Track Notes:
Your Old Lady and Lonely Avenue: Not mine, the Isley's and Ray's respectively. Featuring the likes of Bennett Miller on bass, Joel Arnow on drums, and David Bailis on guitar. A taste of our new band , The Stick-Ups . We kick ASS.
DWP and Shout: Mid-winter recording exercises which grew legs...and provide an excellent contrast between pre-meditated structure and spontaneity. Fascinating.
Sun Goddess: A cover (Ramsey Lewis/EWF). Matthias Bublath (organ) and Darcy MacRae (drums) fill out the band on this one.
Leaving Paris: I wrote this in school at UMich during the three weeks after (surprise) returning from a week in Paris; a rather substantial part of myself wished to stay there. I don't play on this recording, as I was conducting (sax solo is by the good doctor, Dean Moore II ).
Bio:
If you guessed that I play saxophone, well, congratulations, you win a donut. Sometimes I run it through a bunch of effects out of deep-rooted rock n' roll envy. Mostly out of expectation and obligation, I play flute and clarinet. With much more enthusiasm, I also play electric bass (frets or no) and keyboards, and I sing. I would hate to classify myself solely as a jazz musician, 'cause I really like to play it all, which is honestly not a cop-out. I'll play and have played just about anything, as long as it's good, be it free jazz, singer/songwriter gigs, electronica, ambient, hip hop, modern classical, country, hard bop, choro, funk, rock n' roll... don't matter! Some argue that playing everything will only lead to widespread mediocrity. If so, then bring on that sweet, sweet mediocrity, mm-mmm.
I write as well, though not much of this is currently recorded. Hopefully more soon. I am not one of the "Music flows from my head like a freshly-tapped oil well" types. No, quite the contrary. Writing is work. I write because I haven't been able to find certain sounds, and feel a need for them to be present in the world. If I don't have a forum, I generally don't write. But, give me a band, and I'll give you tunes.
As far as songwriting is concerned, I can't write a damn lyric to save my life — unless, of course, it's miles from serious. (Stay tuned for my country debut, "I Only Drink Liquor From A Plastic Bottle." You will laugh.) If you are a lyricist who has a similar problem with music, we should talk.
Ok, I suppose that every bio's got to list the stuff I do or have done to which some may exclaim "Wowie zowie!" So here goes. Most recently, I have been welcomed into Meat Loaf's band, playing sax and keyboards, just in time for the Bat Out Of Hell III promotional tour of Fall '07, which was way too much fun. It included sell-out concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall and New York's Palace Theater, as well as performances on The Today Show, The Jimmy Kimmel Show, and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve . Last year, I had the honor of playing the Organ Summit at Iridium in NYC with organists Dr. Lonnie Smith , Reuben Wilson , and Jimmy McGriff . I played with McGriff for most of 2005. Until its closing (damn the evil mouse to hell), I was a regular sub on Movin' Out, the Broadway musical featuring the music of Billy Joel. Occasionally, I can be seen with The Blue Vipers at a number of venues around Manhattan and Brooklyn, both indoor and out. Tuesday evenings are spent playing bass with singer/songwriter Ansel Matthews at Zinc Bar. Others I have played with include Seleno Clarke, Bettye Lavette , the Temptations, the Temptations Revue feat. Dennis Edwards, Johnny Bassett, Clarence Clemmons, Al Hill, Odessa Harris, Steve Rush, and Clound 9 Music.
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I finally broke the seal and started buying records, the vast majority of which are soul/R&B 45 rpm singles. It's a wonderful music with which I am completely and inexplicably in love, and 45s seem to be the perfect scale at which to experience. As it would be a complete shame for such a collection to simply sit on my floor in boxes, I will occasionally assume the persona of DJ Zippo and emerge to play said records for the world at large... too much fun.
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Feel free to stop on by my blog , say hi, leave a comment or two. Maintained with a widely varying degree of regularity.
