Liner Notes
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Bobby Shew, Gary Foster and Friends Play the Music of Reed
Kotler
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This project succeeded solely due to the talent, selfless dedication, and hard work of Bobby Shew.
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Bobby is my favorite jazz trumpet player of all time and we've been friends for many years. He plays
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with great sincerity, beauty, and imagination. Every note he plays says so much.
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Anything that a great jazz trumpet player can hope to achieve in one's lifetime, Bobby has been there
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and done that many times. There is no nicer guy, nor a person more supportive of a young artist. He
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has helped many young artists at various instruments, some of whom have gone on to become house-
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hold names. He has worked tirelessly as a jazz educator for many years.
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His album Outstanding in His Field was nominated for a Grammy in 1980, while Heavy Company was
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awarded the Jazz Album of the Year in 1983. Recent solo albums include Salsa Caliente, Playing with
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Fire and Heavyweights.
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Bobby has played trumpet for the big bands of Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Tommy Dorsey, Bill
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Holman Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin, Oliver Nelson, Bill Berry, Nat Fierce-Frank Capp Juggernaut,
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Ed Shaughnessy, Terry Gibbs, Benny Goodman, Maynard Ferguson, Neal Hefti, Don Menza and Louis
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Bellson.
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He also played in the small jazz ensembles of Horace Silver, Art Pepper, Bud Shank, and Frank
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Strazzeri-Sam Most.
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Aside from his jazz playing, there is not a person that has gone to a movie or watched TV in the last 30
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years that has not heard his playing on many occasions. He was one of the unsung heroes in the LA
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studio business that Hollywood relies on. His work on TV shows included Hawaii 5-0, Grease I and II,
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Streets Of San Francisco, Bob Newhart, Mary Tyier Moore, Midnight Specials, Don Kirschner Rock
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Concert Happy Days, Laverne And Shirley, and Eight Is Enough. His work on soundtracks includes
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Rocky I and II, Six-Pack, The Muppet Movie, The Drivers, and Taxi. Bobby retired from studio work in
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1982 to concentrate entirely on jazz playing and teaching. For a full biography, current schedule, and
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discography, check out his web site at http://www.bobbyshew.com.
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When I first called Bobby back in May 2001 to see if he would be interested in doing a recording of my
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compositions, he was very supportive. He took it upon himself to do all the arrangements, put together
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an absolutely top band for the session, find a studio, handle the union contracts, and countless other
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tasks As usual, he was on the road all summer playing all over the world, only touching base back in
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LA for a few days here and there. There is no busier musician on the planet and I was grateful that he
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was willing to take charge and put so much time into the project.
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From the beginning, Bobby was concerned that my songs be presented in the best possible light. This
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requires a combination of great arranging and top musicians. The process of arranging required
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transforming a collection of lead sheets for the songs, and recordings of me playing the songs as solo
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piano arrangements, into something the band would play.
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Professional jazz musicians are always capable of playing "something" and even something of "reason-
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able quality" from a set of lead sheets and some basic instructions. For Bobby though, this would not
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be adequate. He spent many hours
pondering and listening to the songs, thinking about how they
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should be presented, what keys they should be played in, and what introductions, endings, and "hooks"
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could be added to spice them up. "Hooks" are things that pull the audience in to the song. I tend to
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write a lot of romantic ballads and some of these could remain as such. Others would have to be con-
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verted into other forms in order for the project to be balanced: too many ballads and the listener will be
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fast asleep. For example, the opening tune "A Night to Remember" was originally written as a slow bal-
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lad. From all of this Bobby produced a 150 page book of charts that he wrote out meticulously by hand.
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In addition to his many skills, Bobby is an experienced professional copyist.
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The choice of musicians is especially critical for a jazz project. Even with the good arrangements and
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songs, there is a whole middle section where the musicians improvise. More time is spent there than in
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playing the melody to the song. This can be a big dead spot in many recordings. Professional jazz
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musicians are always capable of playing something that will fit, but will it be something that goes well
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with the song and that can sustain the interest of the audience?
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While the composer of the song may have 6 months to write 2 minutes of music, the improvisor has
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only 2 minutes of time to produce 2 minutes of music. Few improvisors are up to the task of equaling or
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besting the composer in quality under those time constraints. This was a big concern for me. This
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music was not going to be played night after night by the same band. Rather the musicians were going
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to come together in a studio for a few days with Bobby being the only one with any real knowledge of
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the music ahead of time. When we first discussed the project, Bobby immediately knew the players he
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wanted. To a man, he picked great melodic and tasteful players: those whom only allow notes to be
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released from the instrument which need to be there, even when playing a fast flurry of notes.
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» It had to be Gary Foster on saxophone and flute. Gary is coincidentally another favorite player of mine.
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I don't know what to else to say about Gary. He just plays GREAT!!!! On one tune, when I asked for
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another take after we already had a good take on that tune, Bobby accused me of just wanting to hear
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Gary play another solo. All I can say is that I was guilty as charged. (I did get that extra take though!)
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Gary is arguably one of the most in-demand studio musicians in LA. His list of credits goes on for as
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long as you care to read. Recent solo albums include Make Your Own Fun and Live at Maybeck Hall
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Duo with Alan Broadbent.
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Gary appears on Natalie Cole's Unforgettable, Take a Look, and Stardust recordings, on Frank
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Sinatra's Duets recordings and on the Broadway, Back to Broadway, In Concert, Higher Ground, and
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Timeless recordings of Barbara Streisand. These top performers can get anyone they want to play on
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their recordings and it is always Gary who gets the call. You can imagine how thrilled I was-bouncing
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off the wall-when Gary said he would do the recording!
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On piano it had to be Bill Cunliffe, another favorite of mine too. Early in his career Bill won the presti-
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gious Thelonious Monk Competition. Bill is another incredibly in-demand studio and concert player
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based in the LA Area. I first became aware of Bill's playing about ten years ago through his work with
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the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra and the Clayton Brothers Quartet. His trio recording of the music of
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Bud Powell is one of my favorite CDs.
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Bill is an incredibly adventurous and imaginative player. He has a very eclectic arsenal of musical ideas
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at his disposal If there were an award for extreme jazz piano playing, he would win it hands down.
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When he wants to, he can take incredible chances and live on the edge, but at the same time he never
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leaves the realm of great taste and integrity. He can leave you sitting on the edge of your seat as he
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solos At the same time, he can be as sensitive and introspective as he wants to be. While accompany-
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ing other band members, he is all ears and provides great support. His recent albums as a leader are
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Live at Bernie's and Satisfaction. For a complete biography, discography, and current schedule, see his
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website at
http://www.billcunliffe.com.
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Rounding out the rhythm section is Darek "Oles" Oleszkiewicz on bass and Paul Kreibich on drums.
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These two players I had never met nor heard before this session. Darek Oles shares the bass chair
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with Charlie Haden at the prestigious California School for the Arts and is one of the most sought after
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bass players on the west coast. He has recorded over 30 jazz albums.
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There is a trend nowadays to not have bass solos on jazz recordings. It has always been like that to
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some degree but much more so nowadays. While it is difficult enough for the improvisations of the
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horns and piano to sustain the interest of the listener, the bass with its lower frequency range has that
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problem to a greater degree. I must confess that as I walked into the studio, I was ready to request a
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"no bass solos" CD. The moment I heard Darek warming up, I threw that idea out the window. When
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the question came from Bobby about solos, I responded with "do whatever you want" which I knew
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meant that we would have plenty of great bass solos.
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Paul Kreibich is an incredibly tasteful, imaginative and melodic drummer. His depth and range is quite
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remarkable He never thinks of himself and is the ultimate team player: always there to help the band
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sound the best it can. Paul occupied, for a number of years, two of the most demanding drum chairs in
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the business, namely those for singer/pianist Ray Charles and for the late great jazz pianist Gene
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Harris.
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You'd better groove, swing like crazy and have the "best time" on the planet or not even think about
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playing with either of those guys! His two recent albums as a leader are Lonesome Tree and The
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Jazz Coop.
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It was a humbling experience watching these guys work in the studio for the whirlwind two-day session
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during which we recorded the twenty one songs for this project. The incredible musicianship and ability
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to play absolutely great solos on songs that they had never heard, or seen charts of before was unbe-
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lievable to me. As jazz musicians, we can all play solos that fill the space for the solo and don't sound
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wrong and maybe even sound okay but the process of even playing good solos on a new song usually
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is a long one. The musician first has to really internalize the song and only then does something mean-
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ingful start to appear in the solo. It's not that way for these guys. They don't know how to play anything
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but great solos. It is unusual, even on famous recordings to hear great solos from each player on a
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given song. It is even more unusual in the case where it's an original (non standard) song written by
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one of the band members. That one band member might play a great solo on his song but the other
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members won't know it as well and will not solo at that same level on that song. This happens especial-
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ly on bands just put together for a session. We never did more than two takes except for the song
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"Take Me With You" (which Bobby didn't play on). Gary played an amazing solo on the first take and
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Bill Cunliffe played a very good solo. On take two Gary was a bit spent on that tune and he played a
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very good solo but then Bill Cunliffe played an amazing solo. I was so spoiled at this point that I wanted
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every solo, from every player, to be amazing on every song. The following day I asked for one more
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take on that song and got what I was looking for, an amazing solo from both Gary and Bill.
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There were a few obstacles on the way to this recording. The starting date was to be September 17,
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2001, just one week after the tragic events of terrorism at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
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We were all greatly saddened by those events and walking around in a big funk. Gary was touring in
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New Zealand too and we were afraid he would not be able to catch an airplane back in time since for-
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eign travel into the USA was temporarily halted. The night before the recording, Bobby got the fourth
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finger of his right hand (third valve finger) accidentally slammed in the garage door by someone that
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was helping him do some work at his house. We were lucky that it wasn't broken but I was personally
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amazed that he was willing (and able) to go into the session after that. His finger was looking a pretty
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* nasty combination of red and purple colors and had swollen up quite a bit. I guess he felt the show
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must go on. Had he said that we had to cancel the session he would not have gotten any argument
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from me.
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^ The songs for this project are the culmination of a story that began almost eleven years ago in a music
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bookstore in San Francisco. I had begun studying with jazz pianist Mark Levine several months before.
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Mark was my first real jazz piano teacher and each week he continued to open my mind to all kinds of
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sophisticated jazz harmony, reharmonization techniques, piano voicings, and solo piano arranging
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techniques.
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I would spend all my free time studying arrangements Mark had done, arranging jazz standards
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and acquainting myself with the standard songs of the jazz literature. On the way home from my lesson
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one week, I happened to stop by a music bookstore in San Francisco. As I was wandering around I
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saw a brochure for the "Bud Shank Jazz Camp" in Port Townsend, Washington. Even though it was
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only two weeks away, I decided to call and see if there was still room for me. Sure enough there was,
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so off I went.
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Bud's camp had an impressive array of great players, all of whom had worked with a "Who's Who" of
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other great players and bands. One of these players was trumpeter Bobby Shew. That first year, alto
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saxophonist Phil Woods was a guest artist. On the first or second day, they announced that on the fol-
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lowing day, Phil Wood's band would play student compositions with his band and offer advice. Wow,
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what an opportunity! The only problem was that this student didn't have any songs he'd written (except
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for one, "Darling I Love You", which he had written several years before but didn't have the music for it
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with him). All day long I thought about trying to write a song when the practice rooms opened up in the
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evening.
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The days are always packed at the camp and classes wouldn't be over until about eight o'clock that
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evening and the practice rooms would be closed after ten o'clock. My last class of the day was an
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arranging/composition class with bass player/arranger John Clayton. One of the things John talked
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about that evening was writing music to a deadline. He said you have to just make the musical choices
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the best you can and then move on. That was sure great advice for this particular day since 1 had
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about two hours to try and write a song. After this class I bolted towards the practice rooms, manuscript
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paper and pencil in hand, and two hours later I had written "Beautiful Evening". I stayed up late that
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night arranging and writing the parts in my room and the next day Phil's band played the song and the
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audience exploded in applause. That was a great experience and made me realize that I could write
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music-music that other people would respond to positively. I made up my mind that next year I would
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return to the camp with an entire book of tunes. John Clayton had encouraged me to do that and it
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seemed like a great idea.
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During that next year, I sent a copy of "Beautiful Evening" to pianist/arranger Don Haas. Don used to
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have master classes at his house each month with guest pianists (Mark Levine, Smith Dobson, and
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Richard Hindman). He would hire a world class bass player and drummer and we would get the experi-
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ence of playing with guys at that level and getting a critique from the players and guest pianist. I
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remember being hardly able to play jazz piano and having Harold Jones (from the Count Basie band)
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playing drums for me at one of those classes.
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When I arrived at the first master class of the season, Don showed me his reharmonization of
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"Beautfiul Evening". He had almost entirely redone the harmony in the first 24 bars of the tune (an odd
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44 bar tune it is).
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He had seen possibilities that would never have occurred to me. I had to study with this guy. I was to
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later learn that he was the resident San Francisco Bay Area harmonic genius, and all the musicians
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revered his abilities. This marked the beginning of our ten year friendship, which also included off-and-
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on study until his death in early 2001. On this recording, Bill Cunliffe plays a beautiful solo piano rendi-
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tion of "Beautiful Evening". Originally this tune was to be played by the whole band and only at the last
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minute did Bobby decide to have it be a piano solo. We didn't have a chart with the melody on it for Bill
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((as his part only had the chords) so he ended up playing it from the transposed trumpet chart (a whole
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step up) which put him in the unenvious key (for jazz musicians) of "A". Coincidentally, this was the key
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BiII had originally written the song in. Jazz musicians don't like to play in sharp keys, except sometimes
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in G. Those other keys like E, A, and D are reserved for rock guitarists. The key of B is reserved for
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singers that have enough money to find a band that will play in that key.
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During this next year, I wrote about ten songs, all of which appear on these CDs. I arranged my newly
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written songs all for solo piano, made a demo tape and lead sheets and headed off for the Bud Shank
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camp again. I made copies of the demo tapes and music to give to the faculty and artists in hope that
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they would record my songs. The first recipient of my package was Bobby Shew. That was the begin-
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ning of our friendship of over 10 years. Bobby listened to the tape right away and was really supportive
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and encouraging of me as he has been to many players. Over the next few years that followed, I wrote
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other songs and experimented with different compositional ideas. As I developed as a jazz player, I
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studied with other pianists and was influenced by various other artists. Some of them I wrote and dedi-
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cated songs to on these CDs.
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Pianist George Cables was on the faculty at the Bud Shank camp and I was fortunate enough to study
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jazz piano with him for the five years I attended the camp. George is one of the greatest trio players
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that has ever lived. You can't leave one of his concerts without a giant smile across your face, singing
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all the songs he played for weeks after. He used to play this Blue Mitchell song called "Fungi Mama"
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which was a latin song based on the chords to "I Got Rhythm" (we call these rhythm changes). It made
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me think about writing a latin rhythm changes song. So when I wrote "Calypso Bop", I dedicated it to
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George.
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(When we went to record that song, Bobby announced that he was going to play the first chorus of his
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solo with just drums and then Bill immediately said that he wanted to do the same thing. I had no idea
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(what they were up to and my instinct (which fortunately I suppressed) was to ask them not to do that.
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Wow what an idea Bobby had! The amazing feeling of energy when the full band came back in behind
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them was remarkable.
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One of my teachers whom I have studied with over the years was pianist Richard Hindman. Dick, who
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is a fabulous player and former sideman for Stan Getz, has unbelievable virtuosity at the instrument.
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This inspired the burning song "Too Soon", which is written over the chords to the standard "Soon".
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Since "too" can mean "also", the tongue in cheek "Too Soon" was chosen because it also has the chord
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changes to "Soon". The song lays nicely on the piano and is an absolute killer for horn players because
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it doesn't lay well on the horns and doesn't breath anywhere (since we piano players don't need to take
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big breaths to produce sound we forget sometimes to leave room for the horn players to breath).
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Another less well known jazz standard is the song called "I Never Knew". At around the time I was
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learning that song I was transcribing some Clifford Brown trumpet solos and it inspired me to write a
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song based on the chords to "I Never Knew" in the style of a Clifford Brown trumpet solo. I chose to call
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the song, "I Never Knew Clifford". Many may be aware of the Benny Golson classic written in memory
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of Clifford called "I Remember Clifford" so the title I chose has a double meaning. And of course while
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Benny knew Clifford and could remember him, I never knew him.
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Jazz musicians frequently write songs with new melodies to the chord changes of standard songs.
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Charlie Parker was the first major proponent of this technique and, among other things, wrote countless
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songs to the chords of "I Got Rhythm". The new melodies give the jazz musician variety of songs, each
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song suggesting different ideas for the improvisation. At at the same time, the familiar chord changes
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from other songs make lots of material they have developed for those chord changes available. The
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most famous chord changes used for writing songs are all the variations of the "Blues". Jazz blues can
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reflect almost any kind of emotion, have many variations for their chord changes and aren't pigeon-
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holed into the "she/he done me wrong" often found in traditional blues.
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One year) had a chance to study at the Stanford Summer Jazz Residency Program with pianist Kenny
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Barron. During class one day, Kenny demonstrated some gospel piano playing. My head was swim-
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ming with the harmonies I had heard that day. That evening I was inspired to write a Jazz Gospel Blues
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that I dedicated to him called "Blues for Kenny B."
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One year at the Bud Shank camp, they did a tribute to bandleader Stan Kenton. Many of the Kenton
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alumni were there, including tenor saxophone great Bob Cooper (who was married to singer June
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Christy), were at the camp that year. I got a chance to talk with Bob a bit and he was really supportive
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of my writing. A few weeks later he died unexpectedly, and in his memory I wrote the song "Coop"
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using rhythm changes in his memory. I once gave a young tenor saxophone student of mine a stack of
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about 30 CDs, a "Who's Who" of famous tenor players which included greats like Stan Getz and Dexter
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Gordon to listen to so that he might pick out a solo that I would help him learn from the CD. Well he lis-
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tened to them all and picked out a Bob Cooper solo from that list. That's how great Bob Cooper was
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but certainly not as well known as many. Bob was another one the unsung heroes of the LA studio
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scene.
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Another Bay Area pianist, teacher, and friend of mine for many years was Smith Dobson, who died
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tragically in a car accident in 2001. Smith was the musical director and house pianist for many years at
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the Garden City Restaurant/Jazz Club.
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This was the home of Tuesday night jam sessions where all the young players would go to get experi-
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ence playing. I wrote the song "One for Smith" (another rhythm changes song) several years back for
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Smith and it reminds me of the happy swinging sound Smith had. I used to take all my new songs
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down there to try them out and Smith would play them and was always real supportive. Originally writ-
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ten in the key of F, which is a good piano trio key for that song, Bobby chose the traditional Bb key for
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rhythm changes for this recording. My piano lesson with Smith used to be on Tuesdays so I also wrote
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the blues song "Tuesday Blues" which appears on these CDs.
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A few years after I stopped attending the Bud Shank camp, I had become a faculty member at the
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Stanford Summer Jazz Residency program. I had a guitar student that was to be attending the Bud
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Shank camp. For his audition I wrote some things for him to play, one of which was "One for Bobby"
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'-- which is dedicated to Bobby Shew. This is another blues with some less common chord changes for
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the melody portion of the tune.
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No single musician influenced me more than pianist Bill Evans. My song "Tears for Evans" is my dedi-
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cation to Bill. Bill played such happy music but I always felt like he had a lot of sadness in him and like
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the coal that turns to diamond after being under pressure or many years, so Bill's sadness had turned
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to great beauty. I always felt like he could use a good cry so I wrote some tears for him. Of course we
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also all felt very bad when Bill Evans passed away.
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A big source of inspiration for song writers are other songs we like. Sometimes the feeling, some
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melodic concept or harmonic idea catches our interest.
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One of my personal favorite song writers (as is the case for many jazz musicians) is Johnny Mandel.
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He has written many great songs including "The Shadow of Your Smile", "A Time for Love", "Close
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Enough for Love" and the "Theme from Mash". His song "Emily" is one of my favorites. He weaves a
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simple three note melodic pattern (Em-il-y) through an array of rich harmony. I decided to experiment
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with this idea but instead to use a 2 note pattern and also to experiment with some parallel chord
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movement. I ended up with the song Jenny (Jen-ny).
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Another favorite song is the Eroll Garner Classic "Misty". It's a happy love song that (in the key of Bb)
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starts with the descending notes, Eb, C, G. So I wrote a sad love song starting with descending notes,
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f Eb, C, and then going ascending to G. So it's like a mirror image (it wasn't this deliberate while I was
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writing it: I noticed this much later). The rest of the melody is totally different but has that mirror image
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feeling. However the chords for the first part are similar to those of Misty. The bridge (middle) of the
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. song is fairly daring harmonically and melodically and I think it adds to the darkness of the song. The
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' standard "Everytime We Say Goodbye" always fascinated me with it's pedal point melody which allows
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musicians to reharmonize liberally underneath. My tune "You are the One" was my attempt at compos-
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ing with that concept.
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The Bill Evans song "Blue and Green" that Miles Davis recorded on the famous album "Kind of Blue",
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had a beautiful, haunting feel to me. The tune "Take Me With You" was my attempt at capturing that
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feeling and the chords in the middle are borrowed from "Blue and Green". It was one of the first songs I
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wrote and I received a nice letter from Marc Johnson, Bill Evans bass player at the time of his death,
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savinq that he liked this song. For some reason, lots of my early encouragement I received as a writer
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came from bass players: besides Marc there was John Clayton, Todd Coolman, Reggie Workman and
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Dave Friesen Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud used to say that sometimes a cigar is ]ust a good smoke^ So
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too with some of my songs, there are no stories behind them, they are just songs I wrote. "Just Having
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Some Fun" is one those songs. It's a fun song with a somewhat strange song form and an interesting
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harmonic twist at the end which propels things nicely back to the beginning. "A Distant Song" was an
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experiment with a multi-part song. There is a theme of this song being heard off in the distance arriving
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and then departing back off into the distance. Gary plays the distant part on alto flute with Bill playing
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the part when the song arrives. "Nice Groove" was a song that I wrote for my first piano trio as an
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opener for our gigs. It's a simple song that is good for warming up. "Darling I Love You" is a simple
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waltz that was the first song I ever wrote. The verse is played solo by Bill Cunliffe with the whole band
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cominq in at the beginning of the chorus.-Happy Day" is a ballad I wrote while playing hookey from
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work one day. Of course not going to work was a happy day. "Blues for TH" is a simple blues I wrote for
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a friend. It's in the vein of those soulful tunes that Cannonball Adderly used to play.
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This project is dedicated to the memory of my longtime friend and teacher Don Haas.
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| Reed Kotler
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| Bobby Shew - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
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Gary Foster - Alto Sax, Tenor Sax, Flute, Alto Flute
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Bill Cunliffe - Piano
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Darek "Oles" Oleszkiewicz - Bass
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Paul Kreibich - Drums, Wind Chimes
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All songs composed by Reed Kotler
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All arrangements by Bobby Shew
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Recording Engineer - John Ugarte
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CD Mixing and Mastering - Larry Darling
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CD Production Layout - Thomas Washatka , www.stellarsound.net
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Cover Design - Thomas Lanaux
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Producer - Bobby Shew
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Executive Producer - Reed Kotler
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Recorded at the Track House, Van Nuys, CA
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