Flim & the BB’s

Not too many years from now no one will remember that I loved an obscure Jazz quartet known as “Flim & the BB’s”, alas.

They had their heyday in the mid to late 1980’s which was perfectly in sync with my late high school and early college days.

It was in the infancy of musical compact disks that were transforming recorded sound from analog recordings to digital ones.

The few CD offerings of the time were sold in long and narrow cardboard boxes that I would cut up and use to create wall art.

On those CD’s were three letters, either AAD, ADD, or DDD which indicated Analog or Digital: [recording][mixing/editing][mastering].

In those early days Flim & the BB’s were practically the only ones doing all three digitally with the rare designation of three D’s.

This is because in the late 70’s they were a group of studio musicians brought together by 3M labs to help develop the digital technology.

But they stayed together to record several CD’s (all of which I have) and their second one won Jazz album of the year in 1984.*

“Flim” is Jimmy Johnson who plays fretless bass and has gone on to back many famous artists as a much sought after bassist.

The other three include Bill Berg (drummer) and Billy Barber (keyboardist) who provided their initials for the aforementioned “BB’s”.

That leaves the saxophonist and sometimes flautist Dick Oatts who I later learned was a jazz professor at University of Cincinnati for a time. 

Their music is a time tunnel that has wormed its way to the present and is bidirectional,  connecting older me to the younger me.

It takes me back to my high school physics teacher’s house where he introduced me and my two best friends to some great music.

And if Flim & the BB’s are headed towards obscurity, well, I guess I am not too far behind and my kids will inherit these ancient “CD’s”.

*Tunnel

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