Gettin Funky

When Rick Gardner was a teenager living in Wichita in the 1960s, he had visions of playing baseball for money. "I was headed for the majors. Back in that day, 17, 18 years old, I was a fireball. Boy, I had a really good fastball." Gardner made the major leagues, allright. The major leagues of music.Instead of riding a fastball to fame, he's riding a trumpet.Instead of playing with George Brett and Reggie Jackson and Sammy Sosa, he has played with Bootsy Collins and Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield. Instead of playing for the Royals or the Yankees or the Cubs, he has played with the Fabulous Flippers, Up With People and Parliament. "Who would have thought that somebody coming out of Wichita would have done things with these kind of people - Iggy Pop in Detroit to George Clinton to Chili Peppers to Beastie Boys?" Gardner says. "You've pretty much covered the gamut of rock and roll and heavy metal type of music." And what a long, strange trip it's been.That trip finds Gardner back in Wichita after decades of playing funk in Europe, the United States and elsewhere. He returned after marrying his childhood friend, the then-Pat Carnahan. They live in west Wichita.Gardner's musical journey has many twists and turns, and each has left a mark on the man who didn't set out to play funk, a jazzy rhythm and blues with a heavy backbeat.'It was as if God had sat down and played the piano' Gardner, who attended Roosevelt Junior High, East High and Wichita State University, played with the infectiously upbeat Up With People in 1966 and l967. One crew toured Europe, while Gardner's contingent toured the warmer climates. One stop was Puerto Rico, where a young and impressionable Gardner found himself in the house of famed cellist Pablo Casals."He was about a hundred years old then, and he was the world's premier cellist," says Gardner, 52. "That was probably the most important musical event of my whole life. He sat down and played piano for us. It was as if God had sat down and played the piano. It was the most humbling experience of my whole life. "It was like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, everybody rolled into one. The reincarnate of all musical persons into one place at one time. "He pointed to a lampshade that had the masters on it. 'This is where you get your foundation.' He looked straight into my eyes. "He played some chords or melodies...I was like ground into the ground. My humility, was like, I couldn't believe I was there." Who would have thought that somebody coming out of Wichita...Flippin' out