It was a Mon night jam session at a place right across the street from Montmarte on Sunset...Can't remember the name...funk jamm session...very thin plastic cups for rum and cokes...
A really drunk girl comes up to me....."rrrssss shhhrrr tttttt". I'm like "What"? She grabs me and starts telling me the whole story. I'm not super into her and she starts to get a little frisky...scratching....going nuts. I'm very gently trying to push her off and extricate myself when she socks me right in the mouth.
don't worry no blood or broken teeth. just the end of our date.
Wed Jan 29, at Catalina Jazz Club I've assembled a very unusual trio with two of my very good friends.
I met Rez Abbasi in Canada when we both were crossing paths on two different tours. We had heard of each other and thought It would be a great idea to play together. I later learned that Rez had studied with one of my favorite Tabla Artist, Ustad Alla Raka. I usually say I've had 3 mindblowing experiences listening to music:
1.) in my friend Jason's room in 6th grade hearing Led Zeppelin 4 (while buying a butterfly knife from him)
2.) listening to a bad cassette of Jaco Pastorious' solo album...and
3.) hearing Memorable Tabla Duet with Zakir Hussein and his father, Ustad Alla Raka.
Once I started to play with Rez in NY I was intrigued by how he moved so easily from one genre of music to the next. One second he would be shreading, the next he could be playing burnink bebop lines, the next Mellismatic Hindustani melodies. When thinking of who to get on guitar for this gig, I remembered that Rez grew up in So Cal.....Would he be there?....Could I catch him by chance coming in for NAMM or visiting family?......Yup.
Andy Sanesi and I met on a Trio gig in NYC. We became fast friends and started to play a lot together. Andy was really into latin music and played in a Salsa Group that had a steady gig on the lower east side at a place called the Parkside Longe. Andy asked me to play in the group, and for the first time I got on the right side of the clave. We also started to work together a lot in LA when I was there. Andy, like Rez has an amazing understanding of the manipulation of time in music. He was the first one to really open my eyes to the possibilities of rhythm.
I'm very excited to play Wed Jan 29 at Catalina Jazz Club with this group. I hope you'll come and join us! We will have a real B3 and will play compositions from all of us.
http://www.kungfugue.com/
