Kim Ciara: Press

Bass Inside Magazine, Zurich, Switzerland 4/29/05, by Warren Murchie

Kim Ciara
After 21 years Pro, her first solo album

Kim Ciara is a bass playin' girl!
Now why do I say such an asinine thing? More than once, in my search for talented bass players, it has occurred to me that there are just not enough female bassists out there, of the electric kind and also of an acoustic bent such as Kim.

For over 2 decades she chased a professional musicians life with great glee, doing multiple tours around the US, Europe and other exotic places. These days she balances her musical aspirations with a career in nursing but does not rule out heading out on the road again, should the opportunity present itself. The urge to tour really never leaves you.

She recently released her first CD on her new label, Neurotic Dancer and sent me a copy for a listen. When it arrived, it struck me immediately that this was a bass player of considerable chops producing an album of rather beautiful music. There is genuinely strong song writing in the album and her playing is nothing short of superb.

In conversations with her I found her to be witty and confident of her accomplishments and strengths but aware of her foibles. Her tremendous sense of humour was also very evident. You will find her conversation with Bass Inside peppered with various *special ways* of conveying her feelings and thoughts on music, putting arrogant players in their place, maligned hamsters and other musical and non-musical things.

It is easy for a magazine to clammer after all the safe names, the big names, and we have been known to do that too. It is however, very interesting, when everyone else is chasing those same names, to also talk to someone who has all the necessary talent and technical skill, has a clear mindset and sense of purpose and whose love of music and bass playing is huge, but has not yet hit the ‘Big Time’. Those, to me, are often quite interesting people. Their hunger drives them and that is both fascinating and inspirational at the same time. The accomplished folks get comfortable and sometimes feeling they deserve success. Not so with people like Kim.

After all, we never know where tomorrow’s heroes will come from…

Bass Inside: You had mentioned in our early prep talks for this that you were a professional player for well over 2 decades. Was it always with acoustic bass? Was it always with this bass and are you the type of person that chases instruments?
Kim: Yes. Pretty much the acoustic bass. It was my first love! I do own and kinda' play an electric, and admittedly it's sometimes fun, but it's not my thing. I played it only once last year, at a summer park concert with a loud and rowdy blues band.

Over the years, I've owned many basses. I just think they're aesthetically beautiful things. But at this time, I only have two basses. One I love, one I'm in love with. I could easily fall in love with another instrument, and probably several of them. *smile* There's enough room in my heart to love many basses.

Bass Inside: This is your first venture into solo work with ‘Through the Eyes of a Child’. Did you work in other recording acts as a side-person or as a band member and if you were recording with them, can you tell us a bit about that?

Kim: Actually, I've recorded a number of things over the years, but nothing I would boast about now. *smile* There were mostly covers of all kinds of music, from C&W to disco to jazz to you name it. There were lots of things recorded, and then shelved. I've got some of those recordings, from 20 years ago. It was most always with other people, although I did some demos of things I had written during my college years. While in college, I did a lot of studio work, mostly radio jingles. Playing music was my only source of income while in school.

When you say ‘professional’ for 20+ years, this was what you did and all you did, full time?

Yes. For 21 years I was on the road, living out of a suitcase. During that time I had been to Europe three times, and to parts of the mid East and North Africa. Of course, there was lots of domestic travel. I had a great time, played a lot of shows for people like Norm Crosby, Phyllis Diller, Rich Little, etc. Those were always fun jobs, because there's nothing like playing in a 28-piece orchestra. To this day, I still enjoy playing every Wednesday night with a 17-piece contemporary jazz big band. Nothing like a big band / orchestra! Love it! So yes. 21 years of full-time playing.

Are you self-taught? Have you ever given/taken lessons?

We all are, to a very large degree, ‘self-taught’. A lesson, and I've had lots of them, as well as given lots of them over the years, are at best, 'supervised practice.' A good teacher teaches you how to practice, the rest is up to you.

After college (studying music education/double bass), I taught college for a year. About two weeks into the fall semester, it was painfully evident that teaching wasn't for me. It takes a certain amount of patience to teach, and I don't exactly have that.

I've always told my private students that I'll only teach them up to five or six lessons. And I teach them how to practice efficiently, how to listen to and learn from the bass players on records... always have them listen to the masters... Ray Brown, Ron Carter, Charlie Haden, Paul Chambers, etc. Same thing for classical music... listen to the greats, emulate them. You know when your intonation is good and when it's not. Work on the positions, the fingerings, develop good intonation and time, and don't practice the same stuff over and over. Once you get it right, move on to something more challenging. So in six lessons I figure they know just about everything I do about practicing. Then, the rest is up to them.

If the twists and turns of circumstance allow, would you tour TTEOAC (Notice the witty and insightful abbreviation work)!

Oh, yes! I would love to take TTEOAC on the road! If any of your readers are booking agents, or are managers/promoters, and they like what I do, have them ring me up! I love to make music. I have no talent for selling it, though. I could use a good publicist, manager, agent, etc.

Would the sidemen you worked with for this album be a consideration to take on that tour?

Oh, gosh, yes! I've already asked them all, and they would love to tour with me. All of the guys (and the other girl, Brandy) are fabulous players, and above all, they're all genuine, sweet, honest and ethical human beings, and terrific friends! Who wouldn't want to have people like that on the road with them?

What markets have you approached with the new album?

I've sent it out to people all over the planet for review. As far as 'response' goes, it's too early to know much. About an equal amount of them have been sold in Europe and the US, and that has been the bulk of sales.

What are your hopes and dreams or expectations for this album?

I have no expectations, only hopes and dreams. TTEOAC was something I did for me, and I knew going into the project that I would probably lose money. So far, since TTEOAC was released in January, I've made about 50% back on what I spent. Not too bad for two-and-a-half months! My first hope is to at least make my money back... that would be nice. *smile* Do I expect that to happen? No. To have ’expectations’ is rather arrogant, I think, especially when one has a strong sense of aesthetic value. That sense of ‘entitlement’ is so very arrogant. And yes, there are lots of arrogant artists of all natures out there. *smile* Some of them are nothing short of geniuses, and lots of them are just arrogant, self-absorbed spoiled children. Which one am I? I dunno... Probably a bit of both, really.

Hopes & dreams are two separate things with me... 'hopes' are more like things, events, and situations that are actual possibilities. Like hoping to make back the money spent on TTEOAC. That's a hope, not an expectation.

'Dreams' are those wonderful fantasies we all have... the kinds of 'magical' things that sometimes happen to people... like winning the lottery... making bazillions on my CD... being the headliner at concerts and festivals... those kinds of things. Those are simply dreams. And yes, dreams do sometimes come true, but to have a dream, a real dream, and expect it to happen for one out of some sense of entitlement is just plain wrong and arrogant.

At no time have I ever expressed 'expectations' about anything related to my CD, to you, or to anyone else. Not even to closest friends. If a musician is producing music, and he/she expects this or that as an outcome (other than expecting to get their money's worth out of the musicians and studio they hire), then their motives are probably about things other than the music.

With me, it's all about the music, not about expectations. I feel blessed to be able to create music, to play music, and am humbled by the process, itself. God has blessed me with the ability to make music, not the ability nor the desire to be a "shrewd and cunning businesswoman/self-promoter", and I'm okay with this. Maybe it's a character flaw, I dunno... this is why it would be nice to have someone do the marketing.

And what lifespan do you give this album to market it properly and to feel you reached some of your goals?

Once again, this is not how my brain works. There were no goals, other than keeping the TTEOAC project at or under budget, and on schedule once the recording began. I know so very little about marketing... 75% of everything I know about CD production I learned on my own. The remainder of the information came from friends, namely Barry Wedgle.

Can you tell us a bit about the preparation for this album?

There were two 2-hour rehearsals before the recording began. TTEOAC was to be done in two parts... one 2-hour rehearsal for half of the music one day, the recording session for those pieces the next morning, and then the same thing two weeks later. No one had seen the music before the first rehearsal, and I hadn't even heard my music played. So we were all sight-reading it. We rehearsed half of the material the first day, went into the studio the next, completing it all in about four hours of recording time.

The second rehearsal, a couple of weeks later never really happened. hehe Everyone said I forgot to tell them about it. hahah I could have done that. I dunno... *smile* The day before that rehearsal I called the guys... guess I did have that nagging feeling that maybe I forgot to tell them something. heheh Anyway, everyone was already busy, having planned other things for that morning. The each said that they would somehow get out of their obligations, and be at my house at least for a ‘while.’ They understood the schedule from the session two weeks before. I had to work later, and had only planned on the two-hour rehearsal and then off into the studio the next day. The studio was already booked! So when everyone finally got to my house, there wasn't time to do more than look at the music, talk about it a little, and answer questions... like about fifteen minutes. *whew!* Talk about feeling some pressure! Hahah

Did you have a preconceived notion as to what you would like it to achieve, was there a musical ‘statement’ to be made?

No, not really. I just wanted my music to be played and recorded by great players, that's all. I had done many other projects for others over the years, but never produced my own thing. I just wanted to produce my own music. That was the big goal, I guess, was just to produce the CD.

TTEOAC doesn’t so much feature me as a bass player as much as it does a composer/arranger. It's all about the music! *smile* I did play a couple or three solos, but as I had said, it's about the music, not about my playing the bass. Guess it's about that, too, really, but that was never the focus. TTEOAC is simply my music, the way I wanted it played, that's all.

You created Neurotic Dancer Records. Will this be handling your music exclusively?

I created the record label to have a place to put the music I had just written. As I had said before, record producers weren't exactly beating a path to my house to sign me up. Once a pizza delivery guy came to the wrong door, but he wasn't a record producer. *sigh* So NDR just became a vehicle to put my music on. Also, if you really want 100% control of your music, I guess you have to be the record company owner, producer, writer, arranger, contractor, etc. When one writes all the checks, then one can do it one's own way. *smile*

Have you been approached by local musicians about recording with Neurotic Dancer Records?

Actually, yes! A friend of mine is a really great singer/guitarist/songwriter, a truly gifted person. She has asked me if she could release her music on Neurotic Dancer Records, and also asked me to play bass for her. We've already recorded a couple of things... her style is not jazz, but rather the 'Indie Rock' thing. I have no 'service' to provide her, or others, other than just having a label. I'd be happy to teach her everything I've learned, and she can market it herself. Probably better if she were to create her own label, though.

How did you start up the connections you now have as a player where you live when you moved back to the States after spending some time in Europe?

I just started going out to hear live music, asking the musicians where the 'open jam sessions' in town were. It didn't take long to find the Hogan (‘Navajo Hogan's’, but we call it ‘The Hogan’), in Colorado Springs. Great venue! On Tuesday nights they had a jazz-jam, and on Thursday nights they had a blues-jam. I was, at that time, having to work on Tuesday nights, so I'd always go to the blues thing on Thursdays, when I was off. The Blues Community welcomed me with open arms, and before long I was working so much with blues bands that I quit being a nurse for about a year. I am a founding member of the Pikes Peak Blues Community, a non-profit outfit that promotes ‘blues and roots’ music. To this day, those people in the blues community are amongst my greatest friends, and I love them all dearly. I still support the PPBC by maintaining a membership, volunteering to help now and again in their events, and so on.

During that time (playing lotsa' blues) I started going to the Tuesday night jazz jam at the Hogan. Kim Stone (bass player for Spyro Gyra and the Rippingtons) was the host bass player. I approached him on the break, told him I would like to play and he said, "Sure!" Anyway, Kim Stone opened a lot of doors for me that night. I don't think I was taken too seriously as a jazz player until the night Kim let me play at his gig.

When I got up to play there were some really hot players on the stage, and I think, if my memory isn't totally gone, we played ‘A Night in Tunisia’. When it came time for the bass solo, it became a ‘free for all’... all the other players were playing solos again, all over my solo, and it was hopeless. So I gently told the other players to "lay out." heheh. Most everyone quit, standing there looking at me in a quirky kinda' way, like, "What? Did she say *lay out*?" The drummer kept playing, though, soloing. I turned around and firmly said, "Lay out!" He continued to play. So I stopped playing and said VERY firmly, as if scolding a child for breaking a piece of fine crystal, "I said LAY OUT! PUT THE STICKS DOWN. DON'T TOUCH YOUR DRUMS. QUIT WITH THE HI-HAT. SIT ON YOUR HANDS AND FEET!" hahah He finally quit playing, so I was able to play without the ‘help’ of six or seven other ‘soloists’. Getting him to stop playing took a minute or two.

Can you talk a bit about the trappings of working the pro life, the draw of various distractions such as alcohol, boys, other things like that and how you learned to handle so it didn’t get in the way of your objectives.

I guess I was just very fortunate that I never had the drug or alcohol problems some of my friends had years ago. Seeing the trouble they got into, the way they destroyed their lives, their health, I consciously decided that I wouldn't share their problems. I 'dabbled' in that scene just enough to know that it wasn't for me. So yes, there were a lot of distractions... but honestly, all I wanted to do was to make music, so I did lots of that, but also had lotsa' fun too.

For now, it's how it should be... I make music, enjoy my life, and that's that. And yes, I do hope others like and buy TTEOAC, and the subsequent CD's I produce, as well. If I make my money back, then I'll be truly satisfied. Then I'll do it all over again! *smile* If I make more, then great! That's icing on the cake! Success means breaking even, just now. The joy is not in making the money,the joy is in making the music.

You or anybody might wonder, "Why produce a CD if you're not going to go all-out and push/promote/sell it to the world?" The need to make music far outweighs the need to promote the life out of it. It's like ummmm... that night you may or may not have had many years ago, setting your little sister's hamster free outside in three feet of snow... "You're free now! Run little Hammy! Run to Miami!", only to find frozen, furry bits and pieces the next morning scattered about behind the garage... No. It's not like that, really. It's like... ummmmm... well, it's not like the hamster thing at all. I'm sorry.

Okay...You had mentioned you have shipped a few more CD's my way, can you tell me a bit more about them?

Yes, I'd be happy to tell you about them! The CD is called ‘Java Jazz’, and is a live recording from my regular Saturday night gig at the Coffee Warehouse. It's been released on Exit Records, Barry Wedgle's record company, and not on NDR.

The pianist, Sam Pannunzio and I had only played together once before. The drummer, Jerry Crockwell... basically played with him maybe a couple of times before the night Java Jazz was recorded. It's live, high-energy bebop. Lots of great playing on it. By the time this interview is published, you should have received them.

Are there plans to do a follow-up to TTEOAC at some point?

You betcha'! I hope to release another NDR CD of my music later this year, probably in the fall, when I can afford it again.

Can you tell us a bit about the history of the songs themselves, the title track is exceptionally strong as are many of the others. You are the sole author of all of these, correct?

Correct. I wrote all of the music. TTEOAC is kinda like a collection of my vividly recollected dreams. There's not any more 'history' to it than that. I simply woke up one morning compelled to write the music. Guess you could say the music came to me in my sleep each night as individual dreams. It was kinda' like that...

Do you find song writing flows easily for you?

Yes, it's my music. When I write a piece of music, it's always a deliberate act. In other words, the melody, the arrangement is already in my mind... I simply put it on paper. That's all. That's so easy, really. Doing it the 'other way' never worked for me.

I have, in the past tried to sit down and write music, as if it were some 'daily chore' that had to be done. What most often gets written is usually an old and tired cliché of some nature. For me, something inspires the writing, and it's not a conscious thought or effort. It just happens.

Producing a ‘hit record?’ You mean, like sitting around a conference table with a bunch of fat men smoking cigars and drinking scotch, or something... "Let's see here... We put this catch-phrase here, that 'hook' there, jam-out for about three minutes and twenty seconds, and dang! We gots us a million-seller! Now all we need is a singer with big hair, big hooters, a great ass, and lotsa' leg! Let's have some beer!"

My brain just doesn't work this way, and that process doesn't feel natural. I've tried it. I've not been finding frozen furry bits and pieces scattered about behind the garage, so the way I write seems to work for me.

Are there songs you wish you had included now that didn’t make the cut?

No. The CD is as it should be. It's done. It's over. Other songs are for other CD's. TTEOAC... all of the music on this CD belongs there.

What criteria did you use for the songs, as to what would make it to the final CD?

Of the 30 or so pieces of music I had written last March and April, there were songs that just needed to be together, like a happy little family. They yearned for each other, and defied separation. So, long before the recording began, the music made that decision on it's own. I had very little say in it.

4/5/05
Dan Demuth,
Pikes Peak Blues Community
“Through The Eyes Of a Child” Kim Ciara

Neurotic Dancer Records


Before you read further, this compilation contains no true “Blues”. It does exemplify the talent of an artist most of us in the blues community know – bassist Kim Ciara, a very self-effacing yet humorous woman. Stay tuned – quotes to follow! Let’s start with the exposure aspect so important to many talented musicians. Daughter of a musician father, with 10 siblings and all experiencing piano lessons for about eight years from age three, along with additional exposure to violin, flute, clarinet, French horn, trombone, guitar, banjo, trumpet and cornet, and the aforementioned bass. Obviously a successful formula with Kim and seven of her siblings going on to play professional gigs! She latched onto the bass in high school dance bands, and expanded her horizons in college to include jazz, experimental and symphonic. After college came dues paying in forums ranging from “sleazy, dark, smoky bars and lounges” (my kind of places) to pit orchestras, backing shows and musicals. I understand she can drive a mean version of “Hava Nagila”, but stops short of anything of the “shit-kicking” variety.


About the CD; 8 tracks running a little over 45 minutes, the label, compositions and arrangements all are her own. Key assistants include Brad Eastin on tenor, keyboardist Ken Janzen, Brandy Herbert and Barry Wedgle on guitars, with Mark Smith nicely kicking things along on the skins. The self-penned cuts range from smooth to funky, with some outstanding solo work by the assistants. However, in keeping with her usual understated manner, Kim, politely provides the subtle nuances, filling in gaps and taking care of any sharp edges. Hey Kim – it’s your company – how about some solo work? I urge anyone who can to support this woman who puts a ton of well spent effort into her work. If you want to check it out first, try www.cdbaby.com/cd/kimciara or www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=3198110#tracks. All well and good, but try to get out & listen in person. Although not dangerous, she is armed with the CDs. She’ll accept cash, checks or money orders (although my efforts to pay with S & H Green stamps were politely rebuffed).


She is a prolific writer and there may be a couple more albums on the way. If you press her, she might come up with a copy of “Java Jazz” in which she is paired with Sam Pannunzio on piano and Jerry Crockwell on drums, recorded live at the Coffee Warehouse (see below).


I promised some quotes, “The bass, being a ‘supportive role’, was something that just came naturally, and to this day, I don’t understand why more women don’t play the bass, as women have the ‘supportive role’ down quite well”. Now, I’ve asked several guys what she means by that and none of us have a clue!


Presently you can find her on Wednesday nights from 6 – 8 PM at the Cedars, off of I-25 and Fillmore, aptly backing the Springs Contemporary Jazz Big Band (she is welcomed as a true pro by the other members of this talented group) and on Saturdays at the Coffee Warehouse on South Tejon, 8 – 11 PM with the Barry Wedgle trio.


Dan Demuth
Pikes Peak Blues Community