a biography...
Basso's entertainment career began early, at the age of nine, when he was gifted a trumpet mouthpiece...
Growing up in Florida poverty in the 1970s, Basso's single mother couldn't afford a trumpet. That did not keep Basso from practicing.
Basso used the mouthpiece to develop his pitch and tonal recall. Soon he began writing lyrics and chord progressions, influenced by the sounds of the day: funk, rhythm & blues, disco and soul.
Eventually a trumpet came into his life. He spent hours practicing daily.
Upon entering high school, Basso was already advanced.
By age 9, his mother's trek found the pair hitchhiking from Florida to the San Francisco Bay Area where his writing and musical influences intensified from the sounds of the day: mainly funk, disco and soul.
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By the time Basso graduated his interests in other arts developed; namely theatre, electronic music, and writing. His pursuits lead him to San Jose State University from which he earned a Music Performance baccalaureate in 1991.
It was while in college, his performance abilities blossomed. He ran his own theatre company, The Spartan Roving Players, and established the Bay Area Modern Music Connection, a public relations co-op for local entertainers. Basso evolved into a local DJ, emcee and promoter.
His appreciation of synthesizer new wave became a prominent source of inspiration. Soon he met the like-minded electronic music programmer, Sidney Maestre.
The two struck a musical kinship with Maestre creating music and Basso fronting their efforts as singer, lyricist and promoter.
Their band, Detsky Mir Project, begun in 1989 as simply "Detsky Mir" continues still thirty years on.
The duo are expecting a 30th anniversary of hits 'Compendium 30' in late 2018.
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However life's tempo increased and Basso's love of entertainment contended with fate.
In 1994 his grandfather, Neil Martin, a professional golfer, sculptor and World War II tank artillery man under Gen. Patton fell ill. Just as military service had taken Neil Martin to Europe some fifty years previously, Basso likewise was Europe-bound.
Basso set his entertainment pursuits aside to enter the military, as homage to his grandfather where he was trained in international resource and force protection.
Basso was recognized early as marksman, quickly advancing from small arms to mobile heavy weapons like the MK-19. He was subsequently deployed to the Middle East in support of Gulf War I, and then to the civil war ravaged Bosnia (Yugoslavia) assigned to UN/NATO. For a year Basso served as peacekeeper in the destabilized war zone implementing the Dayton Peace Accords.
Decorated and honorably discharged from active military duty in 2000, Basso is a disabled veteran living with PTSD and physical disabilities incurred from his military service.
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Basso's mother, Donna Dee, who had become homeless while he was away in the military, was difficult for the former artist, and now disabled veteran to locate. He eventually did, however, and took his mother off the streets by setting her up in a modest apartment in Stockton, CA. Two months later, in June of 2001, Donna Dee Martin died at 58, body riddled with cancer.
For the next four years, Basso plunged himself into writing as a means of processing his experiences in the military, his grandfather's, grandmother's and mother's deaths, his divorce and subsequent distant relationship with his son, and more. Out of that period came Basso's 2005 autobiography The Confessions of a Jilted Superstar In His Many Conversations with God (AuthorHouse Publishing). Published under the pen name R. Martin Basso, the jagged, rebellious work has been recorded in studio and will be released in 2019 as an audio play read by Basso.
In addition to producing, writing and acting, Basso's career endeavors have included film, documentary, radio, web media, screenwriting and spokesman positions.
Today, Basso, a documentary filmmaker in Nashville, is a champion of social causes: military Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder recovery; mentally ill homeless senior citizens, and youth autism. He also dedicates himself to developing community-centric arts initiatives.
Basso's natural predisposition to publicity and promotions finds him spearheading his arts PR cooperative, Three Doves Media.