'Tropicizer' features many of my own tunes, and a few more
that were co-written with others. It's about half instrumental & half vocal.
Having spent a portion of my gigging career in the tropics,
these styles of music came easily and naturally to
me...and it was a lot of fun writing and recording tunes
that...for a change...actually reflect where I am
performing!
Describe
this thang: This music has a
reggae/soca/jazzy feel, with lots of
Jobim-like nylon-string
guitar, a generous dusting of
jazzy steel pan,
and lots of
smooth jazz
sax, piano,
white boy soul vocals &
horn sections (attempting to
mimic the great sounds of a Cuban big band). Now,
gingerly plop all this over the top of primarily
live drums, bass and percussion (with
some loops & samples to help the groove).
If you like any of that stuff,
you'll hopefully find something in here that speaks to you!
After a couple of rough hurricane seasons,
there was good reason to start that long - talked about recording
project: "The Blues Album". After writing and recording on and
off over the next 18 months with old music cohort Larry Z, the "One Blue Shoe" cd was finally completed!
We were even able to enlist "The Bones of Contention" to
add a great horn section to some of the tunes! Tim "Boogiehead"
Poindexter added some great sax to a couple of cuts; Geo
G. Dawg added some lead guitar to one tune; "Even Steven" kicked in his funky drum groove on several
tunes; and blue-eyed soul sister Caucazia sang her heart
out on background vocals!
Feedback on this project is the best I've seen in years...the cd
is now available for purchase online or contact one of us
personally for a copy!
So, is B.B.
Dogg a person...a band...or...a way of life? We're still a bit
unclear on that, but there is definitely some great stuff going
on with this music. And, as Po'Bone says: "B.B Dogg plays with the right hand, the left hand, that's
why they call him B B Dogg".
Check out the video for 'Handsome Man" from B.B Dogg: shot & released
in August 09
sampler :
(2:00 / 160 kbps)
KEEPIN '
IT CASUAL
This 2000-2001
collection was never actually mass-manufactured for retail sale,
although it did get a some token jukebox and radio play around
that time.
During that
period, 'yours-truely' was involved in a lot of other musical
endeavors and distractions in Atlanta that had absolutely
nothing to do with this music (ie: everything from metal to hip-hop to klezmer), so it remained a back-burner
item. Quicksand Land.
Now that "Tropicizer"
is up 'n running, I'm working to re-release the best of this with
a few other stray tunes thrown in...as a download only format.
Although this is technically
not my own solo cd, my playing is featured heavily on this
all-instrumental Danny Morgan co-production. I'm first featured
as John G. McLane on alto sax and guitar on
several songs; I then then mysteriously re-appear as Wayward
Jensen on steel pan, and then again as the "Hoboken's
crowned prince of lounge" Johnny Duke
on piano. Also, most of the rhythm section and horn
section parts are performed by "yours truely". A nice
smooth-jazzy cd overall, featuring several fine players.
"JOHN
GRAHAM MCLANE"
"John
Graham McLane" was a mid- nineties release. This
adventurous original music album made some waves in
several European countries , which strangely enough led to my
producing European rock legends "Saxon" (Virgin Records)
in Germany. The sonic quality of "John Graham McLane"
allowed this cd to become a "demonstration tool" for several
high-end sound equipment dealers & an international sound
company back in the 90's.
Most of the original 1000 copies of this release ended up distributed in Germany,
Belgium and France promotionally and it's way out of print...only
a few cassette versions remain!
If/when any legal
&
publishing hurdles are jumped, a plan is to re-release a
re-mastered cd including some other worthy tracks that weren't
on the original 1994 release. The mp3 on the left
showcases 3 songs. Not really a priority with me right now!
SOME OF MY
FAVORITE QUOTES:
"Not as bad as I originally thought
it would be" ; "There's nothing on here that I like"
- actual unprompted reviews of the
BB Dogg cd
"Get a job at GE and just play
music on
the weekends"
-Ed McLane (my dad) circa 1975
"Rotten"
-Mark Siracusa commenting onstage
about one of my lousy sax solos circa 1989
"This wouldn't suck too bad"
-Larry Z's comment on the house we
rented together in 2003
"You're hot as a shark tonight"
- keyboardist Rick Urban to our drummer Port (circa 1982)
"You must have worked really hard to maintain such a high level of
obscurity"
- an honest appraisal from an old friend
"You guys gotta
quit pissin' on the floor"
- Artie Martin /
clubowner (1970's) regarding his backed up sewer pipe right under
the dance floor
"Can
you play some old people music?"
-customer at a
piano gig after I just played a whole set of "old people music"
