Phil's own notes on sessions, releases and projects, newest first, with audio clips where he posted them.
Early reactions have been great to the new Barney McClure CD, Show Me, on OA2 Records, which I arranged and co-produced. It also features the Central Washington University jazz band under the direction of Chris Bruya, who played some challenging music quite well, with a lot of heart. If you liked the old Jimmy Smith and Gerald Wilson albums, this will be right up your alley: great straight-ahead mainstream jazz.
My print publisher, Danney Behar, has retired and transferred all of my print music on Walrus Music to eJazzLines. You can now find all my big band material there; the details are on the print music page.
The new CD by Chicago singer and guitarist Frank D'Rone and my Northwest band, Double Exposure, was released on March 1 on Whaling City Sound, a Boston-area jazz label. It is the first recording Frank has made with a big band since his 1958 debut with Billy May, After the Ball on Mercury.
Frank is a marvelous vocal talent and guitarist, a singer's singer respected throughout the vocal community. I first worked with him in 1961 on his Mercury recording Live at the Hungry I, so here we both are, fifty years later, finally doing the project we had both been dreaming of. The band, the same one that recorded Convergence Zone and Ballet of the Bouncing Beagles, really roared on all of the charts, and Frank gave the players a lot of space to shine. Six band cuts are complemented by six solo ballads with Frank accompanying himself on guitar.
Forty-nine years after our first gig together at the hungry i, we wrapped a brand-new recording with my Origin Records band, the Northwest Prevailing Winds, plus a group of solo vocal and guitar ballads by Frank. The band tracks were cut at Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, and the players were loaded for bear. Before heading home to Chicago, Frank played a live concert on Tuesday, September 28 at the Historic Everett Theatre with Bob Hammer, Larry Holloway and drummer Ray Price, his first Pacific Northwest appearance in many years.
Primo Kim's CD Make It Right is out. My contribution was three orchestral backgrounds that I feel came off quite well. If you are a vocal jazz or Mel Tormé fan it could be a run-and-buy item. Besides Primo's very musical vocal stylings, the CD features some of Seattle's finest jazz players: pianist Randy Halberstadt, bassist Jeff Johnson, drummer Gary Hobbs, trumpet and flugelhorn player Jay Thomas and saxophonist Bill Ramsay.
I finally corralled the Northwest band into Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, Washington, on the weekend of May 31 to record my third CD, titled after a tune inspired by the nightly romping session that follows my beagles' dinners. Along with our usual permanent guest, Pete Christlieb, we had the pleasure of former Thad Jones/Mel Lewis lead alto player Jerry Dodgion. The sessions were grueling, but the band was on fire. The finished album is on the recordings page with audio clips. Session photos are by jazz photojournalist Daniel Sheehan.
I have finally managed to get the whole NW Prevailing Winds together to record a third CD at the end of May. It is essentially the same band I used on Convergence Zone, with Pete Christlieb and Andy Martin on board again, and I have amassed a whole bunch of new material.
My Museum earned a spot among the top 50 jazz albums of 2007 in JazzTimes magazine, following a September 2007 JazzTimes review that was, not surprisingly, glowing.
Phil talked with Mark Channon on WWUH, the University of Hartford station in Connecticut.
The new CD by the Los Angeles companion band, the Southwest Santa Ana Winds, is out on Origin Records:
The Convergence Zone CD managed to get two Grammy nominations: best large ensemble and a best arrangement nod as well.
I am working on three arrangements for an upcoming CD of compositions by drummer Stix Hooper of the Crusaders. I just heard the tracks for the first time and they are really in the pocket. The NW Prevailing Winds also played live at Tula's in Seattle on Saturday, February 5, to shake down new material for a second CD.
