Father Daughter Dance 08

 

Easter Morning

 

Aquarium Dreams

 

Yesterday's Tommorow

About 10 years ago I was playing mon-thurs. at The Martini Club in Midtown Atlanta with The Trio(Ramon Pooser, Mike Hinton , and myself) It was a great gig and we developed lot's of cool arrangement that we recorded on our 1998 cd-Thursday by the Trio(Out of Print) I basically would play any theme that came into my head and we would explore and improvise. Yesterday's music at Sacred Tapestry reminded me of those days especially when I saw my good friends Steve and Patty walk in. Steve had been manager of Martini Club at the time I was there and in fact he was the one who hired me. A true music lover, so supportive and encouraging, Steve Tasman is one of the great people in my life as well as his wonderful wife Patty French who is also a fine actress who can be seen on the Lifetime show Army Wives.
This is the tapestry of music that Bill and I played for the Easter service at Sacred Tapestry-We started with a theme by Prince fell into works by Stevie Wonder, Sammy Cahn, James Van Heusen, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney,John Coltrane,Herbie Hancock,Al Kooper,Pete Townsend,Sly Stone,Sonny Rollins, Maurice White, Bobby Hebb,The Doors, and myself.

TheCrossHigherGroundOpenfunkgroove
LovesInNeedOfLoveTodayHaveATalkWithGod
IfNotForYouMaidenVoyageLetMyLoveOpenTheDoor
AllTheWayTommorowNeverKnows
IfYouWantMeToStay
ThatsTheWayofTheWorldLetItBYesterday
SoWhatStThomasWithinYouWithoutYou
HouseInTheCountry(BS+T)Mindy#21
SunnyBreakOnThroughALoveSupreme

Bambu news and Both Sides Now-re-post

It's a beautiful spring day here in Stone Mountain Ga, near Atlanta, The tornado of last week seems like a surreal dream, The club that I play at on Monday's with Francine(Cafe Circa) is just blocks from where it hit and thankfully had no damage.

I have recently been in touch with Carli Munoz who passed on this great news-

Dennis Wilson's 'Bambu' release set, featuring 4 Carli Muñoz songs

Carli Muñoz
Musician-composer Carli Muñoz is even more creative than he is nuts. And that says a lot!
Carli was a close friend of Dennis Wilson, who asked him to work with him on an album that was to be called Bambu. Tragically, Bambu had not been released when Dennis drowned off the L.A. coast.
Now, word comes that Bambu will be released at last in late Spring this year. It will likely be coupled with Dennis' album Pacific Ocean Blue.
Four of the songs on Bambu are Carli's compositions. I vividly recall hearing them and happily singing along, even before Carli played them for Dennis Wilson.
Carli's passion for great pop music is matched by his love for jazz. In fact, Carli Muñoz is considered to be one of the greatest living jazz piano players.
http://www.ranjak.com/

So that got me to reflecting on a blog that I wrote a couple years ago when I first found Carli on the web which is re-posted below.
Check out Carli's site's-
http://www.carlimunoz.com/
http://www.carlisworld.com/


Thursday, June 30, 2005
Both Sides Now

July 1st. 1.55 a.m.
A great day in Atlanta today , 90 degrees and humid, just right for summer. After mowing the lawn I was thinking about a time in the early 70's when I went from Stockbridge Massachusetts to New York with a friend to see the Beach Boy's in concert. I stopped in to say hi to my uncle who was wondering why I was going to see the Beach Boys. I explained some about the intricate chord progressions and the soulful and spiritually uplifting melody's, harmony's and overall good feeling that the music gave me. Uncle Hal was once a Jazz Drummer who had played with Lennie Tristano and sat in with Bill Evan's.

Thinking about those day's when I was soaking up the sounds like a sponge that were available to me through my Dad's radio station in Pittsfield, learning about the jazz masters from my piano teacher Mike Schiffer, and getting my feet wet gigging at local clubs with great musicians like Kenny Aronoff and Ed Mann. It was a great time to be an aspiring musician.

While I was listening to Keith Jarret, Bill Evans, Monk, Zappa, Weather Report, and The Beach Boy's, I felt a thread that connected it all. The radio station played a variety of great sounds from Joni Mitchell, The Beach Boys, Mahavishnu, Return To Forever, Judee Sill,John Coltrane,The Band,Jackson Brown, Ravi Shankar and everthing in between.

The Beach Boy's concert's of that era were so uplifting.The set included some of the more recent material from Wild Honey-Holland. There was the soulful singing of Carl Wilson on songs like the Trader and Blondie Chaplin on Sail On Sailor and Leaving This Town, Carl's great takes on Caroline No. and Let The Wind Blow, as well as the fun oldies. The band of this era was rocking, earthy,funky, and of course Transcendental. If you listen to the album or cd-The Beach Boys in Concert, you will hear what I mean.

Cut to a few weeks ago, I found the site of one of the musicians who helped make this era in of The Beach Boys so special. His name is Carli Munoz and he played the burning organ solo on Leaving this Town from In Concert and his keyboard creativity helped bring this music around the world in the 70's. The band back then was on fire and the music was alive. I'll never forget those concerts in Saratoga Springs. N.Y. Hartfod Ct. and Boston. I knew back then that what I was hearing was part of the musical landscapoe that now looking back i was so lucky to experience. It was all there in that music, Part of the fusion of sounds that made me the musician I turned out to be.
It turns out Carli has his own club in San Juan where he plays with his jazz trio. http://www.carlisworld.com/restaurant/carli.shtml

I was happy to find Carli and ordered a cd from his site called Both Sides Now.
What a treat this disc is. Produced by Eddie Gomez who also plays on it.

I'm struck by the Carli's fluent and respectful treatment of the melody on ballads like Lionel Bart's As Long As She Needs Me, and the space that they get into on Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now on which they are joined by the fine drummer Joe Chambers who also plays on 4 other cuts. Be My Love is one that I have enjoyed since I heard Keith Jarrett's version a few years ago and this rendition is right up there with Keith's. Jeremy Steig adds his fine Flute playing to the Evan's tribute Remember Bill, Besame Mucho, and Carli's originals the Morning After, and Three Little Steps to Heaven are all highlights but If I had to pick my favorite on the disc it's a very close tie between As Long As She Needs Me(I love a good ballad) and Both Sides Now( The space they create says it all, words cannot describe it but listen and you will see what I mean), Okay , I said it was a tie between those two for my favorite but special notice must be given to Surfer Girl, this is the finest cover version of Surfer girl I have heard. Played as a ballad with jazz changes that move the song along while staying true to the essence of the composition. When I recorded my Jazz tribute to Brian and The Beach Boy's(Unreleased 2004), My intention was to stay close to the spirit of the songs while improvising on them. I did not record Surfer Girl on my cd, but i sure am glad Carli and co. did because Carli understands how to play the melody and play with the melody. I love hearing Eddie Gomez solo on this one as it goes along with my feeling that Brian and The Beach Boys music belongs with the rest of the great standards. I highly suggest that after reading this, you go over to Carli's site and order this cd. He has several other's available and I will be checking those out next. As an extra treat, Carli offers fine coffee that he calls Carli's Concerto, The cd's and coffee are all offered at a reasonable price, Check it out, It's a good way to get your july started,

Spring

Great gig this morning/afternoon with Kivi and The Simcha Orchestra. He plays a Roland Keytar, with great Lead sounds. It was a great Purim celebration at Beth Jacob, then on to another fine evening at Atlantic Seafood Company with Del. We make a great duo and after all these years it's still a lot of fun every Friday night at ASC.
Last Sunday we played Love Is The Answer by Utopia at the Sacred Tapestry service and the week before it was Imagine, I'm still waiting for the right song to be revealed for this Sunday's Easter service-We will have 2 services 9 and 11. The brunch and outside patio will be open as well as The Divine Bean cafe where Phil makes the best Cappuccino's and in my case Americano's (My favorite. On last Wednesday's gig I was happy to have written a new song and I'm calling it Mindy#21.

Francine Reed/Eddies Attic 2/12/07