Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Coming Soon


Back in the basement. The Basement Collaboration is hosting their friend and colleague, Scott on harp. Once again, I have to say, dig the bass on this track. He was going where he was going. The piece really gets going. What I love about this is what a good example of the fun Scot had while he was living. Things were not easy for him. He was dealing with neurological issues like vertigo, which in no way impaired him intellectually, but did make the day to day difficult. I mentioned it once before—the power chair. He played sitting down, like Howlin’.

We’ve also got some really cool, really tasteful playing going on—once again the BC (Basement Collaboration) is Jerry Farnsworth ON guitar. Kenny Wright was ALL RIGHT, swinging his heart out on drums. Scott gets that harp all fired up. I realize that this song does have a name. I just keep making up variations of Jamula, which is where this riff came from. We’ll call this one, “1-2-3 Jamula.” I’ll eventually track down the real name.

Thinking back on this time, I marvel what a truly amazing situation this was for Scot; he got to play settle into a tight ensemble with Jerry and Kenny, while having tremendously varied, and mostly quite good players to fall in with. What makes this especially cool for all of us is that Jerry was there making use of the miracle of digital recording--the old one-two. Thanks to Jerry, who did such a beautiful job recording all these sessions, and for allowing me to make them available here.

As for today’s artwork, this is the “hot off the press” postcard, going to licensing agents and firms in Boston, NYC and Philly. I am headed out for the international launch of the T. Scot Halpin Archive. This image, minus the text is the backdrop for the booth. Pretty cool. We leave on the fifteenth! T minus 8 and counting……….







1 comment:

Unknown said...

Jerry here....the piece was written and performed on harp by Tom Smith
The name...Spanky....
I miss Scot very much....never played with a bass player like that, nor had a buddy like that.