Episode #75

This episode of Studio Jams came together quite quickly. One day I received a note from the owner of Forge Recording Studios telling me that jazz saxophonist Grace Kelly would be performing here in Philadelphia one week from then. Forge Recording is a wonderful studio where I have taped a number of Studio Jams episodes. Great facility, great staff. He thought it might be nice to try and build a session with a group of musicians that would include her. I too felt that was a good idea and, of course, thanked him for giving me the heads up. Grace Kelly is a young and serious “up and comer” who both sings and plays saxophone. Only 23-years old, Grace currently is a regular member of Jon Batiste’s house band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The first thing I did was quickly reach out to her management and floated the idea by them. They loved it, and we quickly confirmed her to be featured on the show. So with Grace lined up, next I had to put together a suitable group of interesting musicians to join her…not always easy to do on short notice, as seasoned musicians most always have a full schedule. But I had booked the studio for late morning on a Monday, so I pretty much knew that folks on my target list would most likely not have a conflicting gig…so that was good. I just hoped that they would be in town and not have some sort of teaching conflict that day.

Drummer Tracy Alexander and guitarist Kevin Hanson were two guys I’ve been wanting to have on the show for quite some time. Although I had not met either of them before in person, I certainly knew about them musically. Both are very strong, versatile players. So they were the first guys I sought out to see if this time it might work for them. Thankfully, I quickly was able to line both of them up.

I then reached out to Chico Huff, a bassist who has been on the show numerous times and always brings in his A-game. He too was available and very interested. So with the bass, drums, sax and guitar chairs filled, I just wanted to add a keyboard player…ideally someone who has been on the show before, so as to make sure the session progressed nicely from start to finish. Again, 3 of the folks already confirmed had never been on the show before, so they really didn’t know what to expect. So although he lived a couple hours away, and wouldn’t know any of the other players who would be there, I nevertheless crossed my fingers and gave Matt King a call. Matt has been on the show a few times I the past and, in addition to being such a wonderfully skilled musician, I knew he would be comfortable to act as a pseudo-MD (musical director) if need be. Lucky for me that he too was available and interested.

So there was the band. Five musicians, three of whom heretofore had never appeared on the show. And other than the bassist and guitarist having worked with each other before on numerous occasions, the musicians had either never met and/or played with each other before. Next, I had to line up a 3-camera crew which thankfully I as able to do quite quickly.

Fast forward to the day of the session. After everyone arrived, the group kicked into “Billie’s Bounce,” a jazz standard by Charlie Parker that most serious jazz cats have probably played hundreds of times. After that came nice takes on “Comin’ Home Baby,” “Georgia On My Mind,” and Duke Ellington’s “Cotton Tail.” For “Cotton Tail,” they decided that the 3 soloists (keys, sax and guitar) would “chase” each other – an interesting and often exciting approach to an arrangement where back and forth they go while exchanging progressively shorter numbers of bars (i.e.; first trading 8’s, then trading 4’s, then trading 2’s, etc.).

After recording those tracks, Matt then suggested a song that had never yet been called at a Studio Jams session…“Green Chimneys” by Thelonious Monk. After a short 15-minute rehearsal, we recorded a nice single take of that song. To close things out, we recorded a nice single take of “The Chicken” – another contemporary jazz standard.

After producing 74 previous Studio Jams sessions, one valuable thing I have learned is to not be afraid to take a few calculated risks. There are magic moments to be found in the unknown, that’s for sure. Such was the case with this one.

So there you have it. Another nice episode of Studio Jams – put together in less than a week. Nicely done folks.

– Tom Emmi / Producer