It all started about ten years ago. I was living at my parents' house in Virginia when a good friend of mine, Keith Horne, came by with a videotape of pianist Ramsey Lewis's band on the Arsenio Hall Show. "I like Ramsey," I said. "Who's on bass?" "Bill Dickens," Keith answered. "Bill Dickens!" "Who?" The tape started with the band playing an intro for Ramsey, which included a bass solo of only about four measures. But within those four bars, it seemed as if a lifetime of bass playing had gone by. ....I had never-and still haven't-seen a player reach that level of intensity in such a short amount of time. It was as if martial arts master Bruce Lee were on bass: O to 60 in 4.8 seconds. My brother Regi and I were on the floor, laughing in amazement. The TV speaker vvas distorting-not because of the volume level, but because the speaker could not reproduce the notes as fast as Bill was playing them. After about the tenth viewing, I checked my pulse and picked up my jaw so I could ask, once again, what this man's name was. Then I set out on a quest to find him. ....A few years later, I found myself in Chicago; I had just finished a gig and was about to hop into a taxi to the airport when I ran into Keith Horne again. He told me he was headed up the street to the NAMM show, where he was going to be performing with Beaver Felton and Bill Dickens. My adrenaline started to flow. After quickly changing my plane ticket and scamming my way into the show, I was finally getting my chance to see the master in person. .. ..Bill was simply amazing. He took his 6-string on a journey through countless styles of music, and he soloed through complex jazz tunes as easily as if he were playing nursery rhymes. He could mix funk with jazz and rock and then add a touch of blues in an amazingly creative way, like a chef adding new spices to an all-too-familiar dish. The speed of his fingers vvas shocking, and at times he used all ten digits to produce his wonderful sounds. At times he plucked with all five fingers of his right hand and moved them up and down the neck in both directions. To call this man a master jazz musician would be much too limiting. (next page)