2 words

And the 2 words are Bill Hatcher, surprised me by being at the Intercontinental last night and what a night it was. The last song was a version of Bridge over Troubled Water that nearly moved me to tears. We segued into it from Edgar Winter's Dying To Live. So many moments of cohesive improv and at Bill's suggestion we played a Beatles song that we had never done, For No One. It was sublime. Bill is an amazing artist and a caring and compassionate person. I'm so happy to know him and his wonderful family.

Yes

Listening to If You Knew from www.myspace.com/sjkalinich which is Stephen’s poem recitation along with David Marks on guitar and Steve Zuckerman on piano along with Jon Stebbins who sings along. What a great track. Tasteful and soulful guitar playing, the piano has the gospel feel that I love so much.
On the way to tonight’s gig I was listening to 1690 as http://www.1690wmlb.com/
They played the most amazing piano piece and I couldn’t figure out who it was. It was swinging and full of amazing harmony, but also very cool and relaxed. Turns out it was Lennie Tristano who my uncle Hal used to play with. I mainly know the album uncle Hal played on, it’s called Crosscurrents and was recorded in 1949. This cut was a later one and his influence on many of my favorites was very clear to me upon hearing this swinging cut.
Tonight I was inspired at my restaurant gig, it’s so much fun to play for 3 hours. The only requests I got tonight were for Nat King Cole and Vince Gauraldi. Can’t go wrong with those choices.
Last night was a blast at Blind Willie’s. Scott Glazer has a diverse book of tunes and the group was a powerhouse with Yonrico Scott of The Derek Trucks band on drums along with Scott’s acoustic bass laying the foundation behind the powerhouse from line of Sam Skelton and Bob Lewis on Sax and Trombone.
So many good tunes but the one that really stuck out to me was Fables of Faubus by Mingus which was preceded by some historic info by Scott musch like we hear on his radio show. A cool Hank Mobley song and a blistering Cherokee were other highlights as well as a guest appearance by one of my all time favorite people Tommy Dean of The League Of Decency who sang Exactly Like You and Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans.
Last Thursday at the Intercontinental we had a groove with The Gary Land Groove featuring Maria Howell. She’s such an amazing vocalist and performer, she really connects with the crowd. Some of you may remember her in the choir in the film The Color Purple. Gary and Steve Vincent laid down the awesome grooves Rick Bell on Tenor Sax, Melvin Jordan who used to play with The Temptations played the solid guitar and sang with Maria. The night was a course in how to execute the dynamics of funk. The most solid grooves with dynamics are the most fun to open up on. We’ll be doing this line up the 3rd Thursday of each month.

Scott Glazer 1690

What a radio show. Scott picks the best songs. Every single one that I heard on my ride to work last friday was a gem. Such a pleasure to hear songs by The Beatles, Fats Waller, Brubeck, I can't remember all the titles but it made my ride to the gig a breeze. Scott is not only a fine bass player who can play all genres of music, he is an excellent D.J. and A.M.1690 The Voice Of The Art's never lets me down.

June 29-July 6

Stephen arrived on Thursday June 29th. When we got back from the airport we sat down in the family room with Mindy and had some snacks before listening to our finished CD You Can Soar. Inspired and happy with the results we moved to the music room to go over the schedule I had prepared for Friday's concert. I played Stephen my arrangement of Rainbow's, the song he wrote with Dennis and Carl Wilson for Dennis's masterpiece album Pacific Ocean Blue. My version retains some of the funkiness of the original version, but I open it up and get into some funk/gospel/jazz piano stuff at the end. With Stephen's approval we moved on to go over California Feelin, which would precede Rainbows.
The next morning after rest and meditation we were ready to drive to Unity North in Marietta for sound check./rehearsal and for Stephen to meet the band. Mindy prepared some sandwich's and we got the kids together and all the equipment for the ride. We got out that way a little ahead of schedule, so Stephen took us for ice cream at a really cool place called Cold Stone Creamery.
We got to the venue, set up and one by one, the musician's arrived. Bob Lewis with his horns, Gary Land with his acoustic Bass, and Mike Hinton with his drums joined Bill on guitar and Janna on percussion and drums. All the players had given up gigs to be there for us and I really appreciate them. Gary had played in the orchestra for the Atlanta Brian Wilson Pet Sounds show in 2000 and more recently had played the Joni Mitchell symphony show here in Atlanta. He was the only band member at our concert who didn't play on the cd but we hope to get him on the next one.

Everyone at Unity North was so helpful in pulling this off with special prop's going out to
Penelope Williams who fully supported our vision and helped me rehearse the children's choir.

We ran through the show 2 times and everything was just right. I got pretty choked up during the run-through of Be Still, while singing it I flashed on all that I had learned from this song . This song not only brought Stephen and I together but had been influential to me in the 70's when I was starting to meditate and has become something of a standard at Unity Rockdale where I am music director .We had dinner at Donnie's eatery where Stephen got to experience a good ol southern buffet. At Donnie's, we ran into Stephen's friend Ted and his family, who had driven in from Nashville for our show.

The concert was everything I envisioned it would be and more. We had a great turnout and the audience felt and heard every word, every note.
The show kicked off Start Your Day With Gratitude followed by America Is You And Me, both with the children's choir. Next up was Alameda Symphony which had Mindy dancing with the children's choir and the other kids. During Stephen's poetry section, we could feel the passion of the audience whose emotional reaction to the intensity of the poem stirred my soul and led to some subtle musical exchanges between, Bob, Bill, and myself. After Alameda I gave the band a break as I performed the title song from our cd You Can Soar, followed by Stephen's recitaion of the poem of the same title. I invited Bob back to play his special piccolo Trumpet part on A Friend Like You which was sung by a lovely young vocalist named Beth Ballinger backed by me and the children's choir. Beth brought out the sweetness of the song as did the children's choir.
Next I asked Stephen to talk a little about the next song Life Against The Wind, which is our song about the homeless and one of his favorites, For the next poetry/music section Bob played flute along with my piano as we accompanied Stephen's recitation of God Is Alive which was first published by the Unity magazine in 1970. He followed this gripping reading by segueing effortlessley into The Magic Hand which is from the album A World Of Peace Must Come that Brian Wilson produced and played on.
Next was Ca. Feelin/Rainbows, and it took me by surprise when I broke into my piano break on Rainbow's and the audience was so enthused. At the end of Rainbows. I brought each band member back Sly and the Family Stone style and while we had the groove thing happening we did Goodness, our funky gospel number. We were graced with my soul sister Jennifer Ferren for this song and for Unsung Heroes. We ended the concert with Stephen's recitation of his poem Be Still followed by me singing the song Be Still one time through before inviting the children and the audience to sing

Be Still and Know You Are as a chant with musical accompaniment. After the concert we took Stephen for his very first Waffle House experience. The waiter didn't believe him at first that he had never been to a Waffle House but he soon did after talking with him awhile.

The next morning I brought Stephen with me to a gig I was playing at an opening of a market and he got a taste of our southern humidity, going for a mile and a half walk before coming back and listening to our jazz trio.

Sunday morning at Unity Rockdale, Stephen wowed the congregation with his poem's and we got a standing ovation after performing America Is You And Me Which he followed with his poem that he first recorded with Brian Wilson in 1969 America I Know You.
Sunday afternoon was our performance at Circle Sky Records which brought out many of Stephen's fans. I was glad to sing Smoke This which is my favorite from our cd and a good example of one of his long form poems that I set to music. The record store crowd also sang along with Be Still and Stephen did a very informative question and answer session about his years working with the Beach Boy's.

The 4th of July was our Luau that Mindy put together for 68 of our friends to meet Stephen. He talked to everyone sometimes having many conversation's at the same time in a way that only Stephen can do. It was a great chance for him to meet some of the Atlanta musician's who graciously played on our cd like, Del Baroni, Rick Bell, Bob Lewis, and Bill Hatcher Mindy out did herself and a great time was had by all. We were happy that our old friends The Palanza's and Jenn and Cam were in town and able to drop by as well as some of the local Beach Boy's community who I had met in the last few years at The Smile gatherings at Circle Sky, Tom Ekwurtzel who wrote a chapter in the book "Add Some Music"is so knowledgable about the structures of Beach Boys songs, Ray Taylor who has had several Beach Boy's tribute bands and is a real gas, Jim Grey, Ronnie from Ear Candy, and Margaret who showed some great pictures of the Landmark dedication. A great party, thank you Mindy and thanks to all the friends and family members who were at 4th of July 06 with us.

July 5th was a day of sightseeing, Little 5 points, Freedom Parkaway, The Carter Center, Paces Ferry, lunch at The Buckhead Diner and back home to get Mindy so we could head out to my gig at Atlantic Seafood co. where they had dinner while I played solo. Stephen loved seeing the city and next time I promised him that we will be able to spend more time exploring . He left on Thursday but not before we wrote 2 new songs and put down the poetry sections for 4 new pieces that I will be working on for the next cd. Bill did 2 tracks of electric bass for one of them and Janna will be putting a drum part on one, while my friends Fitzhugh and James Jenkins from Sedona AZ arrive next week to help me with the music for Stephen's Sedona suite.

July 6

Before I run down the events of this past week, I have to pause for a second to reminisce about a great night of trio playing at the Intercontinental. It was a pleasure to walk in and see Lyn Deramus on acoustic Bass. He is such a fine player and I have been hoping to play with him again since the last time we played together 3 years ago. I have never forgotten the version we played on a jazz gig of one of my favorite Rodger’s/Hammerstein songs this Nearly Was Mine. When we played it tonight I was mesmerized by his fluent bass line which he played as it was in the show. The chordal movement and the bass line that follows is so beautifully written that it plays itself, minimal improv for me on this one, I just like to play the song and feel it. Other highlights tonight were the first set medley of another Roger’s/Hammerstein classic, If I Loved You into Silly Love songs and a slow funky version of The Way We Were.

For fast swing numbers we did Jerome Kern’s The Song Is You, Bye Bye Blackbird, and Imagination. We ended the 2ns set with When I Fall In Love, played of course as a ballad. Set 3 started with a swinging version of A Hard Day’s Night played in a Ramsey Lewis style. I hadn’t played Horace Silver’s Song For My Father in years but thanks to Steve Vincent syncopations and Lyn’s funky playing and strong knowledge of this song’s AAB structure, It was a groove. My next blog entry will detaail the last week with my collaborator Stephen Kalinich.