MP3 MHC - Spring 2006

Guitar instrumentals blending rock, jazz, blues, and international influences into a unique and cohesive style.

7 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Instrumental Rock, JAZZ: Jazz Fusion



Details:
A rock and roll melting pot seasoned with blues, jazz, european classical, and traditional middle eastern sounds. Extended improvisations, driving odd-time rhythms, straight up hard rock, lyrical and inventive guitar lines, a wide array of moods from laid-back to in-your-face.

NOTES ON THE SONGS
The two brief MINUETS I copped from a book in the library in Vegas. The first one used to be in E major but I changed the key to E minor.
SKINNY DIPPIN'is in 7 and I spent hours composing the drum fills and programming them into the Zoom eighth note by eighth note. Thereâs no âsolo,â just a lot of guitar layers and crazy drum lines. Chords for the chorus are just A7 and Dm.
GREAT DAY FOR A BANK LOAN is some classic rock chords me and my friend Kelly threw together. My friend John recommended the Weeping Demon wah pedal from Ibanez. It rules. Best wah ever. You can set it so that when you lift your foot off it, it stops the wah wah action and goes back to normal sound. No more switching on and off! It gets used basically the whole way through this tune.
STUDIO JAM started in Michelleâs momâs basement last year on an old Gibson J-45 acoustic that now resides here in my studio. We saw a great middle-eastern/mediterranean band in Scottsdale and so I merged it with this middle-eastern dance beat and jammed the heck out of it. People tend to like this one best.
CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS was written by David Holland who played bass with Miles Davis around the Bitches Brew period. His version is all fast and written for two horns. This is a slower darker version that starts off with a couple minutes of free lines around a D tonal center. Imagine if Fugazi played jazz. Thatâs what it sounds like to me. Itâs in 5 but thereâs an extra measure of 2 at the end of the form. Itâs too confusing to play live but in the studio it worked out.
D-TYPE PLANET is a free-form improv in an open tuning. The tuning is based on open C major, but I have it tuned up a whole step to D (D-A-D-A-D-F#). Two middle eastern drum lines are merged together for the drum pattern which fades out after a couple minutes as the guitar continues. This is the best of about 10 takes on one very stoned Saturday afternoon! Why play one genre when you can play them all⦠There is rock, metal, arabic, surf, folk, gospel, and blues thrown into the mix here.
Dammit, that leaves out Indian, funk, jazz, african, disco, and polka. I will work that all into the next one!