My heart is heavy. I just learned that Larry Rosen of GRP Records (Grusin-Rosen Productions) has passed, apparently due to brain cancer. I first met Larry in 1980, when I was just 19 years old. I was asked to sub for guitarist, Jeff Mironov, on a tour of Japan with Dave Grusin and the GRP […]
In this moment in my musical life things are good and I take absolutely none of it for granted. The fact that I’ve had the chance to play organ–trio jazz with the Bobby Broom Organi-Sation for thousands of people per night, opening for Steely Dan in arenas, amphitheaters and concert halls all over North America, […]
My two cents in response to the recent, New Yorker magazine Jazz ‘satire’, “Sonny Rollins: In His Own Words” by Django Gold, a senior writer for The Onion. In order for satire to work here, there must be the assumption that the practice of jazz involves some sort of vice, stupidity, etc.—something to expose and actually mock. Since the […]
THE STORY BEHIND THE MUSIC At long last, I’ve decided to release these homemade demos that I’ve been holding onto for around 20 years. Over those years, I’ve revisited them from time to time and always enjoyed. At the time, I remember doing all I could to put the most into the music and get the […]
Mr. Ron Davis, the father of deceased 17 year-old Jordan Davis, made a beautiful post-trail statement this evening. Which got me thinking… I do not believe this country will ever recover from its self-concocted racism, the fuel of the tormented Black men and women who worked to build this nation, and the life-blood of the […]
I can’t remember the last time I had such a profound reaction to a guitar player than when I heard Jef Lee Johnson in 2010. Not in 30 years or more had a fellow guitarist made me feel like I had discovered the musical Holy Grail. Yes, I’d had lesser seismic stirrings as a kid […]