The Road to First Light

UPDATED, Feb. 2017:
Twenty years ago I created and released my first CD project, First Light. Following that, I formed a new three piece group which eventually created a followup CD, One Mind. Doing those albums was possibly the most challenging yet satisfying work I have ever done. I think after all these years, it's time for a retrospective. How did those CDs come about? Who were the players? What were my inspirations and influences? All this and more...

It all started in 1985 with a Tascam Porta-Two 4-track cassette recorder. Remember cassettes? Remember anything not digital? Hey, it was the 80's. We still had to do it the old fashioned way. It was good enough for the Beatles (we'd tell ourselves).

Once I had acquired the Tascam, plus a drum machine (a Yamaha RX-15, the best I could afford), and a cheap electric bass, I was in business. I was excited about making demos and creating my own music.

Just recently, I dug out and unpacked boxes and boxes of those old cassettes from the late 80's-early 90's and started listening. I can hear now that I was having a lot of fun, but lacked direction. On the one hand, I was writing instrumental rock pieces in the style of the guitar gods I worshiped, like Steve Morse, Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Allan Holdsworth, and many others. The songs were not complete but I figured I would finish them at some point. Several songs that ended up on First Light were started during this time and still exist in demo form. Here's an early version of The Shadow:



On the other hand there were numerous tracks that were clearly intended to have vocals, but almost none of them did. Evidently I wanted very much to write sophisticated pop music. Listening back today, some of those tracks sound like I was trying to do Mr. Mister as if interpreted by Steve Morse. For example:



But the songs never got lyrics, and the instrumentals never got completed. I like to say that life got in the way, but I was simply experiencing a big fat creative block, and didn't know why. It took a lot of soul searching and self-analysis to finally shake loose from layers of self-doubt and self-criticism, insecurity and lots of other mental/emotional baggage. Almost ten years passed before I finally realized what should have been blindingly obvious - that what I really wanted to do was make an all-instrumental album. I simply woke up to the reality that I could do it and I should do it right away. OK!

At that point in the mid-1990's, I was lucky enough to be in a group, XYZ, that was providing me a chance to play my favorite instrumental rock and jazz-fusion covers. We had a regular Thursday night gig at the Ritz in Baltimore for a long time, and we were pretty tight. Angelo Cammarata on bass and Carl Hupp on drums were (and still are) first rate musicians, and we were having a ball. We had started writing, and I anticipated this group would become the vehicle to fulfill my ambition to do a CD. But it was not to be. Angelo and Carl got sidetracked by other personal and professional commitments, and things fell apart. The signs were all pointing to the fact that if I wanted to do a CD, I would simply have to take the leadership role and do it as a solo project. Once I saw that was how it must be, I pushed forward and things started to fall into place.

Enter John Suchy and Such Sound studio. Such and I had already been playing together in Hectic Red. That band was (and still is) very fun and musically satisfying, but I wanted to go in a different direction. Nevertheless, Such was definitely the guy to record my stuff. He had already been in business with his studio for several years and was doing great work recording, mixing and producing for many local artists. We got along really well, and he was incredibly generous about letting me into the studio whenever I had time.

I realized that as a leader, I could ask whoever I wanted to play on the songs. So Carl and Angelo from XYZ could play on some songs; the Hectic Red guys could play on some, and from there I let the door open to meet and work with some other incredible players. It turned into an all-star project, and on top of that, Such was willing and patient as I indulged myself with sometimes massive amounts of overdubbing, as I attempted to recreate the multiple layers and textures I had come up with through endless tinkering in my home studio. We put in many months of intensive work.

And in 1997, ten years after originally coming up with at least half the songs, I finally released First Light.

Continue to the next post: "First Light - Track by Track," which talks about the songwriting, the musicians, the guitars - and everything else that went into making an album at the dawn of the digital age.  

Hendrix at 70

Yes, that's what the cover of a recent issue of Guitar Player magazine said - Jimi would be 70 this year. My first reaction was, "why did they have to remind me that it's been that long?" Then I got over it and read the article. Here's a link to the online version:

http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/hendrix-at-70/148549

They made a point of getting appreciations and anecdotes from people like Adrian Belew, Steve Vai, Mike Kenneally, Reeves Gabrels, Nels Cline, Phil Keaggy and many others - a diverse assemblage of brilliant guitar players who are known to be highly talented, adventurous and individualistic - in other words, musicians that have some things in common with Hendrix. Yet they all consider him one of their greatest influences and inspirations. Why? Why is he still relevant today? Read on as I put in my two cents worth.

Jimi's imagination was always going full blast. He was one of that rare breed of artist who was naturally creative and highly motivated to constantly push forward into unknown and innovative directions. This applied to the way he played guitar, the songs he wrote, the sounds he created, and the equipment he used.

I have read that his wild imagination may have been his personal way of dealing with a lot of painful and hard circumstances in his childhood. He was known to love science fiction, and his lyrics often have fantasy and sci-fi elements to them. That all makes sense to me. What I like is that his music conveyed the sense that it was fun to be imaginative, fun to be intensely creative, fun to rock out and go wild. There is a joy and enthusiasm in his music that needs no words to be understood. This is a valuable lesson for anybody in the arts.

Jimi was evidently fearless in his willingness to try new and different things, to explore the unknown. I think that is directly related to how much joy it gave him, but it also shows strength of character, inner confidence and trust in his own intuition. I think it sends the message that if you love what you do and it brings you joy, it strengthens your resolve to plunge onward into the unavoidable uncertainty you experience on the path to manifesting a creative vision. And the more you do it, the easier it gets.

There's an abundance of eloquent tributes to Hendrix, and there's a reason for that. Hendrix was a powerful, innovative talented musician; combining flash, finesse, groove, soul, wit and spaciness into a new thing totally his own. His work has withstood the test of time and his influence looms large over each new generation. If he was alive today, he'd still be kicking our ass.

Here's one of my favorites - Hendrix live, with a totally crushing version of Johnny B. Goode:




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