I’m proud to announce the release of Tabula Rasa – the quintet collection of my latest music. Featuring the amazing artistry of Erik Jekabson on trumpet, Mike Blankenship on keys, Scott Thompson on bass, and Aaron Green on drums. For me, it’s truly a dream-come-true to be able to record these amazing players and have my songs expressed so beautifully. I hope you get as much enjoyment from listening as I did making it.
The latest song, Alchemy, is about the magic of what happens when you mix the recipe of ingredients in just the right way to create something completely new and exciting.
It’s always a little mind-boggling to me how many choices we make in creating a recording. From deciding a melody, a chord progression, a groove, an arrangement, how many musicians and who they are. And that’s before even recording a note! Then there’s all the inter-reactions that happen when you’re recording, and magic that happens when musician’s listen to each other, and add their stylistic ways of playing.
And then there’s mixing, where everything is fitted together in just the right way to come up with the final result. Mastering adds the final polish. So many decisions along the way, and one small change somewhere can take the music in an entirely different direction.
So this is one of who-knows-how-many ways this tune could have been expressed. So happy to have you as an audience to appreciate it!
The title of my project, Tabula Rasa, means “blank slate”, and is an ode to starting fresh…in this case with my music. It’s definitely a nod to the past influences…Grover, Turrentine, Sanborn, Felder (I could go on and on 🙂 But it’s also something new for me – I’m working with a whole new crew of musicians:
- Erik Jekabson on trumpet and flugelhorn
- Mike Blankenship on keyboards
- Scott Thompson on bass
- Aaron Green on drums
All so talented and amazing to work with. Listen to the song below, and if you’re inspired, you can click through and hear more music, or purchase the track. Thanks for listening!