I was born on July 28th, 1955 in Philadelphia, PA. My father, Jymie Merritt, is the first bass player I’d ever known, and the reason why I do what I am doing today. He had established himself in the 50’s and 60’s on recordings and gigs with Tadd Dameron, Earl Bostic, Bullmoose Jackson, B.B. King, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Chet Baker, Benny Golson, Dizzy Gillespie and many others. My mother, Dorothy, always had the house filled with great jazz sounds on the record player and radio when we were kids. I remember hearing Ray Charles, Horace Silver, Dakota Staton, Gloria Lynne, Jimmy Smith and many other greats, some of whom, like John Coltrane and Bobby Timmons would stop by our house occasionally to see us.

I discovered bass playing in my mid-teens when I would come up to New York where my father had relocated in the mid-60’s and tag along with him to his gigs. I always knew Jymie as an upright player but when I saw that he had an electric bass, something clicked. That bass, a 1964 Fender Jazz Bass, was given to me and is the centerpiece of my bass collection and I continue to use it to this very day. That’s around the time when I met Lee Morgan, Max Roach, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Jordan, Odean Pope and many other cats on the jazz scene at that time. (1968-70) (Continued on the site's biography page for more background info)

check out the other members of the Max Weinberg 7 (and one substitute drummer) because they deserve love too.
Scott Healy (Keyboards)
Max Weinberg (Drummer)
Mark 'Love Man' Pender (Trumpet)
Richie 'La Bamba' Rosenberg (Trombone)
Jerry Vivino (Saxophone)
Jimmy Vivino (Guitar)
Jimmy Wormworth (Substitute Drummer)