Topic: Ricardo Martinez

Ricardo José Martinez Mora (born March 6, 1969 in Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela) is an electric bass guitar player. He has been in the music industry for more than two decades, working as a session bassist, performer, arranger, songwriter, music producer, music director, banjo player (this one at the Florida Grand Opera), among other music related activities. He is highly regarded by his colleagues for his music knowledge, rhythmic awareness, improvisational skills and versatility.

Ricardo started flirting with music since he was a little kid. When he was eight, the Swedish phenomenon ABBA ignited the spark inside of him. Soon after that, he found himself singing not only the vocal parts but all the instrument parts of every song of every record of the Swedish band. His father apparently took advantage of that fresh interest and taught him his first music lesson. A couple of years later, the British band Queen conquered his soul. The British band helped him to decide for the drums as his way of expression. A few years after that, the guitar got in his way and was taken as his main instrument. Around that time, started his music studies. During those years, the super Canadian trio Rush appeared in Ricardo's life and his way to understand music changed forever. No longer after that, another powerful trio, Police, made his way into the ears of the novice musician. But still, life and music itself have something more for the aspiring musician. A few years after the discovery of the Canadian trio, Chick Corea showed up and life would never be the same for Ricardo. After Chick Corea, came Jaco Pastorius, and all the great jazz players of all time. He studied harmony, arrangement, music theory, sight-reading, composition, ear training, for two years with the late Aldo Balestrini (Berklee College of Music graduate). After that, he heard about an audition of the most popular Top-Forty band of his town, that happened to be one of his clients as a music copyist, he was seventeen at the time. The only problem was that the vacancy was for a bass player. He took the bass for a month and won the audition. After that, he started a career as a bass player until now. He has played with hundreds of artists, recorded in 70+ records and he's currently working on his solo project. Now, Ricardo lives in Miami, Florida and has an interesting career as a session player with the most famous producers and artists, and as a side-man, playing with many artists nationally and internationally renown.

Among the techniques Ricardo uses, you can point out his guitar-like lines when he improvises in jazz. Given the fact that he started as a drummer, his slap technique resembles a drum pattern. His knowledge of theory, harmony and guitar, allows him to approach the chords on the bass smoothly and musically, whether is a four string bass or a seven string bass. He also loves the fretless feel and sound. In order to compose and write songs, Ricardo uses the guitar and the piano. Contrary to other colleagues, he rarely uses the electric bass as a tool for compose. However, the guitar and the piano are extremely useful not only for his compositions but for his arrangements as well. Even for improvisation studies, very often Ricardo tries new and different ideas first on the guitar or the piano and then, he translates them to the bass fingering, color and intention.