Warriors and other stuff…

I’ve been sick the last few days…but I’m still busier than hell. I’m starting to book the Warriors for some shows over the next few months. I’ll keep everyone informed as I’ve had many inquiries into when our next show is.

Beside the Warriors I’m still working on my new stuff, but I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had nearly enough to get anything online. The good news is that all of my tools are now in place. I’ve got a fantastic studio setup at my house and I’m ready to go.

On another note, I’m still playing with Crossfire. We had our first real show with our two new vocalists and it went well. We’ll be playing out again for a public show in a few weeks…I’ll let you know.

Finally, I’ve been working hard at learning and writing keyboard parts for Anvil Chorus. I’ll be playing with them on March 5th at the Paradise Lounge in San Francisco.

Change and growth…

The Warriors are going through a transitional period right now, and I expect this time to bring some interesting results.

First let me start off by saying that I love the guys in my band. They are among some of the most talented musicians I’ve worked with. More importantly, we all get along great and enjoy each others company.

Up until now we’ve been working with some of my original material mixed with various arrangements that I was either given or even purchased somewhere along the line.

Over the last several months we have spoken among the band about the direction of the group and where we really want it to go. The final outcome of that conversation is that we’re going to go back to my original vision. A vision which I’ve had for a long time…

I’m once again going back to my love which is a much more edgier and aggressive sound. Over the next several weeks I’m going to be working on some very new material with the group which should bring an entirely new sound.

Think epic.

Busy, busy weekend…thanks!

This was a very busy weekend for me. On Friday I played with the Jazz Warriors for the Sonoma Jazz Society at the Plaza Bistro in Sonoma. Wow! What a great place to play and what a fantastic audience! Jordan was on fire on Friday night and sounded great. Adam Thompson was filling in on bass for Josh and get a great job…especially since he was reading and playing some of the charts for the first time.

Thanks to everyone from the Jazz Society and from the Plaza Bistro…you made it a very special night for us.

On Saturday I played with some of the members of Crossfire and backed a Caesar Young in San Francisco at the St. Francis. David Schrader filled in for Jordan at the gig. (David is my daughters main sax teacher and has been working with her for about two years).

Sunday afternoon I played with A Jazz Thing at Aqus in Petaluma. Tracy Rose, Matt Silve, Eric Isaac, and Jordan Wardlaw played and we had a great time. I’ve played at Aqus quite a few times over the last year and this was by far the best turnout we’ve had on a Sunday.

My daughter, Leah played on a few tunes with us and as usual stole the show.

Finally, Sunday evening I played with Swing 7 at the Hydro in Calistoga. This was a fun gig. The band is lead by Dennis Hubert on guitar and vocals. Dick Shuster plays tenor sax in the group and brings a huge number of arrangements to the band. We were playing out of “one” of his books and there were somewhere around seven hundred charts that he personally put together for three horns! Amazing.

Today, I think I’m going to take it easy. Maybe a little tennis this afternoon!

Recording and upcoming shows

The band has been going strong. We’ve been adding a lot of new material lately and we can’t wait to try more of it out on our fans and friends.

Our shows have been a lot of fun. Each time we play we see an increase in our fan base. Our last show at Aqus we didn’t do a lot of marketing as we were all busy and hadn’t rehearsed in a couple of weeks. I though we’d just have a fairly nice, quiet show. We ended up with a full hose anyway. I was pleasantly surprised and the show was great. We’ve still only played a handful of shows but we can already see where the band is going.

We had a meeting last night to talk about recording and future direction for the group. To be honest, I was a little worried going in that people would be on different pages and have different goals and ideas of the direction we should go. To me, I would be happy doing a lot of work and just letting the shows come. However, all of the guys are pros and I always give myself a guilt trip when they come over to rehearse for free. Well…last night everyone made it quite clear that they were in it for the long haul and want us to really work the material. I couldn’t be happier! The plan is where were going to narrow down what we play and focus on what we’re going to record.

Next week Josh is going to be busy so Adam Thompson is going to be playing with us on November 13th.

The Plaza Bistro
420 First Street East
Sonoma, CA 95476
7-10 pm
No Cover
Dinner reservations are recommended.

Come on down and support the band!

Mr. Whitwell – New Music!

Last night we finished recording Mr. Whitwell. This is a tribute to our friend Michael Whitwell.

When I sat down and started writing this song I wanted to create something that Michael would have enjoyed listening to and playing. Next, I wanted to find a sound that I believe would make everyone remember Michael. I didn’t realize how much I had captured that idea until I listened back to the song. I was nearly in tears while I was mixing this song because it truly made me think about Michael.

I hope everyone enjoys this song as much as I do. I know this is something that will be in my book for the rest of my life.
Mr. Whitwell – by David Prescott

The newest addition – “Mr. Whitwell”

Tonight the Warriors played our newest song – “Mr. Whitwell”. It seems like everyone really enjoyed the new material and Scott Nygard seemed to think Michael would have loved it. It’s a beautiful song and it’s a huge trumpet feature….Michael would have ate it up!

Come and see the Warriors this Saturday at Ace In The Hole. We’ll be debuting a few new songs that night. 7 – 10.

Thanks To The Friends of Michael Whitwell…

This weekend I saw a lot of people get together to celebrate the life of Michael Whitwell. Many of his friends gathered around Catherine for support. I saw a lot of tears along with laughter as everyone reminisced about Michael. My memories of Michael are only over the last few years and I had a great time hearing everyone’s experiences that in some cases have spanned multiple decades.

On Friday Peter Welker and his band had some of Mike’s closest friends show up at his weekly gig in Petaluma. I wasn’t able to attend but I was given a huge poster of a picture of Micahel playing trumpet only a few years ago. A lot of Michael’s friends had signed it and asked me to have more of his friends sign it at Aqus. I kept it for both Saturday and Sunday and it was really fun reading some of the wonderful…and colorful comments.

I also heard through the grapevine that on Saturday the CT Cruiser’s dedicated their show at Montgomery village to Michael. Phone calls from his friends all over have been coming in and the word is still just getting out.

It was obvious to me that Michael had touched many lives, and continues to today. What else was amazing to me was the quality of friends that Michael had. Some of the finest musicians and nicest people you will ever find.

Catherine came to both of our shows this weekend and she looked beautiful as usual and it seemed like she enjoyed hearing a lot of these stories and sharing her own with everyone. It was really wonderful.

Anyway, …thank you to everyone that has shown their love and support to Michael and Catherine.