BayFest

By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

Though he’s been around the world, Mobile native Dennis “Finger Roll” Nelson has received some of his greatest gifts from his hometown. When the jazz/R&B guitarist and producer hits the Miller Lite stage for BayFest on Fri., Oct. 6, it will be time to return the favor. “I’m going to put on a great show,” said Nelson. “I’m giving it everything I’ve got.”

“I’ve got to,” he joked, “Patti Labelle’s coming up after me.”

The Williamson High graduate learned his love for his craft away from the Port City. “I was traveling to New York a lot,” Nelson said, “and was in the Bronx one day when I heard some Latin grooves on the street and kind of got turned on to that. I understood what they were doing even though I wasn’t playing yet.”

Dennis went on to found a band in high school, then moved on to study in New York and Baton Rouge. “I studied under a really great jazz teacher at Southern University, a clarinetist named Alvin Battiste,” Nelson recalled. “I also became friends with Randy Jackson from ‘American Idol.’ Most people don’t know that he’s a really great bassist.”

It didn’t take long to find work after college. “Three weeks after graduating from Southern, I went back to New York and got a gig touring with a jazz trumpeter named Tom Brown,” said Nelson. “We went to Paris, London all over the place.”

His next lesson was harder. “The real eye opener was after that gig was up, trying to get out there and fight for jobs,” said Nelson. “In New York you’ve got to be really good because you might go down into the subway and see some guy who’s just great and it makes you wonder what he’s doing playing on the street.”

The experience bore a gift of insight. “A lot of these young guys don’t understand that you’ve got to have more than talent, you’ve got to persevere and know how to drive yourself.”

It makes him want to return the favor, to pass it on. “I’d like to have some kind of clinic in Mobile on marketing yourself’ said Nelson. “Teach them little things like, you know, you don’t send some record label a disc of yourself with 15 songs on it, you send a photo of yourself and your four best things.”

Mobile still aided. “I was fortunate again because of my Mobile connections,” remembered Dennis. “I was headed out to L.A. and my Uncle Marshall said ‘You’ll need a contact out there’ so he called (trombonist) Fred Wesley. Fred had played with James Brown and he told me Ray Charles was looking for a guitar player. So I arrived in Los Angeles on a Wednesday and was getting on a plane with Ray Charles on Friday.”

It stuck. “I worked with Ray Charles for three years.”

Back home he ran into a celebrity. “So I come home afterward and bumped into Otis Day from the movie ‘Animal House,’” said Nelson. “I ended up touring with him for a while and let me tell you that was like one long party.”

Meanwhile, Nelson’s songwriting habits paid off when Robert Palmer recorded a Finger Roll composition for a platinum selling album. The opportunity for production followed.

Finger Roll produced a Temptations album that received a 2000 Grammy Award and has worked with a world of major labels.

Dennis has a new album of hip-hop/jazz fusion set to hit the shelves in October.

Another thing about Mobile continues to give satisfaction every time he’s home. “The thing I miss most about Mobile is the food,” laughed Nelson. “One of the first places I go when I get back is to Wintzell’s. There’s also a place down at the Loop, Mudbugs and, man, that stuff they do with the crabs and shrimp and the boiled potatoes and corn, it’s out of this world.”

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

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