Nedra Wheeler anchors any ensemble in which she plays with a rhythmic authority blended with a melodic playfulness. Her big bass sound drives a variety of bands, including Nate Morgan's hard swinging trio, Tracey Chapman's latest Roxy performance, the Women's Jazz Ensemble, and her own sextet. The LA native has taken her art to Europe and New York, but her home town audiences reap the greatest rewards for her years of training and broad playing experience. Wheeler's protean schedule finds her playing somewhere in SoCal almost every week, sometimes playing a gig, zipping her bass case shut to head to her second or third engagement in a day. These days her hyper performance schedule competes with a burgeoning career as an educator, teaching in community colleges, and participating in mentorship programs.

My dad's a singer, she said, "so I was inspired being around him. He was a singer/songwriter, had his own band. Both my parents liked different types of music so that totally influenced me. I learned how to play bass at church, I later found out my dad had played bass in church. So I grew up around the music, and after going to CalArts everything just came together.

I took up the string bass in high school. Jr high school was really the critical time when I got into strings. My jr high school teacher definitely encouraged my playing."

Her early promise as a musician landed her a gig with jazz legend Freddie Redd at age 16. She joined him on a live tv date. "I don't even remember where I met him, she recalled, "but he had a gig at a public access studio, somewhere out in East LA. I used to go to the jam sessions when I went to El Camino College. Major artists after major events would come and hang out till 2 or 3 in the morning. There was a club on Adams, the Blue Jay. An open mic, late. I knew tunes from hearing them, but didn't know the titles. You put your name on the list, and they call your name. During that time I met all kinds of people. I used to jam at Marla's Memory Lane. I met Ndugu, Munyungo, Rick Zunigar, Tony Dumas.

Although she had her eye on a career in education, a teacher familiar with her musical interests encouraged her to check into CalArts. "By the time I went to El Camino I knew I wanted to play jazz, I knew I wanted to be a jazz musician. An audition for Cecil Taylor alumni bass virtuoso Buell Neidlinger clinched the deal. Her first year attending had her steeped in New Music, but she laid out the next year to contemplate her direction. "They didn't have a jazz program at the time. There was no such thing as jazz education. We were just on the wave of that happening in the early '80's. Myself and about six other people were really the first graduates of the jazz program. The dean that was there called and said, Nedra, if we had a jazz program do you think you'd want to come to school here? I said, ok. Next thing you know, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins, Pat Metheny, and Dewey Redman came and did a concert.

I didn't know who Charlie Haden was, but I remember hearing him with Alice Coltrane on the radio. Sam Fields, this guy was playing some of the most interesting music. I remember him playing this album by Alice Coltrane with this bass that was so deep, and so resounding, but I didn't know it was Charlie Haden. "Journey to Satchitananda, that moved me in a way I couldn't even put to words. The bass and what she was doing on her harp, I didn't know what I was listening to, but it was just so awesome. Once I hear something it just becomes a part of my existence, something like that. I just listened to the music, I didn't pay attention to who the makers were. I really had no idea who my teacher was. I took a jazz improvisation class with him and one of the cool things he would do was bring compositions, new compositions, hot off the press, by Ornette Coleman. He come to school and go, 'Hey, I just got back from New York and here's some new stuff Ornette wrote.' So, we'd play stuff that wasn't even out yet. I think it was a really good place for me.

With her playing in local jam sessions and gigging with different bands, word traveled fast about the gifted bassist. One day another jazz legend surprised her by searching her out. "At CalArts Eddie Harris walked into my class, in the middle of my class, and said, 'I'm Eddie Harris, composer of 'Freedom Jazz Dance,' is Nedra here?' So, we talked, and he said, 'That's great, I've heard about, you sound good, you finish school.' And I was like, wow, yeah, okay. I'd heard of him, of course, but that was the first time I met him. My teacher and the class are all looking at me like, what? I did get a chance to play with him in Ojai at Wheeler Hot springs with Tootie Heath, and Milcho Leviev, and Les McCann.

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