The first jazz album I've done in a while, and my
first real "playing" album. I pushed the racks of synths aside and revisited my first love, the Hammond
Organ. Most of the CD is in the classic organ trio format and
features great performances by guitarists
Joe Beck and
Mike DeMicco,
and drummer
Danny
Gottlieb. My brother Tony is
sitting in on bass, playing lead on a beautiful Jimmy Giuffre ballad. The album has a few originals and several
of my jazz arrangements of classic pieces - Erik Satie's
"1st Gymnopedie", Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues", Ralph Towner's "Icarus"
& the Beachboys’
"Sail On Sailor."
The cover photo was taken by photographer
Sally Anderson-Bruce.
It was supposed to be used for a CD cover but was rejected. I've been using it as my PR image shot for years and finally
got to use
it on a CD cover as I had hoped to. Thanks Sally.
I kept a log of the
making of the CD - now
moved to it's own section.
Could
be me ... but not.
Tony at my KB rig doing a solo encore.
Awestruck by our opening Barbershop Quartet
Ovation after our closing Barbershop Quartet
4/19 Washington, CD - XM Satellite Radio Broadcast
We did a broadcast from the XM
studio in Washington
Matt
Wolfe gave us a tour of the amazing XM facility.
4/19 Springfield, VA at Jaxx
A strange evening.
Jaxx is one of those classic, huge rock clubs where great shows
happen. At least that's what we were told. This
particular Wednesday there was no cook - so we didn't
eat. The opening band never showed up. The house
guy who mixes monitors took off before the show started and didn't come back.
The owner came in for a minute then took off. And big surprise, they didn't publicize the date at all - not even a hand-written
sign in the club! If they were trying to keep it a
secret, it worked. Go figure. We had a small but very enthusiastic audience,
and we appreciated that a lot. If you ever wonder why
musicians grimace when they talk about "the road" ...
Tony - describing how an ape played
piano with his knuckles, and autographing a T-shirt.
4/20 Asbury Park, NJ at The Saint
The Saint
doesn't look like much from the street. (Actually, it
doesn't look like much when you get inside either.) It's a
small, funky corner bar with graffiti all over the walls and
ceilings, showing every one of it's years of ungraceful aging.
The waiting line going down the block was our first hint that
The Saint is much more than what it appears to be. For
years they've been bringing in great original bands - local and
national touring acts - running as many as 300 shows a year.
People know it's good and they come out for it. The room was so
crowded we had to travel behind the bar to get to the stage.
Tony came up with a great idea: We did our opening
barbershop quartet from behind the bar while Kai hand-held a
microphone for us. Why do musicians do what we do?
The audience shots below tell the story. We love this
place! It might turn out to be one of our favorite gigs on
the tour.
Photo: Joe Curreri
Load-in and setup
Tony
does 'Places To Go"
4/22 Schenectady, NY at The Van Dyck
Mainly a Jazz venue,
I played in this beautiful club a few years ago with the
Brubecks. Pretty different this time out. (Aside
from louder!) In spite of torrential rainstorms, we did
two shows to capacity crowds who waited patiently in lines to
get in. It's a slow process at the door, up a narrow stairway.
The club usually doesn't have to deal with crowds this size.
The 3 shots below:
We had an event during the first show. A few songs into
the set, Rob Frazza came running up to the stage and stopped us.
There was a leak in the ceiling. Right over Jerry's head,
a plastic bag there to contain the leak was visibly filled and ready
to burst. Jerry came out front and chatted with the
audience while Peter worked on the bag ... and got pretty wet!
