Many nights I would walk the streets of San Francisco, carrying my guitar...going to every club and bar, asking if I could sit in with the bands that were playing.

 CHAPTER 1

Jake Fleder started his long journey in music at the age of eight, in New York City, with private guitar lessons. Each month his teacher, Jerry Otto, would bring a new book with the popular songs of the day. Weekly, his assignment would be to learn to read the melody, chords, and how to combine these musical elements.  This began his early development in improvisation, a unique new ability for a budding young musician. He learned the skills necessary for the role of lead guitarist and a lifetime career as a soloist. After five years, and daily practice of this regiment, there was a knock on the door for an opportunity.  It was for a slightly older teenage musician in a band called The Imperials. They asked him to play something on guitar for them. He picked up his 1950s harmony acoustic guitar and chose Ray Charles’s big hit: “What I Say”.  He got the gig offered, and was off and running. The fact that he could sing was a big plus. The Imperials  played numerous school dances, church and synagogue gigs, in New York City. This opened up opportunities to perform and began his reputation as a talented young New York City musician at the age of 13.   Later that year, as he was hanging out at the schoolyard, three of the neighborhood gangsters came walking across the schoolyard dressed in their striking band attire-shiny blue flowered metallic vests, tab collared shirts, and pointy high-heeled shoes. Their band, The Invaders, wanted him to join them as their lead guitarist. The band leader  (who later in life did actually do time in prison for murder) did all of the talking. He said, “we want you in our band”. Jake breathed a sigh of relief and replied, “I can’t... I’m in The Imperials”.  Thinking he’d be safe just to say it bluntly.   But the young bandleader in no uncertain tone said, “not anymore, you play with us or no one!”  Joining them was a better idea than getting beaten and bloodied, but what a surprising introduction.  Fortunately, that band was short-lived as the other three members stumbled into a life of drug addiction and crime. 

CHAPTER 2

As Jake began high school he was asked to join a group of much older musicians in a band called The Malibus.  They were a really good band, and they quickly became one of New York City’s finest. They were quite in demand playing all types of gigs, including opening for major groups that had #1 records. One of these gigs was opening up for The Ronnettes, who at the time were the number one girls group in the World. The group asked if after their set, to back up The Ronnettes for their show.  Before the show started a man walked into the dressing room and asked, “do any of you guys read music”.   Although the older three musicians were all really good players Jake was the only music reader. So the man led him in and the others followed to see what was going on.  They put a chair and a music stand up and put some music on the stand.  All of a sudden The Ronnettes (a band of three) stood in front of Jake to do a super quick rehearsal with the new music to read.  Ironically, all three girls were not wearing anything on top, they all only held their matching pink sweaters over their chests, while they ran through their songs, teasing the kid guitarist, while his band mates watched on. “Hmmm”, he thought, “I guess there are some perks to being a musician.”    He was only 15 at the time. The Malibu’s were playing a gig at New York University with an older bass player from the new New York City band called The United Notions. The bass player loved Jake’s guitar playing, and told him that he should be the sixth and final member of the band. Each member was supposed to be from another country, and Jake was to become the English one.  He had an English accent and all. This big break ultimately led to Jake’s first recording session, to lay down the lead guitar work for the group’s first single.  This was soon replaced by Sunday afternoon concerts at the famed Bitter End Club,  in New York’s Greenwich Village. Their opening act was another young budding musician named Jose Feliciano, a great singer and guitarist who was about to take the world by storm. Feliciano soon became a well known name in the industry. Jake played four concerts with the United Notions and went on to do an audition to perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem/ New York. The group got the gig and signed on for a week at the legendary Apollo, performing seven or eight shows a day, along with the other seven acts.  This was a tremendous opportunity.  Headliners included Johnny Nash, JJ Jackson, Jimi Ruffin, who all had hit records out at the time, and four other talented groups.   The other seven singers and singing groups were all grown men that had been making hit records and touring the world. The other acts looked out for younger musician kids and nicknamed Jake ‘Blue Eyes’.  Suddenly he had to grow up fast in this savvy, experienced, new world of adults. The Apollo was the most historic gig he played because Snow Mixed (an interracial group) had never performed the Apollo before. On opening night, he noticed everyone backstage was quite nervous and somewhat agitated. He asked what was going on, to which he was told there could be a riot when, as they referred to him,  he would be a “white skin” guitarist as he walked on stage. Being so young he didn’t understand the racial turmoil of the times. Fortunately, his band opened up the show with “Reach Out” by the Four Tops, and immediately won the Apollo audience over.  After this performance, the word was out on the streets of Harlem that there was a hot young blue-eyed guitarist... and whenever he left the building there were groups of young people following him through the streets. Jake thought this was pretty cool!  After a meeting with Jake’s mother, the manager booked the United Notions on a tour with several established R&B acts of the day. The deal with his mother, was that a tutor  would travel with Jake in order for him to keep up his required school work. One day Jake was informed the band broke up because the manager was keeping the band members’ earned income and money.   This was a real reality of being in the music industry “welcome kid” for Jake who had only then just turned 16.

CHAPTER 3

So Jake went back to high school to finish his junior and senior years. As his reputation continued growing as a player /singer,  he was contracted to do gigs for the Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. On weekday nights he would put pick up bands together in order to do ‘Rock gigs’ for the enlisted men’s clubs.  They began performing hits of the day like the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, R&B, among others. On weekends he performed for the non-commissioned Officers clubs, where the older officers and their wives would attend. For these gigs he performed the ‘standards’ of the day such as, “Misty, Autumn Leaves”, “Girl From Ipanema” and more.   These childhood years of learning new songs every week began to pay off. As Jake played the rhythm guitar parts, solos, and sang the songs, the various side men just had to follow him.  Jake took the time to additionally give guitar lessons after school. He studied his music theory.  Jake was 17.  

CHAPTER 4

After graduating from high school, Jake attended college for a year and a half, including additional studies in music theory. He got a loft in New York City and put a rock trio together. He and the drummer started writing songs. This was his start as a composer and lyricist. A New York City record company got wind of this new songwriter, and signed him to a songwriting and producer contract.  He now had offices in New York City, in the building with the top recording studio on the ground floor, and budgets to record the songs he was writing. Along with these budgets, came the exposure to the great musicians and  vocalists in the NYC session scene, including some of the finest female singers of the era. In this atmosphere, he was amazed at the proficiency of these one take, top-notch, session players, and realized it was time to hone his skills as a guitarist. Before and after his recording sessions he would ask the more mature record producers if he could sit in the studio and observe their sessions.  Much older than he, they’d call him ‘the kid’ and teach him how to make a record. Watching some of  NYC’s top players and singers, he was fortunate to absorb a wealth of knowledge.  He was now 18.

CHAPTER 5

At this point he realized that what he really wanted to do was just play his guitar. So he journeyed from NYC to San Francisco and quickly started gigging with many bands in the tremendous music scene there. He never turned down a gig, so he was playing in various styles of music. Many nights he would walk the streets of San Francisco, carrying his guitar, going to every club and bar, asking if he could sit in with the bands that were playing. This led to his being asked to join a soul band called:  Frankie Beverly’s Raw Soul. In those days, bands were playing five sets a night.  He began truly honing his guitar chops. Singers cannot constantly sing for five hours a night for their shows, so Jake was soloing all the time with them filling in the gaps in performances. He helped this new band build a substantial following in the Bay Area. While performing with them, fans of his guitar playing we’re building as well. After a couple years in the band, Jake was asked to join a new band by one of the greatest pianists in the world. That musician had written, arranged, played piano, and produced number one albums for major jazz stars at the age of 16. But that pianist now wanted to play rock’, and he needed Jake to make it happen.  They thought he could bridge the gap they needed to move to rock.   His previous band changed their name to Maze featuring Frankie Beverly. Marvin Gaye secured a recording contract for them, and they sold millions of records, and headlined concerts all over the world. Jake’s guitar playing helped to build a strong following before he left the band, and he was proud of that time with them.

CHAPTER 6

So after years of live performing for audiences on both coasts it was time to go solo.  Jake had composed all the music and lyrics, being a lead singer, soloist, and getting his unique style of music out to the world. Jake’s new manager secured a major record deal for him. It was actually the largest record deal that had ever occurred in Europe, with Columbia Records distribution for the United States. The record company president, Jake’s manager, and he drove to the top of Mount Tamalpais in Northern California to sign the deal.  When Jake saw his manager's name on the head of the contract he was very concerned where the money would be going. He experienced issues in the past with managers, and knew to firmly pause.. The deal went sour and Jake headed back to New York to put a new band together and sign a record deal with one of the several big American companies. Four of the major labels recorded Jake, and were excited about his work. Each time their promo departments wanted hit singles from him. There was this pressure to alter his writing to please promotions, and it was building. It frustrated him to the point of retreating from the scene for a while.

CHAPTER 7

Ultimately, he put a new band together in New York City with three veteran, and amazing musicians. The new band was called ‘JFB’, (Jake Fleder Band). They were rehearsing in several NY studios for a while. Then they ended up at Aerosmith’s Manhattan studio, where they kept working until they were ready to start performing live. A couple of top booking agencies were getting shows for the band, including ‘Premier Talent ’(who represented bands such as U2, Van Halen, David Bowie, Santana, The Who, and countless other major artists.)  There was a policy at Premier Talent that they did not book anyone that wasn’t signed to a major label and had a hit on the charts. Amazingly, they did book Jake to be the opening act on a major show. When the promoters contacted Premier, they reported he was talented  and they wanted him back for other concerts.  Premier kept the gigs coming and JFB was playing big shows in NYC and winning over new fans gig by gig. One day David Bowie’s agent came to rehearsal and dubbed Jake as “the rock Clint Eastwood”.  Being a major fan of Clint's movies, he was tickled. But still the pressures of keeping these other three amazing musicians going with no payroll, or management team was getting harder and harder to deal with. Once again the reality of economics shows up in the life of an artist.  

CHAPTER 8

With all the turbulence of dealing with record companies, producers, management or a lack of it, and the attorneys…. keeping a killer band together was truly overwhelming.  He found himself dealing with so many things aside from the music. Not a good place to be.  Although offered substantial financial backing to stay in New York, and make it happen, Jake felt he needed a change. He left for Los Angeles to put together his first recording studio. He settled in and began a vigorous phase of composing, arranging, recording, and mixing his new works. These were not just his vocal songs, but a whole new approach to putting together elements of rock, R&B, jazz, soul, and even classical.  In his own studio, he no longer had to come up with thousands and thousands of dollars to go to commercial facilities. He could take his time and achieve not only the musical elements of his writing, but the sonic approach to the final sound. On the music side, he delved deep into harmony, and chords, and the infinite way one could voice those chords, and the effects that would bring to the listener. He loves when a great classical piece of music moves us deeply, emotionally, as well as thought-provoking. Quite often his  production style was being compared to the Pink Floyd sound...not the music, as Jake has his own unique style, but the overall effect of the music, lyrics, and mixing techniques.  As a pioneer in the use of computers and recording, many of the world's leading manufacturers of musical instruments and  audio equipment wanted him to use their gear, and perform live at major trade shows showing how good their equipment sounded. It was a way he could get the gear he needed for his studio, and also get the sound he heard in his head. And make a little money while doing it.  Ultimately his final appearance was at the yearly winter NAMM Show in California. TASCAM, the world's biggest builder of tape recorders, mixers, and every black box in the sky, hired Jake to prepare a performance utilizing their new 16 track tape recorder, their new automated mixer, several midi modules, and the computer.  Jake played the guitar parts live, and all the other music had been recorded on to tape and live MIDI. For the first time in their many years as a manufacturer, Tascam built a stage at the Anaheim convention center for him to perform on. They wanted to attract as many of the 60,000 attendees as they could.  Jake took two of his instrumental songs and did burning arrangements of them for the show. When the attendees heard Jake’s guitar playing over the highly rhythmic compositions, many rushed to get to the little stage and hear what was being played.  Heritage Guitars, and G&L Guitars, heard his playing and wanted to build him the instruments that could play the way he wanted them to play. So now fully armed with a recording studio and the instruments he needed to perform, it was time for the next phase.

CHAPTER 9 

A business attorney that had  followed Jake’s career for years approached him about doing an album and owning their own label.  Having total control of the music certainly was appealing. And he’d written so many songs that were ready to go. He wanted to move onward!  As he was making the album, playing all the instruments himself, several musical acquaintances, who admired his work, volunteered to come in and perform on the album.  The  group of musicians were the most amazing and accomplished players from the jazz and R&B worlds. He performed about half of the tracks on his own. At the time, as well as now,  many changes in the  world were occurring all at once .So he wrote a song called “New Frontier.  It is about  looking out, at provoking thought at the ever-changing world, and expressing it through music. He felt it was a great album, excellent guitar work, vocals, lyrics, and a groove. What could have gone wrong? The attorney didn’t do his work.  Only two radio stations in the United States ever received a copy of the album. The one in Connecticut loved it and did two live, on the air, artist interviews.   The second one was a DJ in San Diego. He called to inform him that he opened his Friday afternoon “Jeff Show” every week with “Coolin'” -the one instrumental on the ‘New Frontier” album. Not bad, but it would have been nice if all the radio stations had gotten their copies. Oh well, next he thought.  Moving on.

CHAPTER 10 

As life moved along,  Jake kept writing and recording. It was time to do a new album. Ironically, the 13 songs on the album are all very radio friendly, and memorable as well. Although this was not preplanned, it just ended up that way with highly melodic, good grooves, interesting lyrics, and that enticing Jake guitar sound. This time around Jake DID play all the instruments and it was a daunting task to say the least. But he was determined to do it.  He  finished and titled the album “Since Forever”.  It is a beautifully composed collection of songs.  He used a blending of multiple styles of music, flowing seamlessly from song to song.  It takes the listener on a transported journey through the music and their own thoughts, to a lovely, warm, and exciting place... true artistry. And right on time. Jake is now preparing to finally get back, and ultimately forward to performing live. It’s about time.  Finally…