Soul Jazz to Braz-Jazz, and Beyond
Where to begin…
Like many musicians, my influences through two decades of playing are too many to name, and are kind of all over the place. Bird’s lines, Cannonball’s fire, Sinatra’s phrasing, Evans’ structure, Getz’s wistfulness, Miles’ space, James Brown’s groove, Coltrane’s mission, Ray Charles’ preaching, with the blues just under the surface of it all. There are hundreds more to add to this list, but you get the idea.
In more recent years, my attention has turned to Brazil, whose musical soul holds a vast wealth of styles, grooves and insight that I have only scratched the surface of. Giberto Gil’s energy, Ivan Lins’ melancholy, Tom Jobim’s musical poetry, Joyce’s pure musicality, Caetano Veloso’s meditations, the jingas of Bahia, the samba, and of course the bossa nova.
I have always been drawn more toward the funky, earthy soul jazz that came out of the sixties from cats like David Newman, King Curtis, Eddie Harris, and Cannonball Adderley. In more recent years, I’ve been hearing things on the baritone sax, and continue to develop that side of my sound. For me, it’s a kind of homecoming, since I played bari 30 years ago in school.
The other sound I can’t get out of my head these days is the Hammond B3 organ. So many great players there too…Joey D, Larry Goldings, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Groove Holmes, Jimmy McGriff, Brother Jack, and of course the great Jimmy Smith. I recently got an M3 organ (the B3’s little cousin) into my living room with a small Leslie speaker, and the sound is just hypnotic. I’ll be uploading some MP3s of of what I’m playing there.
