Denver jazzman knocking out rhythms

Gigging With Colin Gieg
by Bryce Martin

Colin Gieg was born in San Mateo, Calif., and moved to the Bakersfield region around age five when his father took over Ken's Chevron, a family-owned business in Mettler.

He graduated from Bakersfield High in 1960. At age seven, Jimmy Thomason invited him to play piano for one of his radio shows. Gieg took piano lessons from Ralph Yaw, first at a place on Chester Avenue and later in a back room of Yaw's music store in East Bakersfield. Yaw, he remembers as "having a mustache, short and with stubby fingers." He credits Yaw, a former arranger for Stan Kenton, as being a fabulous instructor.

"I still have an old chart where he wrote out all the notes. For the first six months, I never had anything printed. He wrote out every note. He taught me so much and really inspired me to make music a big part of my life."

He played guitar, piano and accordion and at age 15 took up the upright bass, taking lessons from a member of the Kern Philharmonic. In high school, he played bass in coffee houses around Bakersfield and in school assemblies.

"While in high school my last two years, I played as much as four nights a week sometimes at The Bamboo Room on East California. The manager, Charles Strong, played drums. A tenor sax, and an organ player, Ted Shirley, would come up from Los Angeles."

One musician he worked with was guitarist Paul Raley.

"Paul Raley was such a great guitar player. He was left handed but played the guitar right handed. Since he was left handed, he started practicing left handed so he could convert. So, he was practicing all day left handed and then he'd come and play at night right handed. He was finally able to make the transition to playing left handed. He was a great player either way."

Gieg remembers just one occasion where he was involved with Bakersfield's country music scene.

"Jimmy Thomason got my name from somewhere and called me to work a show with him. I reminded him about being on his radio program when I was really young. We went to Tehachapi and did a show at the prison. It was a lot of fun."

In the late 1960s, after a tour with the U.S. Army, he played for a time with the Charles Strong Trio at the Penthouse on Union Avenue.

Gieg lives in Denver where he has long been a prominent fixture on the local jazz scene.

He has played on many recordings. One of his first was when he contributed on bass to a chart album issued in 1965 from female trendsetter Rusty Warren, one entitled More Knockers Up! (Jubilee JGM-2059). The LP was a followup to Warren's smash party record from 1960, the "sin-sational" Knockers Up! (Jubilee JGM-2029), an album that managed to stay on the charts for three years running.

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