Ear Candy CD
Read Mic Gillette's explanation of this CD and the reasons and background for each of the tracks on this captivating CD.
Read the official "Ear Candy" Press Release.
"Ear Candy" recording session photos:
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By Mic Gillette
I started this whole thing around 1995, while we were recording the Newvo Kids album. Julia and I were writing some songs that were different from the children's tunes, and the dream of a real solo album was hatched. The five Lodi tracks were recorded during this time, then they just sat in a box for 9 years. I started working with Steve Finch and Elmer Coles and their group, the Domino Band, back east in Roanoke, Virginia. They, along with Rick Milan, talked me into recording a few tunes with them and a few other outstanding musicians in the area, and I started to believe I might actually get a real, finished project someday. Well, Steve has been the impetus for it all coming together, and I guess there's no time like the present to get it done. I've assembled some old friends, and some new friends, and some original tunes, along with some oldies. Whatever it is, it's all from the heart. I hope you enjoy it.
Funky Good Time
I wanted this project to portray the funk side of my influences. James Brown and Fred Wesley have been a big part of that. I chose this tune because it just fits the trombone so well. There exists a cauldron of fine musicians in Roanoke, VA that Steve Finch and Elmer Coles have assembled, and we call it the Funky Loophole (every contract has one). They are the rhythm section on this tune, and will reappear throughout this whole project. There will be some variations in particular personnel, but each time it seems to work well. The only extra horn on this track is George Brooks on tenor sax. This is the theme of the album, and you'll hear the Chorus start the whole thing off, then fade out. Then, between each tune, we remind you where this is all coming from. The Funk never dies, it just lies in wait, returning momentarily to keep the fires burning. It's not meant as a distraction, rather as a piece of the pie you can't escape. As Emilio Castillo says, "We are not here to comfort the disturbed, we're here to disturb the comfortable."
Tell Mama
I've had this inescapable dream for many years to put back together the original
East Bay Grease/Bump City horn section for some recording. We were the creators
of the horn sound the Tower of Power is so well known for today. It was the first
time the five of us had all played together since 1972. I certainly don't mean
to take anything away from the fine stream of players who have followed in the
section, but there was always something special about the way we locked and rocked.
From the first note of the intro, I knew why I never let go of this dream. We
played this old Etta James classic before Doc and Emilio wrote their first tune
together, and it was truly one of the influences that still permeates their music
today.
I asked my old friend Rocco Prestia to play bass on this, and his style is immediately
evident. He and I met playing Little League baseball together when we were very
young. I admire his style and sound and knew he was perfect for this tune. I'm
so glad he survived his ordeal (with a little help from his friends) and got his
grumpy butt into the studio for me. I even wrote in a bass solo for him just before
we break into the Soulfinger intro.
My old friends Bill Champlin on B3 and Marc Russo on alto sax added their chops and Elmer Coles (Charles Earland, the Stylistics, and the Funky Loophole) joined the horn section on Trumpet as well. My beautiful daughter Megan added a tambourine track . It felt so good to have her play on my album. Then Ms. Mone't (Boz Scaggs) put on a great lead vocal (thanx to Randy Emata for putting us together and recording her) and the tune is rockin'. Steve Finch cut his teeth with this one. How does it feel, Steve?
I Like That
This is the first of several original tunes, the first song Julia and I wrote together, and was cut in Lodi, CA with my friend Ric Duncan. Chester Thompson plays keyboards and anchors the tune with a great sense of timing and taste. Lenny Williams took the original melody line and made it his own. As the song begins to fade, he mentions three old Tower tunes, So Very Hard To Go, (Below Us) All the City Lights and This Time It's Real. I had no idea he was going to do that, and it cracked me up, so I kept it in. I'm especially proud of the background vocals, and the bridge reminds me of the old Carpenters' style voicings. This tune doesn't rely on horns, rather on content. Kind of an old style soul ballad.
Before I Go
Another of the originals here, this is an instrumental with a Latin feel. Starts off with a trombone lead, then to Jerry Cortez with a beautiful acoustical guitar verse. Hands off from the bone to trumpet, and climbs and spews whatever it is that I do, climaxes, and settles down to coast out. The last thing you hear is the intro to You're Still A Young man, just as it fades out. A couple of my old buddies from The Fundamentals are in the rhythm section, all recorded at Nacnud in Lodi.
The premise for this song, for me, is the way my only sister, Karen, told her doctors (when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer) that she had some things to do "before I go." She had at that time a five year old son, and when they told her she had perhaps six months to live, she responded by saying she would be here to see him get his Master's Degree in college. Seventeen years later, just a few short weeks after he got that very degree, she passed on. The song was actually started some years before by Julia, reflecting on her own Mother's ordeal with a terminal disease. We collaborated to make this beautiful song a tribute to them both. I think this song is my favorite on this album.
How Was I To Know?
This song we wrote as a silly story about a cheap one-nighter with sparks but no hope of a future. Who better to sing this one than Bill Champlin? I find that Bill can convey vibes in a song as well as it can be done, and his soulful style fits perfectly. He also plays B3 on this track. This is another of the Lodi sessions with some good friends. Lots of brass on this one. Very R & B.
If Only For A Moment
This song was on Fred Ross's first album, titled Dignity, on Doc's Strokeland label. It was written for Julia's Mother, and reflects the feeling of loss and dreams of a stolen moment in time. Fred did this track in one take, something rarely done by singers. He was suffering from the loss of his Father, and felt these lyrics told the truth for him as well. Again, sparse horns, but in just the right spots. I love the background vocals on this one as well. From the Lodi sessions.
Abaco
An original instrumental, this time with a Latin flavor, featuring an incredible synthesizer solo by Chester Thompson. The intro and rhythm guitar is Jeff Tamelier (Tower), and the guitar solos are by Jerry Cortez. We wrote this song some years ago with Carlos Santana in mind, but by the time I was finally able to get him to sit and listen to it with me (during the Supernatural sessions), he said he had moved on from this style and was featuring more "World Music," as he put it. Nonetheless, his influence is pretty obvious here.
Open Up The Door
In 1969, on a Tuesday audition night at the old Fillmore West, a bunch of brazen East Bay boys walked onstage with a very unlikely five-piece horn section, and the crowd groaned and started to leave the room. Then, before they could get out the door, they heard the intro line to this James Brown classic. It was tight, it was strong, and it was nasty. It was amazing to watch them, almost in unison, spin around and come running back to the stage for more. That's how we started and we never let up.
This tune was an empowerment tune, and no one had ever bothered to stop and tell us we were any different than the person who can "get it myself." I asked my old friend and collaborator Greg Adams to put his horn arranging chops in front of the original Tower horns, and you can feel his tight harmonies right down to your feet. Bill Champlin came in and sang it, not as James did, but more relevant to today, and full of the "blue-eyed soul" he's so famous for. Steve added Tony Conner, our singer with the Funky Loophole back in East Virginia to put some of the vibes James had, and what comes down is a kind of a duet from two planets. Listen to Bill and his incredible harmonies, weaving around the horns. Then add Tony's soulful voice, and to me, this is some serious R & B.
If
This beautiful old ballad by David Gates and Bread, has always been a favorite of mine, and I've been bound and determined to do it for a long time. I ran it by an amazing arranger/guitarist named Ray Wilkes (also in the Funky Loophole), and he came up with this incredible arrangement. Then I took it to one of my favorite musicians in the world, Geoff Palmer, from the Sons of Champlin, and he added the most beautiful vibes track I've ever heard. It is completely complimentary, and adds the velvet to the track. I loved playing my Father's old trombone on this piece, because all I seem to do is hold it and put air in it, and music comes out that I could never have come up with, without it. I'm sure it's not as good as he would have done, but it's better than anything I could have come up with, without both his horn and the wonderful memories of how he sounded and how he played. This one is for my Dad. I miss him more than ever.
It Had Better Be Tonight
From the original Pink Panther movie comes an exciting tune by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer. I find it very hard to believe there hasn't been a whole slough of covers of this tune over the years. I called my friend Randy Emata and told him I thought he was the perfect guy to put this track together for me, and it turned out even better than I had hoped. I called some other old friends to play on this one, and you might have heard of a couple of them. David Garibaldi (Tower of Power) absolutely slammed this drum track, along with Karl Perazzo (from Santana) on congas and timbales, both Paul Jackson (from Herbie Hancock's Headhunters) on upper bass and Victor Little on the lower bass. Add Tal Morris (from the Sons, Huey Lewis and CCR Revisited) and Steve Finch on guitars and the rhythm track alone stomps. Then, when Karl added some smaller rhythm instruments, he had my daughter Megan play with him. He is now her mentor.
I wanted to have some fine students and good friends play some horns with me on the choruses, so I asked Dr. Jeff Eaton, Tom Carter and Rosie Burrell to play the lower trumpet tracks, and Tommy Davidson and I played the lower trombone tracks. Wanting to play with this arrangement meant modulating and building throughout the tune. I played the first verse on trombone, the second on two Flugelhorn tracks (one straight, one soloing), and the last verse a little higher on trumpet, with a trombone and two Flugels supporting it. At the end of the tune, Randy let David and Karl go nuts with the percussion for a bit. Then he brought the whole band back in for a short reprise. Randy Emata is quite an innovator, and added some drum sample sounds to Garibaldi's drum tracks. Check out how they leap out at you and pop with his outstanding style.
