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Feel the Music 

A collaboration of eclectic styles from many different influences over the course of this musical journey. This album has two other artists that helped me envision this project with two very different styles. From Straight forward rock and roll to some Tom Petty, Dylanist feeling songs and then we twist you around to some very progressive more intricate songs and sounds. As the music comes together and flows from one song into another the collaboration works extremely well and the feelings that are brought out are genuine and timeless.

To be Release soon!

Eclectic Collaborations
Eclectic Collaborations

 

14 songs in this Eclectic Collaboration with the help of musicians, Kimo and Joezworld   

Make sure you are tuned in on Saturday 2/10/2018 for the first single and video release of

“SURFING”

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The second collaborator  on the “Eclectic Collaborations” CD is Joezworld. Mr “Z” contributed 2 songs and the art work for the cover, back cover and the background art  work on the CD.

Joezworld

Joezworld (Joe Menghini) whom I have known since the late 70’s. Has been in a few different very cutting edge bands, Rise, Master Radio Canaries and Vinyl Flesh (VF Joe and I were in this band together). Multi talented in music and art, “Z” strives for excellence at every turn.

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“Z”‘s early influences were the Beatles, Stones, Mamas & Papas, typical to the late 60’s. Then Z turned to the blues with the like’s of Muddy Waters, BB King and Motown. Following that exposure a few friends of his turned him onto Soft Machine, Van Der Graff Generator a far cry from his beginnings.  A music teacher at Mineola High School,  Burt Sachs was the most influential mentor, he lured him into Ives, Stockhausen, Scriabin, Xenakis, Mozart, Stravinsky and John Cage. That was then countered with exposure to Zappa, Phillip Glass, Captain Beefheart.  The Kessler brothers got him into Genesis (which he despised) but later Gabriel (who he adored), Bowie, Gentle Giant, among others in that genre. Another long time friend then pulled the ultimate coup-de-tas and got him going with avante-garde jazz at Studio Rivbea at 24 Bond Street. And that took him to John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell, Miles Davis, Don Cherry, McCoy Tyner, Cecil Taylor, the fabulous bassist David Holland and that gang.

His musical life was never the same after that!

As for art, Z started college at Nassau Community College as an art student, became a non-matriculating student of art at Hofstra and studied under the famous black artist ‘Robert Carter’. Z stated he was an asshole and he almost came to blows with Mr. Carter. So at the behest of the faculty he agreed to an ‘incomplete’ for his course, but his taste and desire to create his own world of art was set – Thus “Joezworld” began.

I know there will be future collaborations that we will work on

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Thanks Joezworld!

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Been getting alot of questions on who are the collaborators on the upcoming album “Eclectic Collaborations”. In this and the next post I will give you a little biography of the players.

Kimo

Kimo is a dude who grew up on my block in Mineola, New York. For those of you who don’t know where that is, it’s on Long Island in Nassau County, New York. My block had a lot of kids on it when I was growing up, and the Steins lived on the opposite side of the street down a few houses. They had a total of 8 kids, Bob was the youngest boy of 4 and he also had 4 sisters of this brood of 8. In those days we all had nicknames for everybody and Bob was known to us a Kimo Slobie. This nickname came from the name Kemosabe in which was the term of endearment used by the fictional Native American sidekick Tonto in the American television and radio program The Lone Ranger, it became a common catchphrase. Thus Bob’s name would be from then and forever Kimo. I think when Kimo was about 11 or 12, his family moved off of the block and moved to Deer Park, Long Island. We kept in touch for a short while and then as life goes on did not have any contact for years. In those years leading up to our reunion, Bob was playing and learning his licks with numerous bands and solo adventures. He worked in the City as a stagehand in fact he is the 3rd generation of stagehands in his family. He worked on television shows such as, All my Children, Ryan’s Hope, Loving, among others. Theaters in which he worked in were The Broadhurst, Victory, Shubert, Walter Kerr and other well known Broadway theaters. Also he did  many shows on Saturday Night Live (when it was good), working and schmoozing with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Tom Petty just to drop a few names.

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As said, for many years I had no contact with Kimo what so ever and it’s funny how things happen and how small the world often is and becomes. At a Christmas party at one of my wifes friends house that we were invited to, who should I bump into but Kimo himself. His son was playing baseball with my wife’s friends son and were on the same team thus the invite to the Christmas party. We spoke for a while and traded numbers and to my surprise he had been living literally around the corner from where I now live. Nothing really materialized in the years after our reunion but we kept in touch. I knew he played and kept that in mind and when I was coming up with the concept for this new album. I gave him a call and spoke to him on the project and the concept.  He had retired from the stagehand union and had nothing but time on his hands, Kimo did not hesitate and was all in. Thus starting with one day a week working on song idea’s, putting down a riff or melody and building on those beginnings. Kimo was instrumental on most of the songs on the album and in fact two songs, Electrify Me and Losing You for the most part was his genesis. Hope to continue with Kimo on other projects in the future.

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Thank You KIMO!  

 

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Putting together the final touches to my next project, “Eclectic Collaborations”. Working on the cover art design and final content media on the CD package. I started working on this project right after the release of the “Test Drive RAW” CD. It’s been in the works for approximately 7 months. I have 14 songs on the CD with collaborative efforts from Kimo (guitar, vocals, harmonica, and percussion) and Joezworld (2 songs in which “Z” played all instruments and I added lyrics and vocals). Joezworld also contributed the art work for the front and back cover and the background art. Very excited to finish the project and release by the end of February. Will also have a few video’s to coincide with the release.

Can’t wait!

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