Hi,
Well my newest CD "Dangerous Curves" is FINALLY being released and I'm really excited about it. I thought I might give you a little insight into the songs.
1."Dangerous Curves" this title is referring to the kind of curves that might be surrounded by a bikini but it could also mean to expect the unexpected.
I put this song first on the CD because I think it best represents the feel I wanted on this record. I wanted it to be "soul jazz" party type of music and I think this gets us off on the right foot (or as James Brown would say, the Goodfoot).
2."Droptop" I drive a convertible and I rarely put the top up.No easy feat when you live in New York,but a scarf, hat, long underwear, ski mask, electric sox, ear muffs, gloves,wool sweater, down jacket,and the heater on full can get you through most winter days with the top down( as long as it's not snowing too hard). Right now it's summer so one can ride around nude as long as you don't pull up next to a truck, mini van or anyone else who sits higher than you. Anyway I wanted this song to have the feeling of cruisin' with the top down on a carefree summer afternoon.
I was looking for a 60's R&B, soul sound ala Booker T. and the MG's that is reminiscent of the summers when I was a kid. I have yet to find anything more liberating than school summer vacation.
3."Another Friday Night" this song ain't nothin' but a party and Friday night has ALWAYS meant party.Rick Braun was hanging around the studio so he became part of the party by joining in with the hand claps along with producer Bud Harner, engineer Steve Sykes and a few other assorted characters. He was pretty good at this but I don't think he should give up the trumpet to become a hand clap soloist.
4."Mister Magic". With the sad loss of Grover Washington, Jr. I wanted to do some kind of tribute. We didn't want to just copy the song so we changed the feel around, gave it a bit of a beatnik groove, played some different chords and took quite a few liberties with the arrangement.The melody's still in tact (for the most part anyway).
5."Step Aside" as in "you'd better get out of my way cause I'm comin' through". This was the last song written for this CD. Bud Harner ( the co-producer) stopped by my apartment and shyly said "I've got this idea for a song that's been kickin' around in my head". He sat down at the piano and with one finger ( he's a drummer, not a keyboard player) picked out the melody. I loved it and immediately put some chords , a bridge and an arrangement to it and that was that. Sometimes things just go easy in life, sometimes they don't.
6."No Two Ways About It" this is another summertime tune. The title refers to it being a duet with Peter White on nylon string guitar ( title idea courtesy of our webmistress). It was really fun trading melody and solos with Peter.He really brought a lot of life to this song.
7."Gone but not forgotten" I was simply trying to express the feeling of really missing someone and wanting to be with them.
8."Lost weekend" this was originally titled lost weekend in Tijuana but we decided there was no need to be so location specific. This was the 1st song I co-wrote with Chris Palmero, a very talented songwriter/musician who ended up writing 5 songs with me for this CD ( Dangerous Curves,Another Friday Night,No two ways about it,Lost weekend and Till we meet again). Chris really added a lot to this record.
I love the loose, retro vibe of this track. My favorite part is the salsa meets James Brown groove Steve Ferrone came up with.
9."Till We Meet Again" I wanted this to have a Barry White, Teddy Pendergrass, Billy Paul, Philadelphia soul vibe. A love song.This is one of the only tracks to use synthesizer on the record( this and "lets talk it over"). I wanted to keep the record really organic in it's instrumentation but to get the proper "Love vibe" I thought this one should have some strings.I mean you'd never catch Barry without his orchestra.
10."Lets Talk It Over" I wanted this one to have a sound kinda like the CTI recordings of the seventy's ( Grover,early Benson, Bob James) . I co-wrote this with Neil Jason.Neil is a great songwriter and session bass player who's recorded with EVERYBODY ( Billy Joel,Carly Simon,David Sanborn,Celine Dion,Roxy music,the Brecker Bros., Gato Barbieri, you name it).He and I also collaborated on the song 'Seventh heaven" from the Nightlife CD.My favorite part of this tune is the electric piano solo on the rideout. We were still working on the form in the studio so this was our 3rd or 4th take in a row. I had been taking the rideout solo on all the previous takes so I started soloing when that section came around, then after a few chorus' I was kind of tired of listening to myself so looked across the room at Mitch (Forman) and gave him a cue to take it. He didn't miss a beat with jumping in and man it was smokin'. I think it was so great because Mitch didn't have time to prepare at all so it was totally spontaneous.
11."Walkin' On The Sun" It was Bud's idea to cover this one. He's got teenage kids so he heard them playing the Smashmouth version a lot. I came up with an arrangement that was a little more surf like and it just wasn't working so we decided to take a break for a few minutes. I was just about to scrap the whole idea of doing this song but when I walked back in the studio Steve(Ferrone)and Lincoln(Goines) were jammin on this groove ( I believe that Steve actually came up with the bass line idea and they were both developing it when I walked in) Mitch and I joined in,I motioned to the control room to roll tape and that was it. No overdubs or fixes, just four guys jammin'.
12."Soul Serenade" this is a cover of a King Curtis song from the 60's and let me tell you, King Curtis was COOL. I love to adapt sax melodies to guitar, especially the R&B instrumentals from that era.
It was about 2:00 a.m. and we had already called it a night but the guys were still just hanging around the studio winding down when Lincoln suggested we cut this track then. Steve Sykes already had all the mikes set and luckily the assistant engineer, Israel Herenandes was also still hanging around and could take over as recording engineer so we fired the amps back up and put the machines into record. I'm really glad we did because I doubt if we would have been able to catch such a laid back,bluesy groove at any other time of day. I thought it was the perfect vibe to end the record with.
