Episode #23

This was a session that brought back a number of musicians who had previously appeared on the program. In fact, 4 of the 6 musicians in this session were on earlier episodes.

First, there was Michael Wolff on piano (Musical Director for Nancy Wilson, Nat Adderley, the Arsenio Hall show, and many others). As many of you know, Michael is one of my favorite musicians. Joining him were Terence Blanchard on trumpet, Derrick Hodge on bass, Kendrick Scott on drums (John Scofield, Musiq Soulchild, Christian McBride, David Sanborn, Pat Metheny, and many others), Lionel Loueke on guitar (Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard and others) and Steve Wilson on saxophone (Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and others). Steve was a musician I wanted to work with for quite awhile. Although we had never actually met prior to this date, we share a mutual very close friend from our days back in Southeastern Virginia.

Interestingly, both Michael and Terence have serious roots in New Orleans, LA. We recorded this session just a few weeks after hurricane Katrina devastated that city, so there was naturally a reverent vibe in the studio that day. In fact, Terence was using a secondary horn of his, as his primary horn was back home in New Orleans and, up to then, was still unable to re-enter the city.

They opened the session with a nice cover of Miles Davis’ So What, as seen in the preview video.

After So What, Terence suggested Second Line, as somewhat of a spontaneous tribute to the upcoming re-birth of New Orleans post-Katrina. After taking a few minutes to get in sync on how to best open the song, we recorded it in 1 take. It was then time for a short break, with many of them taking it as an opportunity to listen back to some of what we recorded. After 15 minutes or so, it was time to go back to work.

Upon returning to the studio, Michael suggested one of his original songs, something called Bengal. He put on his musical director hat and proceeded to lead the group through the changes. Everyone picked it up quickly and we recorded it in 1 take. After that, it was Lionel’s turn to call out a tune. He asked for a piece of paper and and a pencil and scribbled a short chart of changes for an original song of his called Narita. This tune proved to be a bit challenging for a few of the guys, as it had both an uncommon time signature and some interesting unconventional rhythm hits in the figure. After 20 minutes or so of rehearsal and a few false starts, we were finally able to record the tune in 1 take.

This was a nice session in that all of the guys are terrific soloists and truly know how to support others as they do the same. They proved it again that afternoon.

– Tom Emmi / Producer