The two bass players also took a lakefront walk on Erie’s east side.
“He just fell in love with the place,” Trohoske said. “He told me, ‘The lake reminds me of an ocean.’”
Learning that Samuel and his family were not happy in Dayton, Trohoske engineered a move to Erie. A fellow Erie musician, guitarist Mike Russo, found a Millcreek townhouse and helped to move the Samuel family into their new home in 2021.
“Since we’ve been here, we’ve met some of the nicest people who helped us along the way,” Samuel said. “It’s a good place for our kids. We have something that I’ve never had before.”
Samuel hasn’t stopped playing. He’s formed a band, West Indian Revelation, with his wife on vocals and the One World Tribe rhythm section of Kennedy Thompson, Mike Chin and Brad Amidon. They’ll play at the AmeriMasala festival July 23 and they have a recording set for release.
But family life comes first. Of his young family, Samuel said, “It’s the best thing I ever did,” his face glowing with contentment. “It saved my life because, without it, I would have been a wandering soul. What I saw was happiness. Kids give you a reason to be. I understand them and they understand me and we share life together. Basically we found a place called home.”
It was in this period that he met Hendrix at a London pub favored by musicians.
“I saw a fuzzy-haired guy and he bought me drinks,” Samuel said. “Six months later, when I was playing in R&B bands, I saw the same guy. He was playing in a town 50 miles away and he asked us to open for him. In the old days, the opening band played after the major act, but when he finished playing, we put our equipment in the car and went back to London with no money. No one had ever seen a Black guy play guitar like that.”
In January 1970, he would see Hendrix again, while the guitarist was recording Stephen Stills’ debut solo album at London’s Island Studios.
“I was basically homeless at the time and sleeping in the studio,” Samuel said.
After hearing him play, Stills hired Samuel for the record. That’s him putting the bounce into “Love the One You’re With.”
Five months later, when Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young sacked their bass player, Stills flew Samuel in from London. His first recording was the band’s hit “Ohio.”
Samuel brought to a rock rhythm section a unique style that extended beyond music.
“Fuzzy had the bowler hat and the striped shirts and the vest. Fuzzy was cool,” said Tom Semioli, creator of the website KnowYourBassPlayer.com and a bassist himself. “And Fuzzy came along with more of an R&B and reggae feel, which was really opposite to what players like Chris Squire and Jack Bruce were doing.”
That approach came from years of playing behind strong vocalists.
“You have the notes, but if the notes are going with the somebody singing, the vocal is not going to come out,” Samuel said. “So you have to be unselfish and play so simple that it’s scary.”
By the late ‘70s, CSN&Y had dissolved and musical tastes began to change. Samuel’s career took on a lower profile and touring became less enjoyable. He settled in a number of places, including Miami, Cleveland and, eventually, in Dayton, Ohio, with his wife, Andrani Rosalila Samuel. He played around western Ohio and one of the gigs landed on YouTube where Erie bassist Steve Trohoske found it.
He had long been a fan of Samuel’s work on record. Inspired, he called a friend in Ohio and got Samuel’s number.
“We started a friendship,” Trohoske said. “I invited him to play and said, ‘Bring your family up.’ We had a great gig. We did the funkiest version of (The Beatles’) ‘Eleanor Rigby’ I’ve ever played. He’s just filled with songs.”
The two bass players also took a lakefront walk on Erie’s east side.
“He just fell in love with the place,” Trohoske said. “He told me, ‘The lake reminds me of an ocean.’”
Learning that Samuel and his family were not happy in Dayton, Trohoske engineered a move to Erie. A fellow Erie musician, guitarist Mike Russo, found a Millcreek townhouse and helped to move the Samuel family into their new home in 2021.
“Since we’ve been here, we’ve met some of the nicest people who helped us along the way,” Samuel said. “It’s a good place for our kids. We have something that I’ve never had before.”
Samuel hasn’t stopped playing. He’s formed a band, West Indian Revelation, with his wife on vocals and the One World Tribe rhythm section of Kennedy Thompson, Mike Chin and Brad Amidon. They’ll play at the AmeriMasala festival July 23 and they have a recording set for release.
But family life comes first. Of his young family, Samuel said, “It’s the best thing I ever did,” his face glowing with contentment. “It saved my life because, without it, I would have been a wandering soul. What I saw was happiness. Kids give you a reason to be. I understand them and they understand me and we share life together. Basically we found a place called home.”
