A Solitary man

This was my 2nd release for Gramavision Records. Gramavision was a widely respected “art” label in the ‘80s, with a unique artist roster that included Alex Foster, John Scofield, Al MacDowell, Bob Moses, John Medeski, Ray Anderson, John Carter, Anthony Davis, and Bobby Previte. I had pared down my larger group to a “Weather Report” sized quintet that included some incredible players as well as some special guests. The core band featured Jeff Berlin (bass), Manolo Badrena (percussion), Alex Foster (sax) and Cliff Almond (drums). Guests included Lew Soloff (trumpet), Ray Anderson (trombone) and Nicky Moroch (guitar) - pretty much an all-star group. Gramavision wanted to get into the then current “smooth jazz” craze and was hoping that I’d help with that. They asked me to explore making a “radio” record, creating songs that were more melodic rather than stretching way out on solos. I wasn’t much help with that – the album was still a little too wild for airplay. But then that’s the fun, listening to some great players. Significant for me: Alex Foster (Charles Mingus, SNL Band), a fantastic reed player, has been on almost all of my album projects, including my latest sextet recording “Mobius” in 2017.