Terrance Palmer

The Michigan-based Palmer, 37, has become as much a gospel bass hero as his peers Andrew Gouché, Joel Smith, Fred Hammond, and Maurice Fitzgerald—able to move from 5-string thud to scissor-sharp slap to heavenly fretless. But as any praise and worship plucker will tell you, glorifying the groove is Job One. “I try to get beneath everything and move it along,” says Terrance. “There’s a certain drive you have to provide at all times, but with so many people playing and singing you really have to pick your spots and keep it simple and tight. You don’t want it to sound like everyone is competing with each other; that’s the difference between a good gospel band and a not-so-good one.” He continues, “I always keep eye contact with the drummer, and I listen to everyone onstage. It’s all about communication. There’s a place you get to when everyone hits the pocket; at that point it’s all flowing, and it seems like whatever you play just fits right in.”

It took Palmer some time to find his place when it came to choosing an instrument. Raised on the sounds of Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Motor City gospel greats like the Winans and the Clarks, Terrance showed a gift for music by age three. His mother, a pianist, had him try sax, trumpet, tuba, piano, and drums, which he settled on until his last year of high school, when the school’s resident bassist graduated. Palmer had been attracted to the sound of the bass—he even removed the top two strings from his acoustic guitar—so when he was asked to try filling the vacant bass chair, he agreed. “Something clicked immediately when I picked up the electric bass and started playing it, like this is where I was meant to be,” he recalls. Within two years he was backing no less than Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin at benefits, while landing in the band of legendary gospel composer/keyboardist Thomas Whitfield (replacing Mary J. Blige bassist and musical director Lanar Brantley).

Inspired by the low-end likes of Anthony Jackson (“I wore out a Grover Washington Jr. concert video”), Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Richard Bona, and fellow Detroit thumper Al Turner, Palmer shaped his style on his own, but it was Whitfield who taught him his most valuable lessons. “I thought no one could touch me early on; I had chops and I was overplaying. But Reverend Whitfield straightened me out—he taught me discipline and gave me an appreciation of music. For an entire year he told me to play only the parts on his albums. When it finally sunk in, he said, ‘Okay—now you can start expressing yourself.’” Having given himself to the groove, another key to Terrance’s development was a founding role and six-year stint with Fred Hammond & Radical For Christ. “Fred is such a great bassist himself, with a drive and sound no one can duplicate. Listening to him I learned how to be aggressive yet in the pocket, and how to create song-suited bass lines. He also taught me all about studio production.” Tiring of traveling and wanting to focus on the writing and production side, Palmer left Hammond in 1999 (he was replaced by Maurice Fitzgerald), built a home studio, and began writing commercials.

In 2001, musical director Aaron Lindsey called on Palmer for Israel & New Breed’s Sony debut, New Season, and Terrance has been back on the road and recording with the band ever since. Their most recent effort is the double-CD Alive in South Africa. Says Terrance, “Everyone in the band is into many different kinds of music, which is fortunate considering we cover R&B, pop, funk, jazz, blues, Latin, alternative rock, and hip-hop. You have to be on the ball because the shows are never the same, and Israel will change direction in a heartbeat.” So how does he come up with his bass lines? “Israel and Aaron are very vocal about the direction they want, and they count on us to expand on their ideas. So I usually think of a particular artist or bassist—‘What would Anthony play here?,’ or, ‘This has a John Mayer vibe.’ Once I get the concept, I have the freedom to put myself into the part. Also, New Breed’s music is all guitar- or keyboard-written, so there are a lot of chord inversions, with me playing the 3rd or the 5th. And we’re big on unison sections; we like to show that we play together. But there’s no bass book and very few charts,” he says, pointing to his head. “It’s all up here.”

Palmer describes his technique as pretty basic: two-finger plucking, thumb-and-index slapping and popping, and palm-muting with thumb and index plucks. He gets a solo space in the New Breed show, for which he generally finds himself trying to play a Willie Weeks-like groove solo over a one or two-chord vamp. “I love leaning on our drummer, Michael ‘Big Mike’ Clemons, who used to be in Usher’s band. He hits hard, and he’s so easy to lock with.” The same can’t be said of programmed drums on studio dates. “With sequenced drums, I have to work hard because you’re creating the feel for both instruments. The machine is locked into one thing, and if I try to go somewhere, it’s not going to follow. That’s why I’m happy live drums are prevalent in gospel.” Also widespread in gospel’s new movement is “praise and worship.” “Praise and worship goes beyond a musical style; it’s a lifestyle, like hip-hop. It’s inviting God to be a part of you and letting the music come through you to inspire others.”