East Bay Soul

Short Story part 5...I have worked with Japanese recording artists Dreams Come True since 1996. Several cds for the group and two for the lead singer, Miwa Yoshida. The second of her solo projects is entitled Beauty And Harmony Two.
It was an allstar line up of players. Google it. It really is an impressive cast.
And gue...ss who was on a couple of the tracks? That's right, Randy and Michael.
They hadn't played together in about 12 years, so this was something. Yuors truly was the arranger on this cd and I relished the chance to write for them. I made the arrangement very "Brecker-ish". Truly one the highlights of my career to this day. What a thrill...Read More

Short Story part 4... Randy Brecker. Oh boy. I almost landed on him. Almost, thank God. What a way to meet someone. The Breckers were on their way to Pori, too.
Anyway, he was cool and we became friends in front of several bare naked ladies, which wasn't a bad thing in and of itself, we both thought.
Told him the Chicago... story and he said, "No, you sounded great that night. We just had to leave early. We were beat." Phew!
Fast forward...Read More

Short Story part 3...'89 perhaps. We we at the InterContinental Helsinki staying the night before driving up to Pori, Finland to play the Pori Jazz Festival.
I had just gotten out of the sauna and was on my way to the pool.(clothing ptional). There was an ice cold plunge next to the pool. I stuck my toe in it and decid...ed not to partake of the waters. A heart attack was not on my agenda that night. I decided to just jump in the pool to cool off.
I can't see a thing without my glasses on so I proceded to do a cannonball off of the divng board. Mid air I hear someone in the water yell out, "Hey! Look out!"
Yup. It was...Read More

Short Story part 2...Oh #%*$! The Brecker Brothers, Randy and Michael were coming by to see the band for the second set. What was I going to do. I'd never met them and was such a fan of Randy ever since I'd heard the first BS&T record.
We played. I sucked. They left before we finished. Great. It took me a couple of nigh...ts on my old mouthpiece to get back in fighting shape. Needles to say the old 13A4A is a paper weight these days. To my dear friend Mike Vax: Sorry.
Fast forward...Read More

Short Story... I think it was 1972 or so. Tower was playing a club in Chicago. Don't remember the name of it. Earlier in the day I had stopped in the Schilke store and bought a Mike Vax 13A4A trumpet mouthpiece. Felt pretty good in the shop. It was going to improve my upper register, so I naively thought. Screech-ville...! Oh boy.
Later, at the club that night, I played the first set with the new piece. Major career mistake. Major pain, too. I have never been in such a dilemma. Didn't know if I'd be able to play the next set in about an hour.
Then the news came...Read More

East Bay Soul Nominated for The Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards!
Best International Group/ Duo of the Year for 2009

The 6th annual Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards takes place FRIDAY APRIL 23RD, 2010

Vote For East Bay Soul!
Secure on-line voting begins at www.canadiansmoothjazzawards.com on Monday January 11 and ends Friday Febr...uary 19th, 2010. Winners will be determined primarily by the results of the voting with some industry input.Read More