al basile

I went to Brown to be a Theoretical Physicist, but discovered that the main language was math - and I was better expressing myself in English. So I became a writer, and wrote poetry, plays, and fiction. After college I stayed in Providence, and made new friends who were blues and jazz musicians - Duke Robillard and Scott Hamilton. Duke hired me to be the first trumpet player in his band Roomful of Blues (5000 years ago, it seems), and I toured and played with them for a few years. Later I taught English, Music, and Physics in a private school in RI, and taught myself to write music and sing. Now I've been a session player on lots of CDs by Duke and others, and my songs are on many CDs as well and have been used in television and films. About ten years ago I started Sweet Spot Records, and I have five solo CDs out on my own little label. The last three have been 18, 14, and 14 on the Living Blues national airplay chart.I'm going into Duke Robillard's Mood Room studio in January 2009 to record my seventh CD. This one will build on the Roomful of Blues connection of the last one, with a bigger horn section featuring Doug James, Rich Lataille, and Carl Querfurth on trombone to complement Duke, Bruce Katz, Marty Ballou, and Mark Teixeira from the last time. I'll be singing and playing a lot of cornet on it, and the songs are mine as usual, this time in a soul blues and soul jazz bag.I'm still writing other stuff, with poetry published recently in the Texas Review and "The Silver Boomers Anthology." I still sing and play around New England with my drummerless band Swing n' Strings. I'm lucky to be able to do things I love full time - life is good.