Super Find

Whenever I'd get to NYC, I'd head straight to Tower Records on Broadway in lower Manhattan; back when people actually bought LP's and CD's, you remember - before the major recording companies turned their back on Jazz and any other creative output. In any event, Jorge Dalto's two LP's from Japan, Rendezvous and New York Nightline were the type of treasure I was after when I could get to Tower and spend hours fingering through the bins. The excitement I felt when I found these two records, with Jay Beckenstein, Tom Browne, Dave Valentin, George Benson and David Sanborn on hand, along with numerous other Superfriends, is rarely replicated today - not because there aren't great artists, but mainly because there aren't too many chances being taken in the recording industry today. These two records fell out of The Soundtrack Of My Life for awhile, until they were re-released last year on CD.
Listen to 'You're Like An Angel', 'Winds Of Love', 'My Latin Brother' and 'Pina Colada'
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The Sound of Romance

She was young, so was I; she was beautiful and had an incredible shape. She worked in a store at the mall, and every time I went to visit her, this incredibly sexy song would be playing in the store, or so it seemed. It was 1981, there was no internet, no Smooth Jazz radio, trying to find this song that I kept hearing was a real mystery, a true treasure hunt. Once I discovered Michael Franks, his voice and music became the de facto soundtrack for the bedroom, for many years and relationships to come; I made cassettes, bought cassettes and cd's and delivered them as gifts - all with the express purpose that 'we' would be sharing in the music. I don't really listen to Michael Franks all that much anymore, not that he's not a part of The Soundtrack Of My Life, quite the opposite; I just sort of burned out on the memories, the emotions and feelings are too strong. While he's still a part of The Soundtrack, I doubt his music will ever be part of the bedroom again, at least it hasn't been in over 7 years, and I'm good with that. But every now and then, I think back to that clothing store, looking at her, with Down In Brazil playing in the background.
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Just Another Lazy Sunday Afternoon

It was early 1988, my personal situation at the time, and what was going on in my life, has been documented previously in this blog, so I won't bore you with the same stories. Needless to say, it was one of those Sunday afternoons, I found myself laying on the couch with nothing to do (or was that no one to do??) - so off to the mall I went. I ended up at the record store, big surprise huh? I came across this cd by Kit Walker, I had no idea who he was, but the recording was produced by Andy Narell - that was good enough for me! To this day, 20 years later, I can't put this disc on and listen to Natural Habitat just once, it's like eating potato chips, one just doesn't do it! Kit Walker hasn't released a whole lot under his own name the last 20 years, but Dancing On The Edge Of The World has been a staple of The Soundtrack Of My Life, and will be for the next 20 years to come!
Listen to 'Natural Habitat', 'Wind and Water' and 'When The Mountains Talk'
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Dad, I miss you

1992, late summer around Labor Day, my father was in the hospital to have his leg amputated; it was a bad time for everyone - a real bad one for me. Besides the obvious issue at hand (or is that leg), there was major concern that he wasn't going to be strong enough to make it through the anesthesia; I remember sitting in the waiting room at the hospital, for what seemed to forever with my mother and sister. Fortunately he made it through. When I went back to my place that afternoon, I did what I needed to do - lose myself in the music, The Soundtrack Of My Life. It was Wayne Henderson And The Next Crusade that got me through the rest of that day, along with some of that magical potion that those monks in Scotland first distilled so many centuries ago. I miss my father terribly, he's tightly woven throughout The Soundtrack Of My Life, I could write dozens of stories.......if the music gives me the strength to do so.

Listen to 'Rosa Cafe', 'Right On Brother' and 'Urban Jungle'

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The Dark Prince

The first album by Miles Davis that I bought was The Man With The Horn in 1981; little did I know what I'd be getting myself into! Over the years, Miles, especially his Electric Period, has been a foundation and reference point of The Soundtrack Of My Life. I've been pretty busy the last few weeks, but I've got a load of stories to share; until then, I hope you enjoy this review I did of the latest Miles tribute - Miles From India.

Guitarist

I was a fan of Kevin Eubanks ever since I picked up his first release, Guitarist, on Elektra-Musician, but of all his releases to date, the one that has had the greatest effect upon The Soundtrack Of My Life is Shadow Prophets. In 1988, I played this CD constantly, in fact, in the Summer of '88, I used the disc to profile a new set of high-end speakers, which I eventually purchased along with the requisite audiophile gear to power them. Over the years I've read bits of interviews from Eubanks, who said he wasn't that proud of his GRP output - I don't know, looking back and listening, those GRP albums hold up well, and the material is everything that in my opinion, contemporary jazz ought to be; he certainly wasn't playing anything 'smooth'! I had a chance to catch Eubanks in 1989, soon after the release of The Searcher, which I've always felt was just as strong as Shadow Prophets. He was performing at the Tralfamadore Cafe, and his group was smokin'; Gene Jackson on drums, Rael Wesley Grant on bass, who was just as amazing to watch as Kevin was live, the keyboard player's name escapes me - funny thing was, they never played any selections from The Searcher?! Years later, I caught Eubanks in 2004 performing with Billy Pierce, Smitty Smith and the great Charnett Moffett; his intensity was incredible. From 1989 to 2004, full circle, The Soundtrack Of My Life.
Listen to 'Mice Mobsters' and 'Shadow Prophets' from Shadow Prophets, 'The Story Teller' and 'Cookin'' from The Searcher and 'Spider Monkeys' from Live.
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Arrived 'Full Circle'

It was 2001, not really Fall yet, more like Indian Summer, it was early evening, I was waiting for my dinner date to arrive, the night air blowing through the window was cool. I had Alexander Zonjic's Reach For The Sky in the CD player, when the Bob James composition 'Angela' came on; it struck me - after 21 years, I had come 'full circle'. I was back in the same town where The Soundtrack Of My Life had begun, listening to a song, that I had first listened to (on All Around Town), in another small apartment 21 years earlier - wow, that's some powerful shit. Whoever doesn't believe that everything happens for a reason, has no clue what life, passion and desire are all about.
Listen to 'Angela' and 'Bellavia'
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Full Circle

It was 1988, no I hadn't yet come 'full circle', that would come later in 2001; but I remember distinctly the day I purchased the Columbia debut release of Full Circle. It was a beautiful late summer day, a Sunday, cruised over to the record store in my Saab 900 Turbo with my girlfriend. On the way we stopped for breakfast, at a pancake place, then went to the record store. Somewhere along the way we got into a heated argument over something, she jumped out of the car at a red light, refused to get back in; I left, went home, popped my new find into the CD player and enjoyed an awesome young group out of Boston's Berklee College. I had a great afternoon; she made it back at some point, welcome to The Soundtrack Of My Life.
Listen to 'Sorcerer's Appearance'
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