When I first met Charles Bascome in the lobby of The Royal Gazette offices, he was surprised I had never heard of him. "You don't know who I am?" he asked.

I decided to investigate, and discovered his annual concerts and the scholarship fund which bears his name. Yet I wanted to know more, and so I asked him about his love of music.

Said Mr. Bascome, who held two jazz concerts and a free workshop for kids over the weekend: "Well I've been around for years, perhaps you're too young. But I have been around since the old [former nightclub] 40 Thieves days.

"I used to work with the Ghandi Burgess Band and we used to play all the international shows. When (the Fairmont) Southampton Princess opened up, he had the house band up there."

With experience under his belt, he decided to pursue a formal education.

"I then spent four years in Boston at the Berklee College of Music and I majored in composition, arranging and composing," he said.

"Then I came back here. There was less going on in music then [there had been]. It was kind of difficult to adjust. And when you have a wife and two children you just can't run all over the place."

He added: "Fortunately, I had a trade. So I went back to that. I used to be an automotive electrician. "I used to work for a place down here [on Dundonald Street] called Lucas House.

"We used to do all of the electrical work on cars and at that time most of the cars were British cars."

Mr. Bascome is a percussionist, but says he plays a little piano as well. "Music was a sideline that became a part of my living," he said.

"In those days you could make a living out of it because every hotel had a nightclub at that time. There was the Joe Wylie Band, Al Harris' Band they used to be over at the old Gombey Room at the Harmony Hall.

"I got a chance to see some great people who came through there. I remember when Sarah Vaughn made her first trip to Bermuda, she was supposed to appear inside for the whites and outside for the blacks this was years ago and she said, 'No way, if I am going to perform, it is going to be for everybody!' And that is exactly what she did.

"And there have been several artists like that."

He has also had the opportunity to perform with many of the world's great entertainers.

"Wesley Dill, and I think he has passed, he brought in top artists. He used to bill the artists around local players. I think that was one of the reasons that I went away to school, because it was then that you realised what little you really knew.

"They had all kinds of acts that came in, Chuck Jackson, Nancy Wilson big names now, but they weren't big names then, and they all played here."

A great recollection was when Dionne Warwick performed at popular nightclub 40 Thieves.

"I believe they [Ms Warwick and owner Terry Brannon] had words, because he always brought them in with an option you did the first week and if it was successful then you did the second week.

"Anyhow, that girl drew such big crowds and then he wanted her to stay longer. She said, 'You didn't want me then, you don't want me now'.

"She then went to Europe and when she came back, she was a big star. She brought her own band with her and everything else she was a big act. You found that a lot of American stars went to Europe and became big stars over there."

Mr. Bascome, who has taught music over the years, feels that it is vital to expose young people to the arts.

"My son's two children play the piano, the violin and [take lessons in] voice," he said. "And they seem to really enjoy it. They say kids who are involved in music even do better in school.

"I know, my little granddaughter, she just loves music and she is also in the Boston Children's Choir. You should hear that choir, they have all different grades and they travel a lot."

He taught percussionist Eddie Ming, who has the Drum Academy in St. George's.

"Eddie is one of the students that I had for a long time," he said.

"Although I don't do that much teaching now. After a while I thought, 'what I am doing now has got to be for me'.

"[But] a lot of people have been asking me if I would. Perhaps I should."

Even with his vast experience, Mr. Bascome believes one should never stop learning he is now taking piano lessons.

"Learning composition, you learn everything from a writing standpoint. But studying the piano, you learn from a performing standpoint. I am enjoying it. I just like to keep busy, plus I just like to keep my mind occupied."