Last night, President Obama awarded Stevie Wonder the Library of Congress George Gershwin Award at a private event at the Whitehouse. Mr. Wonder’s massive body of work has become a significant addition to the standard jazz repertoire. I might even go as far as to say that he is one of the greatest and most influencial songwriters of American Popular Song, and in my opinion deserves to be mentioned among names such as Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and John Lennon & Paul McCartney.

Here is an article from musicradar.com by Ben Rogerson entitled “5 Reasons Why Stevie Wonder Deserves His Gershwin Award.“

Today, Freddie Hubbard passed. About 2 years ago, I got the change to hang out with Slide Hampton for a few days and he had told me at the time tha the had been trying to convince Mr. Hubbard to pick back up with his routine and to start playing again. There had been some recent articles about him playing at a few clubs and I selfishly had been hoping that we would hear another recording but alas, it never happened. He will be missed. Here are the NY Times and LA Times Obituaries.

So, I heard this story on NPR on the other day and it really made me reconsider where I store some of my documents and files. It turns out that I have no legal leverage, let a lone right to anything that I store on various email or document storage sites.

Read!

Listen!

Last night we finished up the second day of recording in Holland. The first tune we put in the can was a gorgeous jazz waltz written by Lee called “Blue Tuna Boulevard,” which was reminiscent of the Bill Evans trio recordings of the 1960’s tastefully mixed some of some Frisellesque styles and phrasing. The first of the other two tunes was a street beat/funk version of the Charlie Parker classic “Scrapple from the Apple,” and the second, an arrangement of Wayne Shorter’s ”Footprints” with a double-time feel reminiscent of the Scofield Uberjam Band recordings.

We’ve been delighted to be working with engineer, sound guru, and owner of Elm Street Recording in Lansing Michigan, Ryan Wert. Ryan, Lee, and I went to College together and it has been great to catch up and continue working on such a highly professional level. No matter what curve ball we throw at him, he has already taken care of it!

The project has been a great experience for everyone involved and we look forward to mixing it down on Monday July for a hopeful fall release.

As many of you know I am currently up north on vacation and recording with Holland Michigan based Guitarist Lee Heerspink over the next couple weeks for a record release later in the year. So far we’ve finished recording about half of the record and we’re quite please with the outcome. At this point the record seems to be seems to be unfolding into a groove oriented record with a whole lot of back-beat.

Yesterday we were able to put 5 tunes in the can Giving us a lot of freedom over the next week. First we recorded “Softly as a Morning Sunrise,” only the melody has been tweaked and superimposed over the changes from Wayne Shorter’s “Black Nile,” giving it it’s own fresh flavor. The second chart was an original composition of mine entitled, “Ray’s Blues,” dedicated to the late, way beyond great Ray Brown that features West Michigan’s own Charlie Hoates on Bass. The third is a simple rhythm changes calypso, fusing motives from “Oleo,” and “Cottontail,” to cleverly disorient the average jazz aficionado (something I think most of us have considered doing at one point or another). We also recorded an interesting version of my arrangement of the Herbie Hancock 80’s hit “Rockit,” that will also by appearing on my upcoming quintet record to be released in early 2009. The last tune is an original of Lee’s dedicated to a mutual friend John Rodriguez, which I am personally hoping will end up being the title track for the record entitled, “Pull Your Stinky Face.” This track consists of groove meats, Americana, meets just plain nasty!

More to come soon!