| Hi Danny,
Sorry to be so slow in answering your questions!
> Since when did you start to play? How was your progress while you were playing bass, did you have some times that you felt that you can't be better or so and was thinking about dropping all the playing thing?
I started playing bass when I was 9 years old. I liked it very much and slowly got more serious about it. By the time I was 14 it was an all-consuming passion. I can’t say there was ever a time I considered giving up playing bass because I enjoy it so much and I always feel there is so much more to learn. However, I’ve never been all that crazy about the music business. In fact, I didn’t really plan to be a professional musician because I didn’t feel I really fit in -- I wanted to be a music teacher. But I kept getting gigs, so this is where I’ve ended up!
> What would you recommend for a bass player to know so he can be much more musical and creative but not only bound to this, like, what would you consider "important" as well?
Unless you’re just interested in being an entertainer (which I think is fine, by the way) I believe it’s helpful to understand as much about music as possible. I recommend that you listen to many different kinds of music and read all you can about music history, theory, harmony, acoustics, ethnomusicology, etc. Work hard not only on your chops, but your rhythm, ear training, dynamics, sensitivity, etc. Every bit of musical knowledge and each musical skill you have is a tool you can use in the creative process. The more I learn about music, the more I come to think of it as almost miraculous, and that’s enormously inspiring.
> From what I know you were a student of the great Jaco Pastorius, how was he teaching the bass and what things did he teach you, I assume he had his own way of teaching, I am really interested to hear about that.
Jaco was a very complicated person, simultaneously brilliant and deeply troubled. Although he was very intelligent, wanted to teach and knew a tremendous amount about music, he didn’t have a particular method and many of his students felt they didn’t get much from him. Fortunately for me, I had a million questions for him and he was quite kind and forthcoming about trying to help me understand where he was coming from. I would ask about a particular piece or phrase from one of his records, play it for him and then he would correct me on it or tell me the thought process behind it. We played a lot of jazz tunes together and that was fun.
>What were your basses (from what you can remember) from starting point to Zon today, and how did you got into Zon basses (playing their basses)?
My first bass was a real dog -- sort of a bad hollow body copy of the Hofner Beatle Bass. Later, I got a Gibson EB3 which was a much better instrument and that helped me a lot. Next I got a Univox P-bass copy and after a few years I put a real Fender fretless neck on it. In about 1980, I got a MusicMan Stingray fretless. Around 1983 I made a Jazz Bass style fretless myself out of parts. Then in 1987, if I recall, I got a beautiful Paul Reed Smith fretless. I met Joe Zon around 1989 and he expressed an interest in designing a bass together. The Hyperbass was completed in 1991 and it was such a positive experience working with Joe I’ve stuck with them ever since. I have lots of other instruments these days, but the Zons are the ones I play the most.
> How did you enter the music industry?
I started doing paying gigs when I was pretty young. I got offered a spot in a full-time professional band when I was 16 or 17, but I didn’t want to drop out of high school, so I turned down the offer. I went to Berklee School of Music in Boston for a year, played in a lot of different bands and did a lot of pick-up work for a few years. Then I was lucky enough to get involved with an independent record company called Windham Hill in 1981, and I became their house bassist. They went on to become quite popular and got picked up by a major label and that was very helpful for me. The way the music business was structured then, the major record labels controlled all the serious work, so that was really the only way to get to play at certain venues, get your music played on the radio and so on. Nowadays things are very different and you can do pretty well by working hard on your own. Good luck! | 
