A member of the LA Music Academy's staff nearly from the school's inception, an accomplished bass player who has been a member of the jazz-fusion band Continuum, going on 15 years now, and a worship music leader who is flourishing in the Long Beach Christian music scene, Steve Billman could make quite the argument for the powers of faith. But Steve doesn't strike one as the arguing kind. So while the subject of faith and his belief in God is omnipresent when speaking to Billman, it is to his credit that even the most dubious soul out there would be more than at ease in his company because he wears that faith like a well-worn guitar strap. He knows it. He's had it forever, and by this point in his life, Billman couldn't imagine what the instrument would feel like without it. But at the end of the day, if Billman has a message, it's simply that he's just happy to be making and playing his music. That musical path has seen Billman study at the Berklee College of Music and the Musician's Institute before coming to the LA Music Academy just a few months after the school began. Having studied at other places prior to coming to the LA Music Academy gives Billman an informed viewpoint on what makes the school unique: "The thing I really like about this school is that they are really focused on making good musicians. And that's everything from teaching the basics of musicianship to having great instructors that can also teach the other side of it — the advanced part of it - no matter what kind of music you play. The good thing is that this school isn't into making rock stars, they're into making people musicians." And for Billman, there is a key ingredient that defines a musician's potential. Billman says, "[It's] the passion for the music. Not just because they want to get something from it, you know? Like they want to get rich or want to get famous. But someone who really has a love for music. When you make a choice to be a musician, it's because you have to, because the passion in you is so great. That's what I really like to see students come to the school with. It never fails — every student that I've dealt with has that passion, has that love for it. That's what really excites me about being a part of that. And to see that growth, to see them come in whatever level they come in at, whether it's advanced or beginning — and when they leave, not only has their passion grown, but their ability has grown. That, to me, is such a blessing to be a part of that and to see that." Billman believes his strength as a teacher also has its roots in that same desire. "I hope I bring that passion to it. I would hope that I bring an excitement to it. The thing I don't want to ever do is be doing this as a job, you know? I do this because I love to do it. Honestly, when I first started playing, I was focused on being a player and that's what I thought I would be doing. I never thought I would be teaching, and I never had a desire to do it, but over the years, the more I have been doing it, I have been enjoying the growth I've experienced as a teacher. And seeing the other teachers like Ralph Humphrey and Mike Shapiro, learning from those guys, being in the classrooms and learning from them, how they teach — for me there is an excitement with the teaching end of it now."

For Billman, the decision to play bass guitar was a simple one. It was the only instrument he could play to be in his brother's band. "To tell the honest truth, I liked the instrument, but my brother played guitar and I wanted to play with my brother. So, a friend of his had a bass and I thought, 'Yeah, I've always liked that instrument. Let me give it a try.' I started playing it and fell in love with it. Of course, now I've picked up the guitar again because I've been leading the worship — doing the worship stuff. So, it's interesting how it's kind of gone full circle."

While it would be overstating things to say Billman leads a double life, he is a jazz bassist and instructor at the LA Music Academy by day and a rising star in the Worship Music Community and fights crime by night! The truth is that he has excelled on both fronts for quite awhile now (save for the fighting crime part). Billman explains the Christian connection: "I've been involved with worship my whole life. There is a couple I work with outside of church that do gigs in clubs and different things. They're really talented, and they lead worship in the main body [The Light and Life Christian Fellowship], which is where all the other churches that I'm involved with come from, and I started playing worship music with them. And I did that for five years. And the pastor, rather than have this mega-church, wanted to start smaller churches in the area [Long Beach]. So, he wanted to start one in Bixby Knolls, and the pastor came to me and said, 'Have you ever thought about leading worship? Because we'd love to have you do it.' I thought about it for awhile and said, 'Let's do it.' And now I've been doing it for about three years, playing guitar and singing, which is completely different from playing bass." Billman says the music to the uninitiated would sound much like Top 40 or what they would hear that week on MTV's TRL. "Musically it would sound pretty much like if you turned the radio on. I use an electric guitar. It's just the songs and the worship process. So it has spiritual significance. But, for someone who just came in and knew nothing about what was going on, they would hear music that would sound pretty contemporary - more on the rock side."

As if that wasn't enough, Billman has also had his talented fingers in yet another musical pie — the noted jazz fusion group Continuum. Billman began playing with the group in the mid-80s and while his admittedly packed schedule hasn't allowed him to play with the group for the past couple of years, the experience was important to his growth as a musician. Billman says, "I was with them for quite a few years. We made three CDs. The hardest thing with Continuum was finding places to play because the music is not very accessible. It's great music, but we did everything from The Wave (the Los Angeles Jazz radio station) kinda stuff to very, very eclectic, kind of avant garde music, so it was hard to find clubs to play because it was either too "out" or it wasn't "out" enough — kind of in the middle." That would sound like a tough musical row to hoe, as it were, but Billman says it was very much by design. He continues, "Well, the thing that is cool about Continuum is that we never designed it to be anything except to be true to ourselves and the music, so that's why we did everything from simple kind of stuff like you hear on The Wave to incredibly hard stuff like John McLaughlin or Weather Report kind of stuff. But it wasn't because we were trying to be weird or eclectic. It was because this is what we like to play."

Billman learned recently that sometimes things beyond your control can get in the way not just of what you like to play, but playing at all. He was preparing to go on tour with friend and jazz legend Frank Gambale when severe tendonitis in his right arm forced him to pull out at the last minute. He explains: "Yeah, the last month and a half I have been having really severe hand problems, and it was a 19 day tour, and I thought it best not to do it because I was in so much pain. Since 1980, for lack of a better term, I've been battling tendonitis in my right arm. And it comes and goes, but as I've been getting older, it's been getting worse and harder to get rid of. Since December, it has been really bad, and I've been trying to get rid of it since that time. But it actually got worse, so I just started playing again as of two weeks ago. I had actually stopped playing, which was a scary experience. Hopefully, I'll be doing a gig in Phoenix and one in L.A. with Frank. And that's a real blessing. Frank is not only a great musician, but such a great guy. He loves to play. That's one of the things that just blows me away. And it's a real fun environment in his band. I've been in situations where there is so much stress, it's almost like, 'We're not having fun. We have to be perfect.' But with Frank, he just loves to play. I hate to repeat myself, but I just feel blessed to be able to play with him. I'm real fortunate."

And when pressed, Billman insists he is not blind to the apparent contradiction of being blessed with a talent to play and yet cursed by not being able to apply that talent due to a medical condition. Billman concludes, "Well, I'm human. And yes, it is scary. But having said that, I know that not everybody gets through this life without trials or without certain situations happening to them. But I also know that through those situations, that if you deal with it in the right way, that when you come out of it, you learn from it, and you're stronger. Even the three weeks that I was off, as tough as it was not to be able to play bass or the guitar, I was able to work on my voice and to do other things. I guess it's just looking for the blessing in it. It's like the situation with teaching at the LA Music Academy. I love doing what I'm doing there. I absolutely love it, and I never would've guessed that I would be doing that kind of thing. So, ultimately, if I'm following God, and I'm following His path, He is going to lead me to a good place." If the past is any indication, then Steve Billman better rest that right arm because that path is likely to lead down many other musical roads.