![]() ![]() Julio also learned to always follow the boss. If there are any problems, they’re not from you. “If anything bad happens, make sure it’s not because of you. “Never be late, never let anything be on you,” Papito told his son. Yet, his most important lesson from his father had nothing to do with their shared talent. “He knew so much more than I did, so I just listened,” Hernandez says with reverence. Of course he hit up his old man for lessons when he was starting out. That sort of musical cache comes in handy with mainstream pop music, too, because of the array of sounds pulled from when it’s time to get creative.Īnd while Hernandez did not seek to copy his father, Julio is not insane. Papito’s work ethic was relentless, and part of his success was due to his versatility, just like Julio. However, Julio did take some key advice from his father: Learn to play everything, every style of music possible, particularly within the Latin-American genre. “But then I did it my way,” Hernandez says. Instead, Julio focused on developing his own style from the start, drawing from favorite players like Clarke, Neal Stubenhaus and Nathan East. The Strip turned into its own sort of university as Julio threw himself into studying the many percussionists and horn players who played in town with the days’ stars like Wayne Newton.ĭespite his father’s looming presence in his life, Hernandez never aspired to become his father’s clone. ![]() While playing with his father’s peers, Julio got a lot of let’s-see-if-you’re-as-good-as-your-old-man sideways stares. Hernandez and Orlando stayed and became fixtures on the Vegas scene. Not long after, Julio’s parents moved back to Miami permanently. “He pushed me into it,” Hernandez recalls, tickled by the stress surrounding his first paying gig. Papito did not want to abandon his steady gig at the Dunes, so he took a chance on Julio as his sub. When Papito left for another brief tour with Steve and Eydie in 1978, Hernandez, by then studying music at UNLV, got his big shot. Papito signed on at Caesar’s, the Hilton and the Dunes as part of the casinos’ house bands that backed touring musicians. It was love at first sight.”īarely a year later, the family moved again, this time to Las Vegas. “I just started playing, and it was like breathing,” Hernandez said. Risking everything, Julio absconded with his father’s 1970 Fender P-Bass, teaching himself to play behind closed doors at the family’s Miami home where they had relocated again for Pepito’s career. Orlando, however, was not up for sharing, and dashed Julio’s drumming dreams the moment he found out his little brother was playing his sticks.Īround 16, Hernandez discovered legendary bass player Stanley Clarke, whose solo albums are some of the most influential in jazz fusion history. Hernandez was left to his own devices.ĭesperate, Julio resorted to breaking the cardinal rule of big-brother, little-brother relations by sneaking and playing his elder sibling Orlando’s prized drum set, unleashing his pent up adolescent angst on the borrowed cymbals and snares. Nobody ever put a bass guitar in his hands. No one encouraged Julio to join in on the familia’s jam sessions. Growing up with not only a father who was a musical prodigy, but an entire pedigree of melodic double helixes thanks to aunts and uncles, grandparents, siblings and more, it was no surprise that Hernandez would follow in his father’s footsteps. With more than 600 albums in both American and Latin music markets and dozens of tours under his guitar strap during the last four decades, Julio’s Nordstrand loyalty is more than flattering - it’s an honor. These days, Hernandez, Barry Gibbs’ bassist since 2005, is one of the music industry’s go-to players, known for his professionalism, Zen attitude and infectious smile as much as his chops. ![]() His father’s crazy schedule, while not conducive to full-time, hands-on parenting, helped prepare Julio for a future as a professional musician. “That was just what dad did,” Hernandez says, looking back. Another year, the family stayed behind while Papito was on tour with Anka, and pop peers Andy Williams, and Steve and Eydie, amounting to a total of four months of family time. ![]() By age 13, his family settled in LA for Papito’s gig as part of Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass. For the Cuban-born kid touring Europe with his bass player father, Orlando “Papito” Hernandez, that was just quality time with family and friends.īut childhood wasn’t all jet setting for Julio, now in his 50s. Whether he was jumping on crooner Paul Anka’s bed for a morning wakeup call or innocently attempting to snap a picture of camera shy, Lady Sings the Blues -era Diana Ross, brushes with fame were all in a day’s play for young Julio. Renowned bassist Julio Hernandez’s childhood was anything but humdrum, but Hernandez didn’t know it at the time. ![]()
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