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Baker's Dozen

Creating A Songwriter: The 13 Albums That Made Thundercat
Rob Hakimian , April 14th, 2020 08:53

The virtuoso bassist takes Rob Hakimian through his musical life story with a baker's dozen that traces his trajectory from kid messing with his parents' records to the in-demand player that he is today. Photographs by The1Point8.

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The Chick Corea Elektric Band - The Chick Corea Elektric Band
This goes back to when I was a child, and me and my older brother were in the house together. This is the era video games come into play too, because this is where me and my brother started fighting over the TV and what's being played loud in the house. This was me and my brother fighting over the over Nintendo and Sega Genesis, while he's practising on a drum pillow.

Dave Weckl was a massive musician to us when we were young, and John Patitucci, we were into him a little bit, and Frank Gambale of course. We would listen to this album a bit religiously – this is how we wanted our instruments. We would play with this and we would learn the album. I actually wasn't excited about this album until my later years, because it being tied to such an emotional place. When I got of age and realised how important this album was, I revisited it and there's nothing like it still, sonically. For who it was and what it did, there's nothing like this album. There's actually a moment where I do get synaesthesia from this album, it's somewhere between 'No Zone' and 'India Town'.

I literally remember standing up in front of TV playing The Karate Kid, and I remember listening to this and feeling so happy, I felt weightless. This is me, the musician, the one that was practicing, playing jazz band. I didn't know too much about anything, but I knew that I couldn't play Nintendo without Chick Corea in the background.