My Father’s Bass

Published in: G.U.M.M. — October 2026 / Blueprint Sankofa

Cover Story — Story 06 of 07.

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Different tools. Same instinct.

Creative inheritance does not always arrive through the same medium.

Joel Andrew Utterbach Sr. is remembered in this story through bass, architecture, building, humor and creativity. Those details may appear to belong to separate categories, but they share an instinct: the instinct to understand structure and make something work.

The bass sits inside music. Architecture sits inside space. Building turns an idea into a physical form. Humor changes the emotional temperature of a room. Creativity moves through all of them.

That is why a family blueprint should not be reduced to a list of musicians. The deeper inheritance may be problem-solving, rhythm, proportion, patience, curiosity or the willingness to work with materials until they become something useful.

A bassist understands time from inside the ensemble. A builder understands weight, balance and connection. Both require attention to what happens beneath the surface. Both reward consistency. Both can make other people’s contributions stronger by giving them a foundation.

For the next generation, those lessons can become music production, writing, design, technology, business or community work. The tool changes. The instinct remains.

This is especially important for artists who believe they must imitate the exact career of the person who came before them. Inheritance is not imitation. A child does not have to play the same instrument to carry forward the same seriousness. A producer does not have to become a bassist. A rapper does not have to repeat a parent’s route through music.

The question is: what way of seeing did you receive?

Maybe it was the habit of fixing things instead of discarding them. Maybe it was the ability to hear a pattern. Maybe it was humor under pressure. Maybe it was the belief that a small project deserved care.

Those are creative tools too.

G.U.M.M. Move: Write down three non-musical skills you learned from a parent, elder or mentor. Then identify how each one appears in your current creative or business practice.