My New Album, Day Trip
Over the past few years, I've been going back and listening more and more to music that inspired me as a young musician, artists like David Sanborn, The Brecker Bros, Chick Corea, Al Jarreau, Pat Metheny, and others in the jazz fusion world (before the term smooth jazz was created). It instantly brought me back to the days of 'no rules' and the pure joy of music, something that I think a lot of albums today are lacking.
With that said, I set out to write and produce a new album that would try to capture a little bit of that late 70's and early 80's spirit of music exploration, along with using only live musicians and real instruments (no computer sounds or quantized sequencing). Similar in style to Another Long Night Out, this is the daytime version!!
Do you want to help and get involved with this record? Read on…
The Collaboration, part 1
Next, I started sending some of those nostalgic tunes to my friend and fellow jazz pianist/composer, Nicholas Cole. Since he is 20 years younger than I, he grew up listening to artists like me, lol. So, I felt it important to send him music that took it back another generation, and he was blown away.
I sent all these songs to Nick as I wanted to collaborate with him on the songwriting; so with the concept in hand, we scheduled a few different writing trips (of 5 days each) and got to work…
As it turns out, we were both so inspired and excited about this new adventure, we wrote all 10 songs in the very first 5 days in July/August of 2023!! No additional trips needed.
Many of you in The Hang Club heard some of these songs from their initial inception during that Friday night Hang on Aug 4th, so now it’s time to get more involved and help get this album finished. Yes, YOU can help greatly!
The Collaboration, part 2
Now that we had the songs written, it was time to start recording and figuring out which musicians were the right fit for this kind of music we had just written. Two names came up immediately, Nathan East (bass) and Lil’ John Roberts (drums). Both Nicholas and I knew these two guys were the absolute right choice for laying down the foundation, so we made the calls.
It took almost 3 months to organzie, but we finally got everyone in the studio all together in late October of 2023 to record the basic tracks with Nathan, Lil’ John, Nicholas (on Fender Rhodes), and me on a synth piano so everyone could hear the ‘tune.’ It was a magical week in the studio in Chicago as you can imagine with each person adding their own flavor and unique perspective to the music.
Costs started mounting up, but I was determined to keep it going since this music was turning out so great. You can help get this album finished, just check out all the cool ‘perks’ available!
The Collaboration, part 3
Now that we had the basic tracks recorded (Drums, Bass, Rhodes), Nicholas and I got back in the studio together and laced all the tracks with layers and layers of keyboards! This was so much fun, as we spent hours and hours finding the right sounds on various different vintage keyboards (from Hammond B3 Organ, to the Hohner Clavinet, to Minimoog, Moog One, Prophet-10, Oberheim OB6, Roland Jupiter, etc.). Yes, everything was a real analog instrument (no computers were used). It was so refreshing and inspiring to say the least.
From there it was time to start adding all the other players, including Paul Jackson Jr., Mike Stern, Ray Parker Jr., and Isaiah Sharkey on Guitars, Lenny Castro and Sheila E. on Percussion, Marcus Miller on Bass (yes, both he and Nathan are on 3 songs together!), Branford Marsalis featured on Tenor Sax, Randy Brecker and Patches Stewart featured on Trumpet, plus the horn section of myself on Trombone, Michael Stever on Trumpet, and Eric Marienthal on Saxes. And I’m not even done yet with more sessions still in the works over the next month (of course I’ll keep you posted)!
How You Can Help
Here is where it gets even more exciting…
Starting now, YOU can get involved to help get this album finished by pledging your support in various ways and at different levels.
With the amount of musicians, recording studios, and engineers involved, this type of album is very expensive to produce (well over $100,000 with breakdown below), hence the reason it is rare these days to hear an album with such an extensive and legendary lineup. I’ve counted up all the GRAMMY’s that everyone has won, and it currently totals 22 wins and countless nominations!
So, by supporting and contributing to this campaign, you’re really helping to keep this kind of music alive which I’m so grateful for!
Please check out all the various ‘perks’ that we’ve put together and hopefully something makes sense for you to get involved with.
Again, my most heartfelt thanks for your support.
Cheers,
Brian
Current Album Expenses:
$52,650 - Musicians
$24,610 - Recording Studios and Engineers
$15,490 - Travel Expenses
$13,200 - Photo Shoot
$9,870 - Piano Tech and Additional Misc.
$TBA - Marketing Expenses
