This was kind of a Crusaders reunion album…minus original members Stix Hooper , Wayne Henderson plus others who helped like Hubert Laws and Larry Carlton. 

Keyboardist Joe Sample and saxophonist Wilton Felder were the only original members but they has some all star players with them. Check out the players and the track…

Bass, Synthesizer [Mb-8 & Midi Bass] — Nathan East
Drums — John Robinson
Guitar — Michael Landau
Percussion — Paulinho　da　Costa　
Percussion — Lenny Castro
Piano [Yamaha Acoustic], Synthesizer [Forte Midi-moog] — Joe Sample
Saxophone — Wilton Felder

GRAMMY® Award-Winning guitarist Earl Klugh annually invites jazz and music enthusiasts to a unique, luxurious getaway at the Mobil Travel Guide Five-Star, AAA Five-Diamond BROADMOOR Resort in Colorado Springs. It’s the perfect destination to enjoy exceptional hospitality, accommodations and world-class music – all among the splendor of the Colorado Rockies. Our community of fans, The Broadmoor and its staff, and performances from the likes of Al Jarreau,

Roberta Flack, Chris Botti, Bob James, Patti Austin, Arturo Sandoval, Chuck Mangione, Ramsey Lewis, Spyro Gyra, Joe Sample and many more create this outstanding weekend experience that sells out each year. April 4-6, 2013 marks Klugh’s 10th Annual Weekend of Jazz at The Broadmoor with Chris Botti, Fourplay, Joe Sample, Take 6 and Earl Klugh.

For a 10th straight season, GRAMMY®-winning guitarist Earl Klugh hosts his Weekend of Jazz at The Broadmoor featuring exceptional musicians and performances, along with unique culinary and wine experiences.

This April 4-6, join Earl Klugh and The Broadmoor to celebrate 10 years of unforgettable Weekend of Jazz memories with talent from Klugh’s first-ever Weekend of Jazz: Multi-platinum selling trumpeter CHRIS BOTTI returns, as well as legendary pianist BOB JAMES – this time with his chart-topping Supergroup FOURPLAY, featuring HARVEY MASON, NATHAN EAST, and CHUCK LOEB; pianist, composer and Crusaders founder JOE SAMPLE; your GRAMMY®-winning host EARL KLUGH, plus for the first time at Weekend of Jazz, 10-Time GRAMMY®-winning vocal group TAKE 6.

Two Night Packages are on sale now! Call 866-837-9520 today to make your reservation, or visit the EVENTS page above for more details!

The Broadmoor, 1 Lake Ave, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906

Well, if you follow my music then you already know I work with some REALLY talented vocalist – Carla Prather, Nicole Mitchell, Al Olive, David Glen, so you can expect a lot of serious vocal stuff dropping in the next couple of weeks.

Author : Deepersoul Blogspot

Website : http://deepersoul.blogspot.com/2010/12/interview-with-vick-lavender.html

The 5th Annual “Low Country Jazz Festival” is coming to Charleston SC on August 30- September 1, 2013!

Dave Koz and Friends Summer Horns, Clarke/Duke 4 (Stanley Clarke and George Duke), Randy Crawford and Joe Sample… Jazz in Pink featuring Saxophonist Pamela Williams, Flutist Althea Renee, Violinist Karen Briggs and Keyboardist Gail Johnson….

For more information on the festival and those performing, go to www.lowcountryjazzfestival.com.

North Charleston Performing Arts Center, 5001 Coliseum Dr, North Charleston, South Carolina 29418

(transferred from my CaringBridge page from 3/5/13)

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

~ Bob Marley

This weekend, I had the distinct privilege of experiencing one of my favorite jazz pianists and composers—Joe Sample.  Working with the likes of Miles Davis, B.B. King, Eric Clapton and George Benson (to name a few), Joe incorporates jazz, gospel, blues, Latin and even classical style into his amazing compositions.

Jazz.  There’s something about listening to it that brings such peace to my spirit—in many ways like a deep soul massage.  Just thinking about Joe Sample’s music relaxes my shoulders.  I’ve always found the best musicians to have a distinct sound that can easily be discerned from the ears of a true fan, even if you were blindfolded.  Sample could play a simple melody like Chopsticks on the same Yamaha as hundreds of other pianists, and still have it sound incredibly unique to him.  At one point during his performance, he talked about all the painful hours he has spent exercising his fingers.  He continued to share that the exercises were not about how well he could execute an entire piece of music, but instead how well his fingers landed on each key.  The precise placement of his fingers touching each key—determined the kind of sound only he can produce.

This past week was tough.  No sugar-coating . . . it was exhausting, trying and demanding of all my focus and energy.  “Mental drain” sums it up well.  In a moment during the week when my spirit seemed too weak to think let alone pray, it brought priceless encouragement to see one of Colby’s scriptures on my mirror:  “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”  (1 Peter 5:7)  Because He cares for you.

I was doubly blessed to have my mom join me on Thursday for chemo.  While we were able to have some great one on one time, I was also able to share some of my struggles with her.  Though I can’t imagine the intense pain a mother must feel having a sick child with no way to fix it, my mom always encourages me while also allowing me to have moments of weakness, moments of human frailty—without going into meltdown zone because of my lack of optimism.  Though people don’t mean to communicate additional stress, often a sick person feels pressured with an expectation to be perpetually positive.  “Stay positive” is the mantra of choice.  The mentality behind the saying is sensible and wise, yet with it comes the added anxiety of probable failure.  Instead, my mom listens earnestly, never discouraging me from expressing honest pain.  She’s the perfect best friend/mother combination—loyal, unconditional, honest, loving and true . . . never letting me sit in worry and confusion, but also never dismissive about my feelings.  I thank God every day for her.

Sometimes we put our Faith in full compositions, instead of individual key strokes.  I often find myself busy praying over the big picture instead of the smaller, intricate steps that would be easier to hit with ease and precision.  I need to exercise my Faith the same way Joe exercises his fingers . . . not on a mission to perfectly execute my ballad of sorts.  Instead, the crux of this composition laid out before me is about the way my fingers graze each key.

I recognize that every step along the way of this trial is going to be difficult, even unbearable at times.  If I look too far down the road, it will be easier to falter.  Instead, I need to look at the placement of my feet, one step at a time . . . trusting the Lord’s lead.

“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.” ~Oswald Chambers

This week marks week 9.  Almost ½ way there!

Artists are Jazz Crusaders with Joe Sample, Gerald Albright and Wayne Henderson, Keiko Matsui, vocalist Maysa and Marcus Johnson. Info at 910-672-1381.

Saturday, May 11, 2013 – 4:00 pm

Festival Park, Downtown Fayetteville, North Carolina

This video was posted to You Tube by pepipopupapa

Bob Dylan wrote this song for his Soundtrack album for the film that had the same name, ‘Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid’. This album was released in 1973, almost three years after his earlier Studio album, his 14th, ‘New Morning’. Sam Peckinpah directed the movie which, during filming had a troubled time, mainly between Peckinpah and the movie studio. The movie was later taken from Peckinpah, severely re-edited and then was released to become a bit of a flop, both in critical acclaim and also at the box office, and was in the main disowned by most of the cast and crew. 15 years later, in 1988, Peckinpah himself released an original ‘Director’s Cut’, a substantially better movie, and in fact, considered one of Peckinpah’s masterpieces. Peckinpah was looking for a song and a soundtrack for the movie and Bob Dylan was suggested, after having been approached earlier. Peckinpah is famously quoted as saying, “Who’s Bob Dylan?” and then having to be reminded just who he was. Peckinpah was still not all that enamoured at having Dylan do the song for the movie, because he would have preferred Roger Miller. After a private session with ‘this new kid’, as Peckinpah referred to Dylan at the time, he came away convinced that Bob Dylan was indeed the man for the main song for the movie, as well as for the Soundtrack for the movie, and then he even offered Bob a minor part in the movie itself, that of ‘Alias’, a part that was significantly reduced in the edited version of the original movie release, as was most of Dylans’ music, which was moved around to places where it was not originally themed for.

Bob released his Soundtrack as a separate album, and after the movie was edited and flopped, his album received some critical acclaim also.

The album however did produce one of Bob’s most enduring songs, ‘Knocking On Heaven’s Door’. This was released by Bob as a single and in fact it went to Number 12 on the mainstream U.S. charts, and was well quite received, as opposed to the album it was lifted from. It even made it into the Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time, coming in at Number 190.

It has since become one of his most covered songs, with artists across the whole music spectrum covering this song, so much that it considered almost a Standard now.

Also, in a similar vein to the song’s original idea, as part of a movie, different versions of this song have also appeared in other movies and TV programs as well, in fact nearly 30 times over the years.

This version selected today is done by Randy Crawford, an American Jazz, and R and B singer, who, oddly has never even had a Top 40 hit in the U.S. in any of the charts under her own name. Her only U.S. success was as part of Jazz legends The Crusaders, and their smash hit from 1979. ‘Street Life’, which topped the U.S. Jazz charts for an astonishing 20 weeks.

Randy Crawford is more popular in the UK and Europe where she has had a long and extensive career, with numerous hits, across the mainstream, Jazz, R and B, and also Disco fields of the music spectrum. Her 1981 album ‘Secret Combination’ in fact stayed in the UK album charts for an incredible 60 weeks.

Crawford is blessed with one of the most beautiful singing voices in the female arena, and when there are just so many wonderful voices, this is indeed a big call. Although not appearing as much these days as earlier, she still works with the legendary Joe Sample, who once said they had Randy Crawford worked out wrong. All they really needed to do was just “let Randy sing”, and not overlay layers and layers of music, because her voice is just so pure.

These next two songs amply show just that.

I find it a little odd that this first song, ‘One Day I’ll Fly Away’ was not a huge hit. It was in fact a hit for Crawford in the UK, in Europe and also as a minor hit here in Australia, in the dying days of the Disco music era. This song was released in 1980. It was written by Joe Sample and Will Jennings, and is such a wonderful and little heard song.

This video was posted to You Tube by halo2pc

This next song, ‘Rainy Night in Georgia’, has become a Jazz Standard. It’s sometimes confused with the Gladys Knight and the Pips song ‘Midnight Train To Georgia, mainly because of the use of the State name in the title, but they are two completely different songs. This song was originally written by Tony Joe White in 1962, and was made into a huge hit by Brook Benton in 1970, in his comeback after many years without a hit. This song was also recorded by many artists, Ray Charles foremost among them, but this is such a wonderful version of that song, taken from that huge 1981 album of Crawford’s ‘Secret Combination’.

This video was posted to You Tube by halo2pc

CK Coolout Volume One Podcast | Download

Here’s a cool podcast for your holy day. The tracklist
is a collection of songs from CK Cool Sunday, with
a couple of treats added for good measure. Enjoy.

|||||||

Tracklist

Gap Band “Yearning For Your Love”
Faze-O “Riding High”
Sylvia and The Moments “Sho’ Nuff Boogie Pt. 1″
Joe Sample “In All My Wildest Dreams”
George Duke “Feel”
Donald Byrd “Wind Parade”
Herbie Hancock “Trust Me”
Meshell Ndegeocello feat. Marcus Miller “Rush Over”
Maynard Ferguson “Mister Mellow”

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Los Angeles

- May 18. (Tues.)  Don Menza’s Stan Getz Tribute.  Not exactly the return of the Four Brothers, but it should be a mellow saxophone night with Pete Christlieb, Gary Foster and Gene Cipriano, saxes, Don Rader, trumpet,  Tom Ranier, piano, Chris Connor, bass and Dick Weller, drums.  Vibrato (310) 474-9400.

- May 18. (Tues.)  Styx, Foreigner and Kansas. The seventies come alive with three of the decades most successful hit-makers.  Gibson Amphitheatre.   (818) 622-4440.

Anna Mjoll

- May 18. (Tues.)  Anna Mjoli All-Star Band.  Iceland’s gift to jazz displays her intimate vocal style in the stellar company of saxophonist Bob Sheppard, guitarist Larry Koonse, pianist John Beasley, drummer Jimmy Branley and bassist Chris Colangelo.  Baked Potato.  (818) 980-1615.

- May 18. (Tues.)  Janis Mann Quartet.  She’s a singer who knows how to find the heart of a song.  “I haven’t heard anyone like Janis Mann in years,” says Roy Haynes.  Charlie O’s.    (919) 994-3058.

- May 18 – 19. (Tues. – Wed.)  Marilyn Maye.  Veteran singer Maye’s career has moved easily from radio and television to cabaret and musical theatre.  In 1965, at 37, she won a Grammy for “Best New Artist,” and she’s still going strong. Catalina Bar & Grill (323) 466-2210.

- May 19. (Wed.)  Takako.  The Japanese jazz singer celebrates the release of her new CD, Common Ground, backed by pianist Vardan Ovsepian and drummer Aaron Serfaty.  Vitello’s. (818) 769-0905.

- May 20. (Thurs.)  Ed Vodicka Organ Quintet.  Bandleader/keyboardist Vodicka displays his versatility in the organ quartet format, backed by L.A. regulars Plas Johnson, saxophone, Nolan Shaheed, trumpet, Roy McCurdy, drums  and John Chiodini, guitar.  Catalina Bar & Grill (323) 466-2210.

- May 20. (Thurs.)  Patrick Berrogain’s Hot Club Combo. Guitarist Berrogain discovered the gypsy jazz style in his native France before forming the Hot Club of San Diego, which morphed into the Hot Club Combo. Vibrato (310) 474-9400.

- May 20. (Thurs.)  Iliana Rose Quartet. Rose’s keyboard montunas generate Latin jazz rhythms that are virtually irresistible.  Expect to feel your toes tapping with everything she plays.  Crowne Plaza,

Frank Marocco

- May 20 – 22. (Thurs. – Sat.)  Flexible Reality.  With their strikingly unusual instrumentation, Flexible Reality brings intriguing new timbres to bebop and straight ahead jazz.  Richard Todd, French Horn, Charlie Bisharat, violin, Frank Marocco, accordion, Michael Valerio and Abraham Laboriel, basses, and Alex Acuna, drums. Vitello’s. (818) 769-0905.

- May 21. (Fri.)  Thom Rotella with the John Heard Trio.  Mr. Versatility brings swing and substance to whatever genre he chances to meet.  Charlie O’s. (919) 994-3058.

- May 21 & 22.  (Fri. & Sat.)  Aaron Parks. Still in his mid-twenties, pianist Parks has already recorded three albums with Terence Blanchard, gigged with Kurt Rosenwinkel and been signed by Blue Note Records. Café Metropol.  (213) 613-1537.

- May 22. (Sat.)  Tom Petty and Joe Cocker. A pair of iconic artists whose careers reach from the ‘60s (for Cocker) to the present, Petty and Cocker are still mesmerizing performers.  Hollywood Bowl. (323) 850-2000.

- May 22. (Sat.) Jan Daley.  Daley, who made many tours with Bob Hope to appear before U.S. servicemen, celebrates a new CD – Where There’s Hope — a tribute to the love songs from the Hope era.  M bar.    (323) 856-0036.

Bruce Forman

- May 22. (Sat.)  Bruce Forman’s Cow Bop.  Guitarist Forman is his own man, fluent, articulate and always in search of intriguing musical solutions – even with a band whimsically called Cow Bop.  The Back Room at Henri’s.   (818) 348-5582.

- May 22 & 23. (Sat. & Sun.)  Baked Potato’s 40^th Anniversary. The venerable Studio City jazz spot celebrates four decades with a stellar two day event.  Among the highlights on Sat: Baked Potato All-Stars, Chad Smith, Steve Lukather and the Pasqua/Holdsworth/Haslip/Novak Quartet.  On Sun: John Daversa Big Band, Mitch Forman, Don Randi & Quest, the Yellowjackets, Lee Ritenour and Larry Carlton.  The Baked Potato at the Ford Amphitheatre.  (818) 980-1615.

- May 23. (Sun.)  Sing, Sing, Sing.  Annual Celebration of the Big Band Era. Judy Wolman’s all-join-in singalong celebrates Memorial day with the music of Glenn Miller, Harry James, Benny Goodman and more.  Sing, Sing Sing at the Victorian Mansion. (310) 990-2405

San Francisco

- May 19 – 23 (Wed. – Sun.) Eddie Palmieri and La Perfecta II. Grammy award-winning pianist Palmieri and his La Perfecta bands have been finding the perfect blend of jazz and Latin rhythms for decades. Yoshi’s San Francisco.   (415) 655-5600.

- May 20 – 23. (Thurs. – Sun.)  Jazz Crusaders.  Almost all of the original Jazz Crusaders – Joe Sample, Wilton Felder and Wayne Henderson (Stix Hooper’s the only missing member) – get together for the first reunion since the seventies.  Yoshi’s Oakland.  (510) 238-9200.

New York

Karrin Allyson

- May 18 – 22. (Tues. – Sat.)  Karrin Allyson. Among the coveys of canaries soaring through the jazz world these days, Allyson holds her own.  Always musical, a gifted storyteller, she helps sustain the integrity of the jazz vocal art.  Birdland. (212) 581-3080.

- May 19 – 22. (Wed. – Sat.)  Ted Nash Quintet. Saxophonist Nash spends a lot of time in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.  Here’s a chance to enjoy the individual talents of this multi-talented player up close and personal. Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola.  (212) 258-9800.

- May 20. (Thurs.)  “A Great Night in Harlem” The 9^th annual concert to benefit the Musicians Emergency Fund features a remarkable line up.  Among the many headliners: Roberta Flack, Jimmy Scott, Madeleine Peyroux, Jimmy Heath, Ron Carter, Frank Wess, Barry Harris, Terence Conley, with Chevy Chase, Danny Glover and many more.  The Apollo Theatre. A Great Night In Harlem.   NYC.  (212) 245-3999.

- May 20 – 23. (Thurs. – Sun.)  Odean Pope Saxophone Choir.  Pope headlines a saxophone-filled weekend, with Joe Lovano on Thurs. & Friday, Ravi Coltrane on Sat. & Sun.)  The Blue Note.   (212) 475-8592.

Billy Childs

- May 21 – 23. (Fri. – Sun.)  Billy Childs Chamber Ensemble.  Pianist/composer Childs has written some remarkably adventurous music to be performed by this first rate East Coast/West Coast ensemble: saxophonist/flutist Steve Wilson, guitarist Larry Koonse, harpist Carol Robbins, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade.  Iridium.  (212) 582-2121.

St. Louis

- May 20 – 22. (Thurs. – Sat.)  Jazz Education Network Inaugural JEN Congress.  University of Missouri, St. Louis. The first conference by the organization that hopes to fill the gap in the jazz education area that was left by the demise of the I.A.J.E.  The three day event features conferences, exhibits and performances by student and professional ensembles from St. Louis and elsewhere.  The Inaugural JEN Congress.

John Legend was a talent that came out of the blue late in 2004. Just after the ill fated election. One day a video came onto MTV2 that was in black and white. The video and the song was about a child having to endure his parents arguing,than similar events in his own relationship. It was very personally affecting to me. Listening to this passionate voiced man singing,accompanied only by his piano “we’re just ordinary people/we don’t know which way to go/we’re just ordinary people/maybe we should take it slow” was very much a mirror effect. A voice from not too far outside reality saying “whatever your feeling,I’m feeling it to”. It’s a song I’ll never quite forget as long as I live.

Again it was my DJ/musician friend who was making me critically aware of the music of Carlos Santana. As with the majority of people I knew him primarily for the two hit singles from the bands’ Abraxas. An Amazon.com order based on hearing the song “Dance Sister Dance” on said DJ’s copy of Santana’s live album Moonflower led me to this. It was Santana as I’d never heard them,from 1976. Accompanied by jazz/funk oriented musicians such as Ndugu Chancler,Tom Coster and singer Greg Walker. The song that drew me in was “Tell Me Are You Tired”. With it’s easy percussion and breezy Latin funk groove the song aspouses the virtues of choosing romance over finance. Though recorded over 25 years before I first heard it,I see it now as lyrically prophetic to how society would “de-evolve” in the next decade after I first heard this.

I’d heard the hits of Chicago most of my life. And loved the bands sound. But when I read in the AMG Music Guide To Rock the anti disco prejudice leveled at this particular Chicago release from 1979 I decided (from past experience with such criticism) that this might be an album I’d want to investigate. I was shocked by the results. From “Street Player” alone this is one of this highly successful bands most shockingly rhythmic,funkified albums-full of high octane percussion and horn charts that are joyous even by this bands standards. It reinforced for me the ugly and racist misunderstandings regarding this era of music. But happily it also reinforced how much I actually love this music.

The reason this particular Frank Zappa album stands out in my mind is because my lover heard this on the radio in it’s entirety driving cab. And it’s presence resulted in an interesting coincidence. Earlier that same day I was at Bullmoose and saw this album used. At the time I didn’t actually own any of Frank Zappa’s music. This CD had an appealing sound musically. As it turned out,after talking to my lover about this it actually was the album he’d heard on the radio sometime before and he was very happy I’d fell into it. When listening to it however,it gave me some somewhat direct view into the provocative nature of Zappa’s lyrical preoccupations. He actually titled one of his songs here “Broken Hearts Are For A**holes”. It bought up a valuable question for me about Frank Zappa. It was clear this man was musically brilliant,often having the ability to bring out all the things I would personally wanting to hear more of in music into clear focus. At the same time,the lyrics he presented showcase a man using often dark and perverse comedy to illustrate his sometimes near total loss of hope in those who subsidized creative individuals.

Fully aware of the music of Jean-Luc Ponty as I was by 2005,I really wasn’t very familiar with his solo work to any great extent. After the dissolution of my first relationship under rather unpleasant circumstances I went on a family vacation to Burlington Vermont that summer. In a small record store in this wonderfully artistic community,I located this album. It was mainly the title that drew me in. During the rest of that summer I would put this album on. And suddenly found myself wanting to paint more. I’d been painting acrylic pictures off and on for some years now. But somehow this music really got the creative juices flowing. Realizing how much so-called “new age” music owed itself to jazz fusion,this particular album-with it’s unique and improvised electronic melodies inspired equally by American jazz,funk with European classical music definitely reopened my desires to expand my artistic ventures.

My life in autumn of 2005 became a very strange one. I suddenly found myself  living with with the new man who’d entered my life-in the middle of nowhere near the end of the state.. And it was a life,through all it’s peaks and,defined by some exciting creative acts of all sorts:music,painting and photography. Both of us were very much taken with this particular album by Joni Mitchell. The haunting but beautiful echoey bass oriented fusion sound of the music went perfectly with the Canadian singer/songwriters highly visual impressionism of the various encounters she had on the road touring with her music. It really took us as listeners into a free spirited world with all it’s in and outs. And since we were driving back and forth to the local town for necessities often enough,but deeply enjoying both our creative output Joni’s opening song “Coyote” rang very true at that time. In many ways we were also both “prisoners of the white lines on the freeway”.

Knowing Jan Hammer only from his membership in the Mahavishnu Orchestra and composing the music for the TV series Miami Vice,this particular album came as a huge surprise to me. Coming from the unique CD reissue label Wounded Bird,this album from 1977 showcase Jan and his group of extremely talented musicians such as drummer/singer/composer Tony Smith and bassist/singer Fernando Saunders emphasized his Joni Mitchell/Stevie Wonder-like way with musical composition,production and way with warm electronic instrumentation. It was a musical revelation to me before I heard one song that has become my own personal anthem. It isn’t at all a religious song. But it is somehow poetic on an other worldly level. It’s called “Window Of Love”. It’s not a song I can easily explain being so lyrically direct yet highly profound. One simply has to hear it for themselves.

Up until this time I knew very little about the music of Edgar Winter. My second relationship had ended with what have proven to be permanent psychological effects on my life and thought processes. Having little money at the time, new music was very much a matter of recommendation. As was often the case my dad,even having never heard of this,thought this would be a good album to have. He was more right then he could’ve ever known. While a thoroughly wonderful album as a whole the first five songs here-from the title song to “Hung Up” are an all encompassing and highly poetic  jazz/soul/funk/blues cinematic journey through the mind a man seeking to communicate something wonderfully out of the typical musical conventions by opting to take his own dreams more seriously.  These lyrics,although coming from the soul of Edgar Winter,could’ve very easily come from myself at any time from this point forward.

My relationship with this album goes back to my earliest memories. When it came out in 1985 on cassette,my father would play this on his tape deck every Christmas eve while we all engaged in the family ritual of sleeping under the tree. While the album had nothing to do with Christmas in particular,something about it’s melodic and rhythmic buoyancy very accurately reflected the mood of the holiday season. As my father more simply put it,it just sounded like Christmas to him somehow.  As time went on,that yearly Christmas Eve ritual began to recede as I grew older. Since the holiday season of 2006 looked to be one that would showcase many difficult challenges for the family,we were still together and happy to have that. So again we were under the tree,and this album was playing. Because of what I had (and continued to be) personally gone through emotionally,this was the very first time hearing it during the Christmas holiday that I was nearly moved to tears of joy hearing this reminder of happy holidays of the past (and perhaps future) that were ringing through my mind as I was surrounded by the rainbow spectacle of Christmas tree lights and that surreal winter atmosphere.

Considering my mixed feelings towards what American Idol represents,it was strange that one of it’s more controversial winners Taylor Hicks was the one who caught my own attention. He had already had a burgeoning musical career-had records out before appearing on the show. Yet he managed to survive the unnecessary,vitriolic meanness of the show’s creator/judge Simon Cowell,and win the prize. He was an interesting combination of Michael McDonald and Otis Redding-with a musical combination of both urban and country soul that was very appealing. Even if his first post Idol CD was somewhat uneven project musically,it made it clear that Hicks would creatively survive the superficially decadent atmosphere beginning to permeate the show that made him famous. And he remains the most consistently enjoyable and likable American Idol consistent to me as a result.

When I first saw Ken Burns’ admittedly challenging PBS mini series about the history of jazz as it premiered, my feelings about it were very mixed. In many ways,especially in it’s later sections,it seemed to promote the very type of internal snobbery about jazz that kept the music from the attention of the mass public for decades.  Reviewing it on the VHS tapes the family recorded it on, it became easier to tune out the often contradictory interview segments of documentary consultants Wynton Marsalis and critic Stanley Croach that largely weighed down the film,and begin to view it as an excellent and often very poetic depiction of the cultural environment of the music itself. In particular with the earliest forms of jazz.  In the end,it was both an important lesson in what to and what not do do-not only in terms of describing jazz music but in the entire musical documentary making process.

Gino Vannelli has the distinction in my life of being the first artist I more deeply discovered not through radio,my family or friends but through totally independent (and mostly online) research. I’d heard of a couple songs by him of course before. And they were certainly pleasant. What I did not know was that before any of that Gino,along with a band that included his brother Joe on synthesizer,had created some of most expansive and cinematic electronic jazz-funk of the late 70′s. And it was again likely to be found in the “rock” section of your record store.  Concluding with a suite made along with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,this 1977 album is (to me) the most positively representative of Gino’s vital musical and vocal talents during this era. And although for a myriad of reasons,some of them having to do with his flamboyant stage shows and epic mane, many people found the very mention of Gino Vannelli to be something of an embarrassing punchline of the 1970′s,that is again a brutally cruel legacy and assessment for one of the most captivating and unique musical artists of his time.

While not exactly musically experienced,by 2008 I had come to the conclusion via conversations with my friend Henrique that I might want to put some of the many lyrics I had written into some type of demo form. To participate in some way in the music I’d always loved from afar. He then informed me of the technology of the Portastudio,and recommended this particular model. Learning the band Ween had recorded an album using the exact same model,and being in the financial position to do so,I made the purchase via eBay. So I managed to plug my old Yamaha synthesizer into the device and demo some of my musical ideas. Realizing I had…lower than minimum  knowledge of musical composition or chords. In the end having this has taught me a lot about multi track recording techniques,as well as the great creative skill put into producing ll the music that’s effected my life from others.

I’ve been in love with the Crusaders since I first started listening to them (and the music of their keyboardist Joe Sample) since the turn of the millennium. Very few bands have such a singular and consistently successful musical sound as they seem to. One day I was watching a DVD of The Cosby Show and it was an episode where Cliff Huxtable was having a dream sequence in which his daughter Vanessa had decided to play “funk jazz on the sax”. The song they played for this sequence was definitely a Crusaders number. But I didn’t know precisely which one. As it turned out,it was right there in front of me the whole time-from the bands Crusaders 1 album and it was called “Put It Where You Want It”. Another example of how one thing in my life creatively led to the discovery of another.

I had an enormous revelation about James Brown and his music about a decade or so after first absorbing his Star Time boxed set. Referred to often as The Godfather (or Godfather Of Soul),James  was one of the few modern artists credited for officially creating  whole genre of music-funk. When it didn’t seem that any of the online conversations with Henrique would conclude without at least three mentions of JB’s name or music,something occurred to me about his funk innovation. While historians had long held “Cold Sweat” up as his funk break though,I actually heard the same exact quality on a record recorded earlier the same year called “Let Yourself Go”. It was definitely patterned rhythmically from the same African boogaloo music that inspired James in his perfecting funk music. At the same time it was also more musically dense than “Cold Sweat”-not featuring the same “breaks” in the music and literally staying on “the one”,that rhythmic essence at the core of the funk groove,for  the entire song. It was a profound revelation to me that The Godfather was so musically innovative he was even a step or two ahead of himself at times.

…..To Be Continued