Episode #26

This episode of Studio Jams featured another all-star cast of players. First, there was pianist Bobby Lyle, who seemed to serve as the unofficial musical director for the session. Whether it was in the calling out of potential tunes for them to play, or in offering so many welcomed suggestions with the arrangements, his experience and comfort in that role was clearly evident. (Earlier in his career, Bobby served as MD for, among others, Anita Baker and Bette Midler.)

Other musicians included Steve Oliver on guitar, Chico Huff on bass, Emedin Rivera on percussion, Rayford Griffin on drums and Mike Burton on saxophone. Mike was actually a spontaneous last-minute addition to the session. We had taped a different session earlier that day, and Mike was simply there as a friend of one of the musicians, keyboard player Marcus Johnson. Marcus told me about Mike and said that he told him that he would be willing to participate in my session, if in fact I felt the need for another soloist. Well, always trying to be a bit open minded about such things, I figured “hey, why not” and invited Mike to join us. And I’m so glad I did.

I have found that if you can occasionally and comfortably allow yourself the opportunity to experience a bit of unknown risk in your well-designed plans, you sometimes can capture a bit of unexpected magic…which is part of what you look for when you’re producing television. Such was the case when I chose to add Mike to the mix. He proved to be a valuable addition indeed.

Bobby suggested we open the session with Impressions. It was a nice way for everyone to feel it other out musically, and get themselves “in the moment.” It also confirmed to me that having Mike in the studio with us was a very good thing. We tracked two takes of that song.

Steve then suggested they work through a beautiful Pat Metheny-penned tune, James. Steve had been playing it for years as a solo artist and thought it would work nicely with this particular group of players. He was right. After 10 or 15 minutes of working through the changes, we cut that tune on the very first take. It featured nice solos from Steve, Bobby, Chico and Mike, and remains one of my favorite Studio Jams cuts to date.

For our third tune of the day, Bobby then lead the group through an arrangement of Footprints.

It was then time for a short break. These breaks are not only good for the musicians, they are also important for me and my crew – for it allows us time to tweak our approach and effectively work through any technical glitches that may have popped up during the first half of the session. Typically, once we start a session, I like to step aside and just let the musicians all do their thing while my crew and I simply be “flys on the wall” to simply capture the golden moments as they occur. I really hate to have to stop the flow of a session for any technical issue. We have only had to do that on a couple of occasions.

After the break, Steve next lead the group through the changes for one of his original songs, a percussive, latin-flavored tune called Chips & Salsa. Everyone picked up on it quickly, and it was also cut on the first take. It features a lot of nice rhythmic percussion from both Rayford and Emedin.

Surprisingly, it was Rayford, our drummer, who suggested the final tune of the day…the Miles Davis tune John Pierre. The arrangement took a few minutes to finally come together, and nicely features Mike on saxophone.

– Tom Emmi / Producer