About Me
I am happy to be here, I am happy to be anywhere! Five of the selections posted were done as a demo in 1994 (all one take) and I was assisted by Bob Applebaum on mandolin and Marty Rifkin on bass and steel guitar. Benny's From Heaven is a parody made famous by Eddie Jefferson (the godfather of vocalese). Ain't Misbehavin and Lulu's Back in Town is a Fats Waller medley. Romance is a Slow Dance is by Tim O'Brien. Blue Shadows on the Trail is by Randy Newman for the film The Three Amigos. Secret O' Life is by James Taylor. Stumbling was recorded in 1990 with Bob Lewis/ electric mandolin, Jon Rockwood/elec guitar, Joel Ciulla/bass ond me on acoustic rhythm. It is an old jazz tune arranged by Tiny Moore.I won several awards in the bluegrass genre placing as high as 2nd in advanced flatpick guitar at the prestigious Topanga Contest here in southern California. (See photos of me with Sara Watkins and Gabe Witcher from the Topanga contests) I also won band category as a member of Tipsy Gypsy with Paul Statman (mandolin/harmony vocal) and John Lambdin violin (of the Ditty Bops). In both categories, my performance was largely Clarence White style. Over the last five years, I have worked up several sets with mandolinist, Paul Statman- a David Grisman protege, of Grisman tunes and Paul's originals. SEE VIDEO. I highly admire David Grisman for blending bluegrass, swing, gypsy and latin into his own style - Dawg music, just as Bill Monroe blended early country with blues and jazz. I can emulate the guitarists who have recorded with Grisman; Jerry Garcia, Clarence White, Tony Rice, John Carlini.Currently, I play a lot in the gypsy swing style with violinist, Steve Rosenstein, protege of Richard Greene. I have been focusing on the gypsy swing style of Django with the help of local experts and by master classes with John Jorgenson, Raul Reynoso, Andreas Oberg, Gonzalo Bergara, Dennis Chang and the Rosenbergs. Another project is a Paris Musette/chorro set with Kurt MacInnis on mandolin/guitar/accordion and Jean Sudbury on violin/mandolin. We performed at the 2007 French Festival in Santa Barbara. I also have played light jazz/swing in a student big band jazz format and appeared on the documentary Jazz Kids under the direction of jazz maestro, Gregory Alper. I like to work on fusion of genres like jazz and funk, which I call junk and country and rap, which I call crap.Randy Newman told me, "Keep doin' my stuff." Roy Hargrove, grammy winning jazz trumpeter, said, "You guys are really swingin'." See the photo of that jam session when he heard us and jumped up to blow! Henry Nemo, famous songwriter, said, "You sound like a young Hoagy Carmichael." Fred Waleki tells others guitarists, "He's fun to play with." Roland White told me, "That's how Lester played it!" when I did the E major thing on Foggy Mt. Breakdown while jamming with him.Finally, I would like to say that I am headlining at the Hollywood Bowl next month. I would like to say that, but it's not true. In my spare time, I like to experiment with nanotechnology. To all you young people, stay away from sax and violins.
