The Meeting (feat. George Garzone, Simone Pannozzo & Frank Swart)

Continuing the interruption of the Need To Know Badass Blues Instrumental Series to introduce the third single from Soundtrack For A Film Without Pictures, The Meeting, featuring the great George Garzone. Jazz knowers know George (and his band the Fringe) but perhaps because he has dedicated his life to being an educator at Berklee for the better part of 50 years he is less well known than some of his contemporaries. He is absolutely one of the heaviest of cats roaming the planet. I remember taking George's ear training class at Berklee in 1981 and being completely awestruck at how George could correctly and effortlessly identify all the notes in a ten-note cluster on the piano. I never would have dreamt that George would someday play on one of my tracks and yet, here we are. Listen to how George dances on the edges of time and space; it's absolutely stunning! This brings me immense joy and I hope it brings you joy as well.

George Garzone - Saxophone
Simone Pannozzo - Drums
yours truly on Bass and Guitar

The Approach (feat. Bill Evans, Scott Amendola & Frank Swart)

We are pausing the Need To Know Badass Blues Instrumental Series for the next couple of months to release a few more singles from Soundtrack For A Film Without Pictures. The Series will return in mid-September with a super funky little number featuring Will Bernard, so please stay tuned. In the meanwhile, the second single is The Approach featuring the legendary and brilliant Bill Evans on Soprano Saxophone. As most of you probably know, Bill is a Miles Davis alumni. He began playing with Miles at 21 years of age on Man With a Horn and continued for the next six albums. Bill has also played with Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Willie Nelson, Mick Jagger, Les McCann, Randy Brecker & and The Allman Brothers Band. I was fortunate to see and hear Bill play with Miles at his "comeback" gig at Kixx in Boston in the Summer of 1981. A portion of those gigs were immortalized on the We Want Miles record including the iconic tune Jean Pierre. Seeing that band changed my life and to have both Bill and Mike Stern play on my tracks seemed an impossible dream. However, here we are forty years later and well, I guess dreams do sometimes come true!

We've been getting some very positive press and radio on the record and I have to share this quote from Chris May (All About Jazz) with you: "The album also features cameo performances from an A-list roster of guest artists including saxophonists Gary Bartz, Dave Liebman, Bill Evans, George Garzone and Idris Ackamoor. It is probably no coincidence that three of these gents are alumni of Miles Davis' electric bands, for Soundtrack For A Film Without Pictures sounds like a modern-day recalibration of the sort of music Davis was making in the early 1970s. And Swart does it with more panache than, most of the time, did Davis." Yes, he did say that! Here's the link to the whole review. I'm not sure who's going to get struck by lightning me or Chris but I am flattered.

Okay, I hope you will all spread the word about the record and continue to support it so I can make another one sooner than later (I already have the idea in mind). And if you haven't checked it out well, now's your chance!

Also, a very special shout-out and thank you to drummer man and friend, Scott Amendola (Nels Cline, Charlie Hunter) for absolutely killing it on this track.