2 July 2004

Still slacking here with the updates, but at least it's not 6 months like last time...! Been keeping busy as usual...

Most recent was a great trip down to Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas to record with Shakira. Not only an amazing atmosphere to be in, but getting to work with legendary engineer Terry Manning, in the very room that so many of my favorite artists have played and records have been made. From AC/DC to Roger Waters, Roxy Music to the B52's, Compass Point has accomodated so many, i'm happy to be added to the list. Along with Terry and Shakira, were producer/guitarist Gustavo Cerati and bassist Tony Reyes.

Terry, JM, Shaki, Gustavo and Tony

Aside from that... played a few more live dates in and around Philly with Census, as well as a few with Sean Flemming, subbing for Steve Holly. More jingles with producer Paul Greco and composer Phil Ashley for Toys 'R Us, includng recordings for Tina Turner and Faith Hill. Was great to have Kazumi Watanabe back in Skyline, along with Richard Bona and Horacio El Negro Hernandes, who still sounds like 5 drummers/percussionists all playing at once!

Now I'm back in town and ready to start production work for NYC pop funksters N 2 Deep. Also working on finishing up some soundtrack material for Indian/Israeli composer, Moses. The music is for a film being shot in India, having to do with 911. Looking forward to having Rhett Davies (the producer of my all time favorite record, Avalon by Roxy Music) coming over from London to work in Skyline with Julian Marshall. Coming up right after that, i'll be laying down percussion tracks for a great CD called "Bond Girls" on Sons Of Sound Records. The CD is a collection of all the James Bond themes, sung by different female artists and features Akira Tana (drums) and Dr. Lonnie Smith (Hammond B3), produced by Jeff Penney and engineered by Katherine Miller.

That's about it for now. I'll be back soon... (yeah right).

17 April 2004

OK, OK... it only took a few hundred e mails to force me into submission, grab a few minutes and finally bring this page up to date. The industry is still most definitely in a slump and we've all seen better days, but myself and the studio have been booked solid with more work than we can handle... only kidding, we can handle every minute of it!!!

In a nutshell, the last 5 months have been full of gigs, both in the studio and on stage.Live gigs in the city and Philly with Sean Fleming, Justin Jordan and Census. Tons of jingles played on, produced and/or written for Accenture, Burger King, Fischer Price, Marriott, Hampton Inn , Volvo, HBO and Jaguar. Skyline Studios sessions and new recordings/releases with They Might Be Giants, Everlast, Full Out Freak and Dirty White Fashion. Also took a trip down to Winston Salem, North Carolina for a visit to Treehouse Studios, to work with my friend and producer, Robert Kirk on a recording project for canadian singer Brenda Morie. On the session with Brenda (vocals/guitars), was Martha Bassett (bass) and myself on kit.

In recent months, the days and evenings have been full working on a project for Sony Dist. artist Kirsten Dehaan. Myslef and Ron Allaire have been producing Kirstens' debut CD for the past two months at Skyline. We just finished the mixes and will be at Sony Mastering later this week with our favorite, Mark Wilder. The cast of characters on the recording are Kirsten Dehaan (vocals/guitars), Al Pitrelli (guitars), Dominic Gallucci (guitars), Steve (guitars), Chris Miles (bass), Phil Ashley (piano/organ/clavinet), Rob Arthur (piano/electric piano), Joe Apparicio (b. vox), Katreese Barnes (b. vox) and Me (drums/percussion/piano/organ/strings).

Most recently, I just finsihed drum and percussion tracks for Calvin Earl. Calvin is a gospel/blues singer/guitarist/songwriter who chose Skyline and myself for his new recording. The sessions are going very well and it;s been a great experience covering a variety of old slave songs, along with some new songs penned by Calvin and his wife Christie. the line up so far is Calvin (vocals, guitars, bass), myself (drums, percussion) and Katrese Barnes (b. vox).