Hello old and new friends -
The beginnings of the ‘My Space’ phenomenon coincided conveniently with a big change in my life when we left our exciting but exhausting life in New York City in 2005 for a more quiet existence in the outskirts of Toronto. This is a great way to reconnect with all the wonderful musicians and people I’ve met over the course of the years, especially now that I actually have the time to do so! First of all, I am very pleased to tell you that, after spending most of the past decade on the 'industry side' of the music world, I picked up my saxophone again. It feels SO GOOD to be playing again!!! I had my first gig a couple of weeks ago and I unearthed some of the old ‘Funkmeister’ material; it felt great playing those funky tunes, like Rusty Bryant’s ‘Gootie Boogaloo’, Sonny Stitt’s ‘Turn it on’ and Eddie Harris’ ‘Cold Duck Time’. Too bad that there are no decent recordings of the many fun gigs my band ‘Astrid Hepner & Funkmeister’ played at the Knitting Factory Lounge in New York in 1996/97 (the one you're listening to was cut on a tape recorder…)anyway, it was quite a scene, and I never forget the night when the uncle of our rapper, a fantastic percussion player whose name unfortunately I can’t remember, came all the way down from the South Bronx to sit in with us. His playing brought the sound of our band to a whole new level, the audience loved it and that night was probably one of the highlights of my musical career. The cab ride all the way downtown had probably cost him three times the amount of what I could pay him, but it was still great fun. There were some other nice gigs too, with Tito Puente and Celia Cruz as documented in my pics...While I slowly ventured into the music industry working for record labels RCA Victor, ECM and later at EMI for Blue Note Records as its President/CEO Bruce Lundvall’s assistant, some of the former Funkmeisters have moved on to impressive musical careers. Keith Carlock, who was our drummer for a while and is in my opinion one of the grooviest drummers on the planet, toured with Sting and is currently on the road with Steely Dan! Dream-gigs, I’d say…. Keith, will you PLEEEASE be my friend????!!!! I could go on and on - and of course there were my Blue Note years: I feel so lucky for having had the opportunity to get to know and closely work with one of the greatest music executives in the industry: Bruce Lundvall. He is kind, intelligent, has a great sense of humor and is the best mentor one could ever wish for. In the years I worked with Bruce I’ve probably learned more about music than any conservatory can ever teach you. It was truly an amazing time. I was there when he signed Norah Jones and it was a very special experience to work with all the world class artists signed to Blue Note: Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Joe Lovano, Jason Moran, Bill Charlap, Al Green, Bobby McFerrin, just to name a few. Anyway, that was New York… it is now my mission to create new excitement in Canada and I’m planning to find some Funkmeisters in Toronto as I am dying to perform again.
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