newsMarch 5, 2010
Hello people!! The concert tribute to Bob Florence was great! Really inspired night. The soloists were on fire, and you can't ask for a better rhythm section than Peter Erskine, Trey Henry and Christian Jacob. I did a concert this week at LAMA with the incredibly talented singer/songwriter Thena Dare. The students seemed to be enamered and engaged, as they should be. Her music is very intimate and beautiful. I might add I was totally diggin the sound of my gear - the EJ signature strat and the Morgan MV3.8K amp, and my relatively newly wired LA sound design pedalboard. I'll be playing on Tuesday, March 9th with the San Gabriel Seven, at Catalina bar and grill, along with our regular featured guest soloists Katie Campbell on vocals and Bill Watrous on trombone. We do a mix of jazz, funk, latin music. Then, on Friday March 19th I'll be jamming through and eclectic mix of classic pop/ rock/ R&B tunes with Ron Suffredini on bass and vocals and Sergio Gonzales on drums up at Ron's regular cozy little gig spot in Valencia, Wine 661. Should be fun. February 3. 2010!! Hi everyone, and a belated "happy new year"! I did a blind critical listening evaluation of a bunch of new stereo speakers for Samsung yesterday. Pretty interesting, and nice to do something different. On February 21st I'll be playing a tribute to composer/arranger Bob Florence. We'll be playing all the tunes from his last CD "Legendary" at the Lobero theater in Santa Barbara. I'm super excited that the band will feature the stellar rhythm section of Peter Erskine drums, Trey Henry bass, and Christian Jacob piano. Here's a link to the event: http://www.lobero.com/calendar/index.php?display=event&id=475&returnto=list Also been busy with the usual teaching at LAMA, and playing at Bel Air Pres. church, which I love doing. peace, ya'll, Steve December 17, 2009 Wow, I can't believe it's been this long since I checked in. I'm gonna be more on top of updates to this site in the coming year. This month I played in a wonderful Christmas show at Bel Air pres church. There was a great variety of music, with rock band, bluegrass band, full orchestra, choir and big band as well as dancers. I had a feature instrumental being backed up by the big band and orhcestra, as well as a couple pop rock tunes. It was great fun. You may have noticed I added a short music clip on the home page of this site. That's a little ditty I wrote/ recorded for my friend Joe Morgan of Morgan Amplification for his website to get the word out about his great new amps. That was my Fender EJ signature strat ( a great guitar ) and the Morgan MV 3.8.k amp. Stay tune for more updates. I'm expecting good things for the coming year. Merry Christmas! Steve May 1, 2009 Hey all! The latest updates!! I'm going to be appearing on the Dr. Phil show with singer/songwriter Margo Reymundo. She just released her new CD, and we are promoting it. Should be fun. Taping is Wednesday the 6th, and I"m not sure yet when it airs. We'll also be doing a record release part/show in the near future, probably early June. Recent recordings include: 7 songs for Shushbye, a childrens TV show on Baby first T.V., a song I recorded for Savvy and Mandy, "Shell Shocked" is in rotation on Radio Disney. Also did a demo song for Micah and Jeffery David called " I'll be your Woman" - great song and great vocals. Recently recorded a demo for Jessica Simpson back up singer, Katie Marino. Also just recorded two songs for two big band albums ( one song on each ) - George Stones upcoming album and Dirk Fischer's upcoming album, both produced by George. peace, Steve September 30, 2008 Hey thanks for checking in! I've been real busy since my last update with a lot of recording sessions. I've done several childrens shows for TV and DVD with composer Jim Latham. They are: a series by "Global Wonders", "Jumpitz", and "Einstein Pals". I play electric and acoustic guitars on most of it, but on one session, Jim handed me a ukelele and a ukelele chord book and said " You're going to learn a new instrument today". Scared! It was actually really fun though. Also did a movie ad and trailer for "Greetings from the Shore" with Jim as well as some demo stuff that will hopefully lead to more fun stuff. Did a session for an upcoming album with "Eyedentity" that they are producing. I did some sessions here at my studio for a couple artists Jefferey David is producing; a female vocalist Autumn Kramer and a male vocalist who's name I don't know. I also just played electric sitar and mandolin on a score for the short film "Laila" with composer Jermaine Stegall. I also recorded a couple songs for Seattle based producer Justin Hebert for his upcoming worship CD. I did a song for Kim Pauley's upcoming CD with my friend, producer Lathan Armor. Most of this stuff has been at outside studios with live band, but some of it has been here at my place with tracks people sent to me. This is exciting for me because I just recently launched my home recording business. Please check www.myspace.com/guitaroverdubs for more details. Oh yeah, back in April I did a brief tour of Dubai and Kuwait with legendary jazz drummer Alphonse Mouzon. It was lots of fun and was just a trio with me, Joe Bagg, and Alphonse. SG April 5, 2008 Hey everyone. I've participated in a bunch of recording sessions in the past few weeks. Finished up the movie "Swishbucklers", and did a couple more sessions for the movie "Play the Game" starring Andy Griffith. Recorded two songs for "Shushybye", a preschool oriented entertainment brand. One song will be used in it's TV show on baby first TV, and I think both songs will be in a book and DVD. Recorded music for another infomercial for "S- factor", the womens workout program. Also a couple of demos: one for a Ray Liotta movie and one for an A&E television show. We'll see if they pay off. March 2, 2008 Hi all. The latest project I'm working on is a couple of recording sessions for the upcoming film "Swishbucklers". A comedy. Great band: Mitch Forman, Ray Brinker, Trey Henry, composer Jim Latham. Also recently did a song for another "Wen" hair care infomercial. I've been substitute teaching the rock guitar class at LAMA for Tariqh Akoni. Tariqh is touring with Josh Groban and has to miss class frequently. So I enjoy helping out the students. Fun! I'm playing this thursday night at the Edison downtown, with wonderful singer, Margo Reymundo. Come on out! More to come. Stay tuned! SG January 19, 2008 Hi guys and gals. Had a good, busy week. I've been back at the LA Music Academy teaching two days a week since January 7th. It was nice to have a good break, and nice to be back in the groove. Did a session thursday night for a workout info-mercial. We did three instrumental songs. It's always nice to play with some of LA's best session musicians, and a challenge to get the stuff recorded quickly. Composer Jim Latham with Trey Henry on bass, John Ferraro on drums, Joe Bagg on keys, and myself. Went to the NAMM show on friday and checked out some cool gear - Bogner, Custom Audio, etc. . Got to say hi to Gerard Melancon from Melancon guitars. He builds great guitars and is a real sweet guy. Ran into my friend Mike Whittaker whom I know from LA, but moved to Nashville a while back. peas, Steve January 1, 2008! Happy new year! Can you believe it's 2008?! I'm really looking forward to this year. I think it's going to be great. This past weekend I played with Israel Houghton at Faith Community Church. We played the services saturday night and sunday morning. It was great fun. He was a joy to play with.. a great singer and guitar player, and he's nominated for two grammy's this year. I also had a session Saturday night with my friend, producer Jeffery David. It was kind of a jazzy/ pop song for a singer. Then played at my own church ( oasis ) sunday night. A busy weekend. I think it's a sign of things to come in '08. I think it will be a very productive year. I have another session scheduled this week for singer/songwriter Dick Winzeler, for his upcoming, jazzish CD. I recently bought a new Les Paul guitar. Love it! I'll try to get photos up soon. I've also ordered a new Egnater amplifier which I'm very excited about, and should arrive this week. Gear is so much fun! It's like being a kid. Again, I'm going to update the gear page in the near future to try and keep up with the ever evolving arsenal of stuff. Hope you all have a great 2008!! SG November 27, 2007 Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a great thanksgiving. The latest recording I've done was a session for another childrens DVD. I'm not sure the name of this one, but it was a world music vibe. The band was great: Mitch Forman - keys, Kevin Axt- bass, Ray Brinker - drums, and myself. Really fun to play with these guys! I think we'll being doing more work on this soon. This week I'll also be recording a couple days with jazz singer and songwriter Dick Winzeler. I played with him recently at Catalina Bar and Grill. He's a super nice cat with a great voice, and some nice songs. The band for this is Josh Nelson- piano, Dan Lutz- bass, and Albe Bonacci on drums. Should be fun! Also, I'm playing live this sunday, Dec. 2, at Bandera in Brentwood, with pianist Ark Sano. October 4, 2007 Hey ya'll! The latest... I've done a couple of fun sessions in the past few weeks. The first, was three songs for an EP for Singer Ginger Orsi. A great band with Gerry Brown on drums, Travis Carlton on electric bass, Brian Allen on acoustic bass, Bill Steinway on keys and Paulie Cerra on sax. Last week I recorded three different versions of a song for an info-mmercial for "Wen" hair care products by Chaz Dean. Another killin' band with John Ferraro - drums, David Enos - bass, and Mitchel Forman - keys. Was lots of fun. I've got a couple upcoming live shows with wonderful singer, Margo Reymundo. Here's the info: Sunday October 7 @ Chaya in Beverly Hills Eric Sittner - bass Bryan Brock - percussion Friday October 12 @ Nic's Martini Lounge in Beverly Hills Eric Sittner - bass Chris Wabich - drums August 3, 2007 (update aug 4) What's up peeps!? Well, I'm back home from the Anjani tour of Europe. We were gone three weeks, and went to a lot of really interesting cities. It was a lot of fun, but tiring, and I'm glad to be home. Most of the shows went really well, and we had a great response. Did everything from clubs with 200 to 300 seats, to a couple of tents with about 3,000 and Stockholm Stadium opening for Rod Stewart for about 15,000 I'm guessing. Also had a chance to do some great sight seeing. Got to see Steely Dan do an amazing show at the North Sea Jazz Festival, and also got to hang out and talk with wonderful guitarist Joe Bonomassa. This month I've got another session for "Einstein Pals", the childrens puppet show for Disney, with composer Jim Latham. That will probably be next week. Also I've got a bunch of lounge gigs with a wonderful latin/jazz/pop/lounge singer, Margo Reymundo. Here are the Margo dates: August 4, 9-1 Regent Beverly Wilshire August 10, 6:45-10:45 Maggianos in the Grove August 11, 9-12 Nic's Martini Lounge - Beverly Hills August 17, 6:45-10:45 Maggianos in the Grove August 19, 7-10:30 Chaya - Beverly Hills August 25, 9-1 Regent Beverly Wishire July 6, 2007 I hope you're all having a great summer! I've had some fun recording sessions since I last checked in. On June 17 I recorded for several projects for TV composer Jim Latham. We did music for a Disney cartoon, " Happy Monster Band", and for "Einstein Pals" which is a puppet show for kids, which will be released on DVD for Disney. Also we did a demo for a Spider Man cartoon. It was a great band with Ray Brinker, Trey Henry, and Mitch Forman. Then, today I recorded some more music with Jim for "Einstein Pals". This time the band was John Ferraro, David Enos, and Joe Bagg - another great bunch of guys. I'm blessed. Gearing up to go to Europe with Anjani. Should be lots of fun! Here are the dates: July 11 Paris, France - New Morning July 15 Rotterdam, Holland - North Sea Jazz Festival July 17 Gent, Belgium - Blue Note Jazz Festival July 19 Copenhagen, Denmark - Jazz House July 20 Stockholm, Sweden - Stockholm Stadion (with Rod Stewart) July 21 Oslo, Norway - John Dee July 23 London, UK - Club Pigalle July 27 Dublin, Ireland - Tripod July 28 Dublin, Ireland - Midlands Festival Peace, S June 7, 2007 Hey gang - I'm busy learning music right now for an upcoming show with three of the actors from the ABC soap, "One Life to Live". It's actually pretty fun and challenging music. They each are promoting their own CD, and each have their own style, so we'll be playing everything from folkish, to pop, country and R&B. Hope you can make it out. This months public appearances: Sunday, June 10 @ Bandera - Jazz trio with Ark Sano and Bill Markus Thursday June 14 @ the Derby - Renee Goldsberry, Kassie DePaiva and Kathy Brier May 18, 2007 Hi friends! Thanks for tuning in. Well, the tour with Anjani went great. Lot's of fun. There were a lot of great musical moments and a lot of fun and laughs during hang time. I think Toronto was a couple of our best show's, and Los Angeles, our last show, was really a great one to go out on. Leonard (Cohen) also hung out with us in New York and Montreal, and sang in New York, Montreal and Los Angeles. What a great guy! It was fun getting to know him. Lot's of celeb's came out to our first show in NYC - Diana Krall, Elvis Costello, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass that I'm aware of. We also got some nice reviews of our shows, the Montreal newspaper (in french), and in Variety. After our New York shows, Anjani asked me to write a blog, which is now up on her web site. Check it out at: www.anjani-music.com/news.html Since I've been back I've used this opportunity to reaquaint myself with my poor students at the LA Music Academy who have had to put up with me missing most of the quarter between the tour and other work conflicts. I'm really looking forward to making some progress on my own project this month. Yeah! Will be going to Europe with Anjani in July! Should be great! I'll keep ya'll posted about the details. April 18, 2007 It's been a really busy past few weeks. This is a good thing for a musician! A couple of really exciting news events to report! I'm going in to record some tracks for my own record tomorrow. Really has been a long time coming. It's my tunes, and I have Dan Lutz on bass, Jeff Babko on piano and rhodes, and Dick Weller on drums. The other news is, I've been rehearsing the last two days, and am heading off to rehearse again today with Columbia records/ Sony recording artist Anjani. Her stuff is sort of jazz-ish, folky songs. Really sparse and tastey. We are really getting a chance to re-work the songs too, not just play what's on the record. We're doing our own thing. Are first show will be in NYC next week, and Diana Krall, Elvis Costello, Lou Reed, and Moby are all planning on attending the small club show. Also, Leonard Cohen will be there, and there is a chance he may sing with us. Her record will be released all over Europe and the US on April 23rd. Anjani dates: April 24 NYC Joe's Pub, two shows April 25,26 Toronto Drake Hotel April 27 Montreal Juste Pour Rire April 29 NYC Joe's Pub May 10 San Francisco Cafe Du Nord May 11 Los Angeles Hotel Cafe March 9, 2007 Hi everyone! Well, as you can see if you're a regular visitor, I've just updated my website with a brand new look, new sound clips and new photos! It's been long overdue. I did it myself. It was a lot of work, but easier than the first time I did it, and kind of a fun challenge. So far this year I've done two sessions with producer Jeffery David, for four different artists he's working with, as well as one of his own songs. Couple cuts I think will be records and some are song demos. I also did two sessions with well know Korean singer Philip Roh for his upcoming record. Apart from recording I did a really fun show at the Knitting Factory in February for Ernie Halter, celebrating the release of his CD "Congress Hotel", and also played for the American Cinema Editors (ACE) "eddie" awards show with a band of some of LA's finest session musicians: Bernie Dressel, Quinn Johnson, Ken Wild, and Jeff Driskill. Live shows this month: Saturday, March 10 with Margo Reymundo Nics Martini Lounge, Beverly Hills Sunday, March 11 with Margo Reymundo Chaya Brasserie, Los Angeles |