Good morning! I can tell already that this is going to be one of those 'mind-over-matter days. Actually, life itself is a mind-over-matter situation anymore ,with all the craziness in the world. You have to push back a bit, lest you succumb to it and end up all bent out of shape over things you can't change. Gee, I feel better already- but I probably shot your day to hell talking about this stuff- or at least alluding to it. Sorry about that....
Music news. I'm back happily working away here in the Music Lab. After a string of "Pandemic recordings"- my one-man-band stuff- I'm thinking that what really wants to happen here is another group recording. This is something I can't wait to get back to as far as life eventually returning to some kind of normal. But for now, I do have a couple disks with quartet stuff on them, from our gigs at Robbie's and Charlie's Club(the basement of Andiamo's).
From 1999 until the end of 2005, I had a quartet with GG Pelletier on saxes and vocals, Kevin Ellis on bass and Don Cochran on drums. It was a nice patch. We all got along, and had a great time playing together. The group that followed- a trio with Don and bassist Bill Schlipf- was my favorite, but the quartet came in a close second.
I regret that I never had a recording of either group. GG joined me on the album Oop Bop Sh'Bang(which features him on 2 selections, one of which is his own composition), but otherwise it was a different bunch I recorded with. My Millikin Period, as it were, since I used a number of its music faculty. So I just recently stumbled onto some old 'gig tapes' from the quartet, and they're not bad!
This upcoming project is going to be more expensive, since there are 'cover songs'. I have to pay the licensing fee for all these tunes, plus a little more $ to have CDs made, but the recognizability of the tunes will generate more sales. Hopefully I can get everyone's blessing on this. I suppose I could just proceed with it and take my chances, but..
So this is keeping me somewhat occupied. I think music has saved my ass through all the messes of 2020. Hope it comes through next year as well. And with that, I'm ringing off for now. Until next time, I'm outa here. More later.
PS RIP Steve Truesdale. 