Carmen Hits #1
Chuck's New CD
Tours Take Us Far & Wide
Hello and best wishes!
I hope your summer is going well and you're having some fun in the sun. There is quite a bit of news to share with you so I'll dive right in...
My new CD "Plain 'n' Simple"
I am very happy to announce that my new CD Plain 'n' Simple was released on July 26th and can be ordered online right now. This is my first release on Tweety Records and I am very excited to share it with all of you!
The CD features my Fourplay band-mate Harvey Mason on drums, and rising star Pat Bianchi on organ. The guests include some familiar friends and new faces: Eric Marienthal on sax, Till Brönner and Nathan Eklund on trumpet, David Charles and Mauricio Zottarelli on percussion, and it wouldn't be a CL CD without Carmen and Lizzy!
A mix of Soulful Swing, Funky Grooves, and Brazilian beats, the CD is a journey to my earliest roots in jazz guitar when I was discovering the great recordings of guitar/organ bands from the '60's and '70's: Wes Montgomery's Trio, his work with Jimmy Smith, George Benson with Lonnie Smith & Jack McDuff, Pat Martino with Don Patterson, Jimmy McGriff, Larry Young, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, and the list goes on...
In a big way, these groups and guitarists shaped my sound and style - and I have always yearned to take a stab at the organ trio format myself - and as Charlie Parker said in a song - Now's The Time!!
Look for it now or pick it up at your favorite on-line shop, record store or iTunes. It sure would be great for Tweety Records to have two #1's in a row!
Carmen's "Mi Bossa Nova" Hits #1
Carmen's latest CD Mi Bossa Nova has been out for several months and has been receiving some glowing reviews and wonderful response from her fans.
Then a few weeks ago she was interviewed on National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition" by Scott Simon - and just a few hours after it was aired her CD jumped right up to the #1 spot on the iTunes and Amazon.com's Jazz Chart, and moved right up to the top 50 overall on Amazon. After several weeks the CD is still hanging tough at #6 on Amazon.com's Jazz chart - not bad for the second CD on our own label Tweety Records!
If you haven't already ordered it please do - not just to keep the CD on the charts - but because it is a beautiful CD that we think you'll love for a very long time. If you already have it - buy one for a friend - it makes a great gift (wink, wink ;-)
One note: both Carmen's and my CD's are released by The Care Music Group in Europe
In The Studio
The latest production I was involved with was Michael Franks' "Time Together" CD, on which I produced four tracks. It is a wonderful CD, with instantly classic new songs, and amazing lyrics from this icon of music, who I am lucky to be able to call a friend and colleague. It is riding high on the charts, both in radio and sales - and it is so cool to see his and Carmen's CD's right up there in the top 10 together.
Coming up I am very excited to say that I will be producing the next Eric Marienthal project. We start next month and I'll keep you posted as it gets rolling along....
Touring news
This year has seen some of the widest far flung trips in a while for me and Carmen and Lizzy.
As I write this I am sitting in my hotel room in Hannover, Germany on tour with the band from "Plain 'n' Simple" - Harvey, Pat, Eric, Till and myself. We are called D.I.G. (Deep Inner Groove) and we are out for 11 European dates over the next 2 weeks - great fun!
Carmen and I just returned from Tokyo, Japan where we did a wonderful four night engagement at The Cotton Club, a beautiful venue with Matt King (piano), Mauricio Zotarelli (drums & Percussion), and David Finck on bass.
Earlier Carmen and I played the Capetown Jazz Festival in South Africa and Lizzy just finished a tour of Germany with the "Feels Like Home" singer/song-writer tour and will join D.I.G. as an opening act in Berlin at The A-Trane Jazz on July 16-18. Her CD The One, which was released as Drawing Lines on iTunes, is out now in Europe on The Care Music label.
And of course with Fourplay we hit Manilla, Philippines, Jakarta, Indonesia and are headed to Thailand before we head back to Europe and The States this fall... whew!!!!
My frequent flyer accounts are very healthy, needless to say....
Also - at the end of the DIG tour - Harvey and I fly together back to NYC to start a weeklong stint at The Blue Note with Fourplay July 26 - 31. If you're around please come on down.
Even our beloved Pomeranian Puppy Annie has hit the road, joining Carmen and I in California, Vegas and The Grand Canyon and Christina is finally going to take a nice long break from work to visit Spain (and catch one of my shows there I hope) - where Annie is with Carmen and Lizzy.
So that brings us up to date pretty much for now - but please check the websites (mine, Carmen's and Fourplay's) for all the latest news and updated show schedules. I hope to see all of you soon at a show, on Facebook and Twitter!
Much love to all of you, and enjoy the music,
Chuck
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