San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘I’m practicing at home, all day, every day’
CECIL MCBEE JR. BASSIST
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Cecil Mcbee Jr. played as many as eight to 10 music gigs a week. Now, the veteran bassist is lucky to score one or two a month, but he’s not letting his lack of paid performances lead to idle time. “I always like to come out of a crisis better off than when I went in, if I can, musically speaking,” said Mcbee, a versatile mainstay of the San Diego music scene for several decades.
“One of the benefits of among his former being a full-time musician employers. Over the years — even now — is you can here, he has stood out really get a lot of work done, playing rock, funk, pop and if you want to. I have time to other contemporary styles, be constructive, so I’m including a two-year stint practicing at home, all day, as the bassist in the band every day.” of now-deceased R&B
A native of Tulsa, Okla., vocal favorite Ella Ruth who grew up in Los Angeles, Piggee. Mcbee was seemingly “Even before COVID-19, born to his instrument. The the life of a musician has son of a storied jazz bassist, always been unpredictable,” he has the same tireless Mcbee noted. devotion to his instrument “There are times when as his father. everyone is working, like
The younger Mcbee is before 2007. And then the also well-versed performing bottom fell out, because we jazz and counts the late had a recession, and nobody drum legend Chico Hamilton could work. Even the booking agents went out of business.”
To hear him tell it, weathering the 2007-08 economic crisis was in some ways even more daunting than dealing with the current pandemic, albeit for a shorter period.
“All of our work disappeared then and almost everything shut down,” Mcbee recalled. “Unlike now, we — self-employed musicians — didn’t get any unemployment benefits to help us get through back then. But we survived. The lesson I learned was a spiritual one — that no matter how dark and scary things get, everything will work out.”
Yet, even with some current government financial aid, life is not easy for the North Park-based musician. He currently receives weekly unemployment checks for $260, but those payments will stop in December. Unless Congress approves a second stimulus package, which brought him an extra $600 a week through July, Mcbee could find himself in dire straits.
“At one point, I had a four-month extension on my car payments,” he said. “Now, it’s time to pay up, and I owe them for four months. As we speak, I’m about to pay my water bill, and it’s a lot, because I haven’t paid it since April. If you do a gig that pays more than $260, you won’t get unemployment for that week.”
But getting any live gigs now, for any amount of pay, is a formidable challenge.
In years prior to the pandemic, Mcbee played at weddings every weekend during the summers, earning $200 to $600 for each. The most recent wedding he played was before the mid-march lockdown. His other engagements — including club dates, casino shows and lucrative private events and parties for hotels and conventions — evaporated at the same time.
One of his only two October gigs was at Valley View Casino, for which he was paid. The other was in the parking lot at Tio Leo’s in Bay Park, for which he and the other two musicians — drummer Barry Farrar and keyboardist Adam Wolff — received dinners, but no financial compensation.
“We get a meal out of it and we get to play,” said Mcbee, who has also performed at some audience-free backyard jam sessions.
“Musicians are hungry to do $100 gigs, which won’t cover much other than, maybe, your cellphone bill and a little gas for your car.”
One of his musician friends is now “making good money” by driving for Lyft. Such work is not an option for Mcbee, as he is quick to stress.
“No, because I’m completely focused on music,” he said. “I believe I’ll end up playing again, the same as I always have, and I’m not planning to do anything else. I’m an artist and I want to improve my skills. I don’t want to be driving people around all day because I need money. I would do that, if I had to. But I would not be a happy camper, and I would feel like I’m wasting my time . ...
“I’m single. For musicians who have spouses who are working, it’s a little easier, financially, but it might be a little more stressful on the relationship. You never know what will happen to you as a musician, and you don’t have any security. It can be kind of stressful sometimes, but it’s what I do. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
“Even before COVID-19, the life of a musician has always been unpredictable.” Cecil Mcbee Jr.