Always There

This section consists of my arrangement, performance and production of existing music and various music/video performances I recorded for the VOA. The first selection is a 1975 jazz funk release by Ronnie Laws entitled “Always There". The video consists of some drone footage and still pictures of Tampa, Fl at night.

Georgy Porgy

The original version of this song was released in 1978 by my favorite group of LA studio musicians who called themselves Toto. This is my instrumental arrangement of “George Porgy”, a song off of their first album. I ended up playing 22 horn tracks to cover all of the parts. It is also a collaborative effort with an old friend and colleague LA who contributed piano and guitar fills as well as the synth solo. The video is a collection of various drone and still footage around Florida.

Never Can Say Goodbye

I never thought about arranging a Motown song until I heard a jazz version of this piece. Composed by Clifton Davis and released by the Jackson 5 in 1971 it has been covered by various artists over the years. Once again I share the arranging credit with Eric Scheda who added strings and some nice piano parts. The video is a somewhat arbitrary mixture of animated and computer generated imagery. Enjoy!

River Man

I'm trying my hand at recreating existing works. This piece was composed by an obscure English singer/songwriter named Nick Drake in 1969. He never gained much notoriety until after his death in 1974 although this song has been redone by numerous artists. This is my arrangement/performance. I chose to play the melody on Flugel Horn and edited together the video element using video clips from various sources. A great song from a great musical era. Enjoy!

Ain't Nobody

This is my arrangement and instrumental performance of the 1983 song “Ain’t Nobody” by Rufus and Chaka Khan. I played the horns live. Everything else I played through my Yamaha keyboard. The vocals are the actual isolated tracks from the original recording. I edited the video using original footage and shots of my studio.

Chameleon

I played the horn parts and trumpet solo live using my Schilke B3 trumpet and Yamaha Flugelhorn. All other parts were played using my standard studio setup. The video is a combination of original album cover artwork and still images i edited together to present a central theme.

Never Gonna Let You Go

Here is my arrangement and musical performance of "Never Gonna Let You Go", written in 1982 by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. The vocal performance is by Benjamin Krmer and singer/songwriter.een, a young music student, perfo

Plain White T's at the VOA

This Plain White T's interview/performance was recorded in VOA's digital recording room ST-B. It was meant to be a radio only broadcast. For whatever reason the show's host requested a one camera video shoot and no headphones. I felt the best way to record five instruments in a small room with monitors was in a semi-circle with the floor wedges in the middle. I think it worked pretty well.