REDSTONE ARSENAL, Alabama -- Although members of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command work hard to defend the nation, some of its members also play hard to entertain the community.
In their off time, several members of USASMDC/ARSTRAT play in local bands, churches and with friends to share their musical talents, let off a little steam and entertain music fans across the Tennessee Valley.
"I think I have always been a musician," said Bobby Taylor, SMDC Command Safety deputy safety officer and drummer and vocalist with the band Juice. "I started playing the drums at 3 years old. There was always music playing in our house, and I was a rambunctious little boy, so my parents bought me a drum set to get out some of my energy.
"When I was in high school, I was in various bands, and it's just really never stopped," he added. "I have played the drums at Willowbrook Church for the past seven years and I have played in my current band, for more than 15 years. They are truly some of the most talented musicians in Alabama. It's also a pretty good side job."
Taylor talked about his musical inspirations as well as his favorite genres of music.
"I like all kinds of music," Taylor said. "I love anything from B.B. King to Michael Jackson, and everything in between. I love singing Harry Connick Jr. to my girls and jamming out with my 6-year-old son in the car. They all love music."
He spoke about performing in the local area and meeting fellow musicians.
"We have pretty much played everywhere in Huntsville," Taylor said. "Now, we just play private events that keep us busy most every weekend. We usually play the kickoff for Concerts in the Park every year.
"We have played with quite a few famous people," he added. "We have opened up for big names like Hootie and the Blowfish, Boyz II Men, Hunter Hayes, Kool and the Gang and recently played with American Idol's Paul McDonald."
Taylor said his family was his biggest supporters and even though he enjoyed performing on stage, his greatest thrill is going home and being a husband and father.
"Everything I do is for my family, even continuing to play in the band," Taylor said. "We, as a band, have been very fortunate and blessed to be successful and in demand. My wife and three children support my passion and are my biggest fans. Fortunately, my children have my love of music and are quite talented."
One of Taylor's fellow band members is also an arranger and singer in the SMDC and Missile Defense Agency's acapella group, the Missile Tones. The group is composed of SMDC and MDA personnel who sing for retirements, promotions and departures of people in both commands.
"I am not responsible for the beautiful gift I've been given, but I am responsible for what I do with it," said Leonard Lee Adams Jr., Modeling and Simulations Branch, Decision Support Division, Capability Development Integration Directorate, Future Warfare Center extended air defense simulation international analyst and operations research systems analyst. "And what I do with it, I do with love. Love for people, love for life, love for celebration, love for reflection, love that can make you cry but then promises to wipes your tears away."
Adams, bassist and vocalist with the band, told how Juice, plays at wedding receptions, corporate Christmas parties, the Concerts in the Park at Big Spring Park in downtown Huntsville and other local venues. Adams mentioned that Juice has also opened for such artists as Cowboy Mouth, Zac Brown, Gin Blossoms, Train and others.
While serving in the Army, Adams got a chance to use his talents to entertain his brothers and sisters in arms and was fortunate enough to be in a band that could travel across Europe to support the Americans stationed there.
"I am a veteran, and I was stationed in Baumholder, Germany, from 1981-1983," Adams said. "In 1982, the band I played and sang in, the band Fortified Funk, competed in a U.S. Army Europe musical competition, along with other acts. We won the band portion of the competition, which allowed us to go on tour and play for the troops in Germany, Holland and Italy.
"I also was a member of the 77th U.S. Army Band from 1987 to 1989, and in that capacity I played and sang many patriotic events for the military community, veterans and their families while stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma."
Adams talked about his musical talents and how his family nurtured and inspired him to develop his gift. He said his father was a musician who played guitar and organ, and was a lead singer in the band called The Progressive Souls in Chicago. He talked about how he and his siblings formed a singing group when they were young.
"I was probably 8 or 9 years old when we began singing together," Adams said. "In seventh grade, when I was 12 years old, we were required to play an instrument, and I chose flute, because we were very poor, and the flute was the only instrument in the band that didn't require any additional expenditure, such as reeds or mouthpieces.
"I began playing bass guitar when I was 15, and the reason is a sad but funny story," he continued. "My brother had been playing rhythm guitar for a group, and he told me that the leader of the group would take him out for a steak meal after each gig, so I learned to play because I was hungry.
"I learned in high school that I could listen to a song and know every note and chord that was being played just by listening, and I began arranging music, by hand, for all the instruments in my high school band," Adams said. "Back in the 70s, there were no personal computers. The only way to get band music was to order it, and it was never current, so my band director loved the fact that I could take songs that just came out on the radio and hand write every part for every instrument in the band."
Adams said he finds his greatest inspiration from the old jazz legends like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Sarah Vaughn.
"I find I can abandon myself to their interpretations of musical progressions," he said. "So my favorite kind of music is the jazz standards of old, because of the depths of their richness and complexity, as well as the ethereal solos that reinterpret, over and over again, what the chord progressions mean."
Although not currently in a band, one SMDC employee has played in several bands throughout the years as a keyboard and piano player, a trumpet player and a bass player.
"I have, for as long as I can remember, felt that music is the glue that holds the soul together," said Joseph L. Motley, Reagan Test Site program analyst. "I didn't know what to call what I felt when I listened to music or even when I started to play," Motley said. "I know that it gave me a sense of calm when listening or playing, and growing up in Detroit, you look for all the calm you can get."
Motley said he started playing when he was around 5 years old. He said his first memory of wanting to play is when he heard a song by Sonny Rollins called 'Airegin.' He told his mother he wanted to play saxophone, and she asked that he be put in music class.
"I went in to the class for the first time with my best friend that also wanted to play saxophone," Motley said. "Our teacher, Mr. Stacy, looked at us and said, 'let me see your teeth.' When I opened my mouth, he said to me, 'you should not play saxophone, you don't have the teeth for it. You should be a trumpet player.' So he sent me home as a trumpet player. I learned sax sometime after that, but I stuck with trumpet as my main instrument for some time.
"When I got to high school, my music teacher, Mr. Bonner, would send me home with a different instrument every three or so months, to test me and give the other trumpet players a chance, he would say," he added. "I used to laugh when I saw the look on my mother's face when another instrument would show up. Tubas, French Horns, saxophones and trombones; it was hilarious."
Motley said his first performance playing, besides school programs, was with his high school band, Fusion. He had double duty as piano and trumpet player, depending on the song.
"We were a Jazz group, so we played a mix of songs, from Coltrane to Monk at the Detroit Improv," Motley said. "I left to go to college and the Army, the band went to California. While in Germany, I learned to play flute; a lot of my playing while in the Army was sitting in on spots around Germany or the United States as a hobby musician. Around 1992, I broke my left hand while operating as a truck driver and so for about three years, I couldn't pick up anything.
"I was listening to some of my friends' music when I heard a song that polarized me: Steve Vai's Tender Surrender," he continued. "I had to learn how to play guitar, but I had this hand that had pins and screws in it. When my hand healed, and the doctor told me that I would only have about 70 percent strength in it, I decided that I would be able to play again.
"Giving up on keyboard, I picked up playing guitar and bass," Motley added. "It was a slow process. Sometimes I would not be able to even play a chord, but I wanted to be able to play. Guitar is now what I play extensively, even though I play my favorite instruments, keyboard and trumpet, from time to time."
Motley spoke of his musical inspirations and discussed his favorite genres of music.
"I pull something from everything that I listen to, from Robert Johnson to Chuck Mangione to Killswitch to Yellowman to Jason Mraz to Kraftwerk," Motley said. "It may be easier to ask what my least favorite music is, and to that I would say Bluegrass and Zydeco. But besides that, I listen to everything else on a daily basis. You will never know what is in my playlist.
"I revel in the flow of music," he added. "When the texture shows the journey that the creator has travelled, it sparks my interest to hear the 'soul' behind the music. There have been plenty of people to make music, but only a few make it well. I am not inspired by one thing or one group of things; playing fast or slow, blues to jazz to metal, or even instrumental versus lyrics doesn't matter to me. For me it is, 'can I understand what your melody and harmony is telling me.' If I understand the beauty in the music, then I am inspired."
He said that Jazz musician Paul Jackson Jr. once explained that a musician always seeks to be the best at what he does, and if Motley only played one style, that, in his opinion, is holding himself back as a musician.
"I listen to everything and try to play everything, to expand my horizons," Motley said. "I am now in more of a blues vibe. I feel the blues shows what a person is truly feeling; the pain and pleasure of the music is on full display with the blues. It is so raw and earthy; I feel like it is a stripped down version of humans.
"I sit for hours listening to classic blues like Howling Wolf and John Lee, and also listening to modern blues, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Keb Mo, Tab Benoit, Indigenous and Kenny Wayne Shepherd," he added.
Motley said that he has not played in the local area and now plays just for the relaxation of the day.
"Performing was fun, but it is not for everyone," he said. "I find that when I am with a close group of friends and we pull out instruments and play, that it is more fulfilling to me. That closeness, the molding and messiness of it and the spontaneity; that is what I love.
"I may get back out there one day and perform for people, but to me, this way of playing gives me the most joy," Motley added. "And I believe that should be what music is about, giving joy, not only to those who hear it, but those who create it."
Being a Soldier for 31 years, Motley said he has played with troops numerous times.
"There were many times that we were mobilized or at garrison and brought our instruments in to the recreation centers, break rooms, picnics and just sat and laughed and played for everyone," Motley said. "I suppose that is why I love the improv music setting more than a scheduled performance. It was so much fun to sit with your brothers and sisters and not only learn the talents they had, but share in those talents."
Motley wants to remind people to never let anything or anyone tell them they cannot succeed at music, even if that person is them.
"I would like to say to anyone out there who has never played an instrument and who feels that it is 'too late to start,' that it is never too late," Motley said. There is no defined age to pick up something new, and music is one of those things. It is never too late to read a novel, or to exercise, or to try new things. Music is an extension of who you are, so how can it be too late to expand yourself?
"The world of music has no limits on gender or age," he added "You don't have to be a Van Halen, Hendrix or Tchaikovsky to play, you just need a willingness to learn, and motivation to make your kind of music. Al Jarreau, Leon Redbone, Leonard Cohen, John Ondrasik and others didn't start until much later in life, and you should not be any different, if that is your pursuit. And even if others think of it as noise or not music, it is your way of showing your journey, and I guarantee that somewhere there will be someone who understands and appreciates it. And that to me, is true music."
Another SMDC employee plays in the reggae band Kush and has played in local venues and musical festivals such as the Big Spring Jam, Panoply, Crossroads, Lowe Mill, Humphrey's, Focus Martini and Grill 2012, the Greenroom, the Furniture Factory, Alabama A&M University, Monte Sano, Burritt On the Mountain, Von Braun Convention Center, Brick Deli, African Festival in Tuscumbia and others.
Kush was named after an ancient African civilization, and Jimmie Sherode, SMDC G-8 budget analyst is one of three lead vocalist and plays the congas in the band.
"I grew up with a curiosity of Caribbean music, of which I attribute to my father's Dominican roots," said Sherode, who goes by the stage name, Remington Steele or Remi, in the band. "I soon began playing congas at my church as a teen. The very first band I joined was a reggae band called the Reggae Mystics, which was made up of good friends who knew I had love for reggae and that I played congas.
"My friend invited me to join in 2002," he added. "I stayed with this band playing percussion for five years until 2007. By 2006, I not only played percussion, I became the lead singer of the Reggae Mystics. The friends who invited me to the band split from the band due to leadership issues. I soon re-joined my friends in mid-2007 in their band Kush, where I still perform and play today. One day I hope to play percussion in a Latin band to expand and grow what percussion talents I have."
Sherode said his musical inspirations are Bob Marley, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Selena, Marc Anthony, Hector Lavoe, Willie Colon, Celia Cruz, Santana, Ibrahim Ferrer, Capleton, Sizzla, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Sam Cooke, Jill Scott and Lenny Kravitz.
He also said that from the Caribbean roots in his family, Reggae, Roots and Dancehall, Reggaeton, Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, R&B and Hip-Hop are his favorite kinds of music.
"I've played with local musician Ken Watters, and I've performed with reggae artist Warrior King," Sherode said. "Kush was the opening act for a big reggae concert at the Von Braun for Maxi Priest and Beres Hammond, both of whom I had the privilege of meeting. I also had the opportunity to meet old school reggae artist Everton Blender at his concert in Birmingham.
"I don't consider myself a singer, but music is very important to me," he added. "Performing on stage, I love being able to share a piece of how music makes me feel with the audience."
Sherode and Kush are scheduled to perform at Burritt on the Mountain, July 3 at 6 p.m.
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