 News and Views
9/05/10
The first half of this year was pretty hectic: as in previous
years, I was Music Director for the AT&T Celebrity Golf Show
in February, backing up Huey Lewis and other celebs. This
was followed by a string of gigs in Hong Kong, Washington DC, LA,
Cancun, Vegas, San Francisco and Miami (where I got to play with
legendary percussionist Sammy Figueroa!).
Things have slowed down for the time being, allowing me to turn
my attention to some critical hardware and software upgrades in
the studio and to resume work on creative projects.
I recently had the pleasure of recording the fretless bass track
on a gorgeous new Thomas Dolby song called “17 Hills” featuring
Mark Knopfler on Guitar. I’ve been a fan of TD’s
music for a long time – I remember a particularly sad day
in the late 80’s when the cassette player in my old Datsun
pickup ate my copy of “Alien’s Ate My Buick” – I’m
thrilled that Thomas is writing and recording again, honored to
be able to play on one of his songs.
Bruce Kaphan recently released “Hybrid”, his 2nd solo
album. As the kids say, it’s “the bomb” (a
beauty bomb, that is). Really extraordinary music. I
played on 2 of the cuts, one of which is a hauntingly beautiful
piece called “Pohakala” featuring Jake Shimabukuro
on Ukulele. Jake gave an unforgettable solo performance at
Yoshi’s in San Francisco a few months back; we hung out and
talked for awhile after the show. What an incredibly talented
and sweet person.
I’ve been working with Bruce on a new album project featuring
the quartet of Steel Gtr, Piano, Fretless Bass and Drums. It’s
music unlike anything I’ve heard before; challenging, inspiring
and truly one of the most artistically rewarding projects I’ve
ever been involved with. Probably another couple of months
of writing and recording to get it all done…
I’ve also been continuing to work on my own instrumental
album, just finished the rough draft and scoring for a piece called “Isolate
Song”, written for clarinet, trumpet, trombone and rhythm
section. It took about 2 weeks to sketch it out; that’s
pretty fast for me…
3/08/2007
Here’s the big news: I finally have a website! I
was beginning to think it would never get done. Before I
go any further I should take a quick moment and say “THANK
YOU” to friends n family who kept nodding and smiling at
me throughout the process. And, of course, many thanks to
web designer Michael John Parker for putting it all together.
I extend a warm welcome to all of you who’ve come to visit
here. I hope that this site will serve as both a nexus for
promoting my work as a musician and a link in the greater network
of creative musicians online.
Current projects:
The last few months were an incredibly busy time as I was MD on
3 large projects that segued from one to the other: producing a
new video for the Bill Hopkins Band, doing music for a new interactive
video game “American Idol Talent Challenge” and arranging
for and directing the band for the AT&T Celebrity Concert in
Monterey - 3 exhausting yet ultimately very successful projects. After
a couple of days off I’m taking advantage of the “slow
down” to resume work on my instrumental CD and installing/framing
new windows in my house (and, of course, doing the Taxes!).
On the
front burner is a piece called Fumiko’s Passage. It’s
been a real tough piece to compose/record – I worked at it
for over 6 months and I have to confess that it was actually a
relief for me to put it down for awhile so that I could tackle
some other projects and work on this website. However, it
feels real good to be getting back to the composing process and
I’m hopeful that I will wrap up my “in house” recording & editing
within a couple of weeks, at which point Fumiko’s Passage
should be ready to go to Bruce Kaphan’s studio for final
tracking and mixing.
Also, I’m currently shopping 3 new songs for publication:
a rocker called “Changing Her Mind”, a ballad called “When
Time Stands Still” and the instrumental, “Empathy”,
which features Fretless Bass and the marvelous Trumpet work of
Don Beck. You can hear short bits of these tunes on the Audio
page.
I’m halfway through the process of archiving some older
recordings, transferring them to digital. I’ll post a few
worthy ditties on the audio page soon – a couple of these
older pieces are slated for inclusion on my upcoming instrumental
CD.
If you’d like to be included in occasional email updates
regarding my latest musical projects, please take a moment to sign
up on my email list. I promise not to abuse having the info,
won’t hit your inbox with unnecessary junk – who’s
got time for that anyhow? – but I’ll periodically
send out announcements about new CD’s and/or major site enhancements.
Thanks for stopping by.
jeffrey
3/08/07
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