Francis Rocco Prestia Jr. (March 7, 1951 – September 29, 2020) was an American bassist, best known for his work with the

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

band

Tower of Power Tower of Power is an American R&B and funk based band and horn section, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing since 1968. The band has had a number of lead vocalists, the best-known being Lenny Williams, who fronted ...

Biography

Born in

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, Prestia started playing

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

as an adolescent. When he auditioned for

Emilio Castillo Emilio Castillo (born September 24, 1950) is an American saxophone player and composer, best known as the founder of the band Tower of Power. Background In 1965, Emilio Castillo took to music after he and his brother Jack were caught stealing b ...

's band,

, Castillo persuaded him to switch to

electric bass The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an electric but with a longer neck and scale leng ...

. Prestia worked with the band for the next three decades, before he became seriously ill in 2001. His fans and friends created a foundation in order to help pay the artist's medical costs. On December 5, 2014, Prestia underwent successful liver transplant surgery. Rocco is survived by the loves of his life, Julian Francis Rocco Prestia and Alicia-Lyn JoAnn Prestia.

Technique and influences

Prestia was a master of fingerstyle funk bass playing. His technique made heavy use of left hand muting. He muted his strings lightly to create a thick percussive sound while maintaining pitch clarity. He also frequently incorporated ghost notes to fill empty space. His characteristic sound, in combination with a highly rhythmic approach to bass lines, makes Prestia's sound unmistakable. Along with

James Jamerson James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bassist. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases un ...

Stanley Clarke Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist, composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jazz-fus ...

, Anthony Jackson and

Alphonso Johnson Alphonso Johnson (born February 2, 1951) is an American jazz bassist active since the early 1970s. Johnson was a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1973 to 1975, and has performed and recorded with numerous high-profile rock and ...

, Prestia belonged to a generation of musicians that fostered a revolution on the

—inspiring the innovative work of

Jaco Pastorius John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987), was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, ...

in the mid-1970s. Prestia's influential style can be heard on classic

tracks such as the 1973 hit "What is Hip". Prestia cited

and the different musicians who worked for

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

(particularly

Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s before joining the Parliament-Funkadelic collective, Collins established himse ...

) as his main influences.

Equipment

Prestia's primary instruments were his

Fender Precision The Fender Precision Bass (or "P-Bass") is a model of electric bass guitar manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In its standard, post-1957 configuration, the Precision Bass is a solid body, four-stringed instrument usually equ ...

basses (a purple transparent American Deluxe and a natural ash-bodied short-lived signature model with a reverse split pickup and a 2-band EQ). He later maintained an association with the Conklin company that provided him a custom built four-string instrument, one of the few in the company's catalog. In January 2013,

ESP Guitars is a Japanese guitar manufacturer, primarily focused on the production of electric guitars and basses. They are based in both Tokyo and Los Angeles, with distinct product lines for each market. ESP Company manufactures instruments under sever ...

announced that Prestia had joined their roster of endorsing artists. The company made reference to the introduction of their LTD RB series on May 22, 2014.

Death

Prestia died on September 29, 2020, at age 69, in a Las Vegas hospice.

Discography

As leader

* ''Everybody on the Bus!'' (1999)

With Tower of Power

* '' East Bay Grease'' (1970) * '' Bump City'' (1972) * ''

'' (1973) * '' Back to Oakland'' (1974) * ''

Urban Renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

'' (1975) * '' In The Slot'' (1975) * '' Live and in Living Color'' (1976) * ''

Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now ''Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now'' is an album by Tower of Power released in 1976, the band's first record on Columbia Records. Ron Beck takes up the drummers spot after David Garibaldi exited for a second time. This also would be the last alb ...

'' (1976) * ''

Power Power may refer to: Common meanings * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power, a type of energy * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events Math ...

'' (1987) * '' Monster on a Leash'' (1991) * '' T.O.P.'' (1993) * ''

Souled Out Souled Out was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in January from 1997 through 2000. The 1997 and 1998 WCW Souled Out PPV events were held on Saturdays due to the Super Bowl being pl ...

'' (1995) * ''Rhythm & Business'' (1997) * ''Direct Plus'' (1997) * ''Soul Vaccination Live'' (1999) * ''Dinosaur Tracks'' (2000) * ''Oakland Zone'' (2003) * ''The Great American Soul Book'' (2009) * ''Soul Side of Town'' (2018) * '' Step Up'' (2020)

With Other Artists

* Carmen Grillo, ''Both Sides Of The Coin'' (1996) *

Bruce Conte Bruce Anthony Conte (March 3, 1950 – August 8, 2021) was an American R&B and jazz fusion guitarist, known primarily for his work with the band Tower of Power, of which he was a member from 1972 to 1979. He performed on seven albums, and rej ...

, ''Right From My Heart'' (1997) (bass on "Thump") * Yoichi Murata, ''Hook Up'' (1999) (bass on "Positive Sign", "When You Leave (And I...)", "Carry On") *

Gov't Mule Gov't Mule (pronounced "Government Mule") is an American Southern rock jam band, formed in 1994 by guitarist Warren Haynes, bassist Allen Woody (both of The Allman Brothers Band at the time) and drummer Matt Abts (whom Haynes had worked with in ...

, ''

The Deep End, Volume 2 ''The Deep End, Volume 2'' is the fifth studio album by the American rock band Gov't Mule. The album was released on October 8, 2002, by ATO Records. After founding member and bass guitarist Allen Woody died, the band began recording tracks usin ...

'' (2002) (bass on "What Is Hip?")

Videography

* ''Fingerstyle Funk'' (1993) * ''Francis Rocco Prestia: Live at Bass Day'' (1998)

References

External links

* * *
Rocco Prestia
at How to Play Bass
Rocco Prestia Interview
at NAMM Oral History Library (2013) {{DEFAULTSORT:Prestia, Rocco 1951 births 2020 deaths People from Sonora, California American funk bass guitarists American male bass guitarists Guitarists from California American jazz bass guitarists Tower of Power members American people of Italian descent 20th-century American bass guitarists 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Jazz musicians from California