Ty’s first paid gig was on his parent's linoleum kitchen floor featuring his mom’s best cast iron pots and a wooden spoon, compensated with homemade tomato sauce & pasta. Earliest influences were his church's organist, the “Folk” mass led by girls with big guitars and big hair, his parents record collection of jazz & classical music, & uncles that played saxophone. In continuous vinyl rotation at home were the Jesus Christ Superstar double album, Billy Joel, The Beatles Red & Blue anthologies, Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits Vol. 1, James Taylor’s Greatest Hits, and the mind blowing Earth, Wind, & Fire double album.
Hearing James Brown for the first time was a visceral experience, finding out later that when Ty's mother was pregnant with him, she attended a music appreciation class where he first heard James Brown in the womb. Raised on NY radio, WBLS, HOT97, WQXR, and Z100, were all in rotation, but WBLS’s Quiet Storm and Sunday Morning programming shined big. Soul Train every Saturday morning. After that, well, influenced by everyone and everything.
Elegee Mini Basses (Fretted & Fretless)
Built by master luthier Jon Dela Cruz in the Phillipines. A life changing instrument for technique, expressiveness, & flexibility with a few home grown mods and the addition of a HipShot Ultralite Bass Xtender.
Strung up with D'Addario Helicore Fourths-Tuning Cello Set, 4/4 Scale tuned an octave down with an Underwood Bass pickup and individual string tuners in the bridge.
Ty's evolving right hand technique develpment combining basic finger style, floating thunb technique, raking, thumb integration, piano arpeggiation, and gravity.
Dwight Yoakum meets Slash
Honky-tonk Rock with a little help from Stetson, Ray-Ban, Under Armour, Levis, Lucky Jeans, & Rios of Mercedes boots
(daily practice)
Start the day with Jaco Pastorius, Victor Wooten, Anthony Jackson, John Taylor, Bluegrass standards, & Saucy Posse, then Finger Funk Float exploration.