Born Steven Jackman in The Bronx, New York, Stevie Debe was an artist/songwriter waiting to happen. Influenced at an early age by many talented family members, initially by his cousin Allen Toussaint, a successful songwriter who attracted him to son [+]Born Steven Jackman in The Bronx, New York, Stevie Debe was an artist/songwriter waiting to happen. Influenced at an early age by many talented family members, initially by his cousin Allen Toussaint, a successful songwriter who attracted him to song writing and playing music as a potential career choice. Stevie began by playing clarinet in his junior high school band followed by the high school band. After his freshman year of high school, his music teacher unexpectedly passed away, which somewhat devastated Stevie to the point where he gave up the band. Still having an interest in music, he experimented with a variety of instruments on his own. A couple of years later when Stevie was visiting another talented family member, his cousin Haywood Nelson, who starred in the hit television show "What's Happening" as the character Dwayne, he picked up a bass guitar which had been left there by a neighbor. Stevie immediately realized that the bass was his instrument of choice, formed a band and played locally around the Bronx until he joined the Air Force. He then added keyboard to his artistry. It was in the Air Force where Stevie first started recording his original tunes. He recorded his first song on a 16-track multi track machine once owned by Jimi Hendrix and purchased from Electric Lady Land Studios. Upon leaving the Air Force, Stevie took that song on the back of his motorcycle to New Orleans to play for his cousin Allen Toussaint, who was indeed impressed and offered to sign Stevie to a recording contract. Realizing that he was not yet ready for all that Allen had in mind, he declined the offer and went back to New York, where he obtained a job working for what was called New York Telephone Company as a communication technician in the Wall Street area. Stevie continued to write and record new songs and began to integrate the use a computer for pre-production to achieve the sound he was hearing in his head, while also blending live musicians into the mix. Stevie began to build his catalog. As technological advances continued to improve, he realized he could produce a CD using top quality, 24 track analog studios and equipment that had previously been unavailable to him. After recording a variety of songs, he picked out some of his favorites and mos
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