Jazz Rosco Press Release
[August 15, 2004, Sacramento, California.]
Live Jam, Pure Jazz, All Natural
Jazz Rosco's "Rosco's Place" Delivers
Unscripted Two-Day Studio Session
Take a sound, set it free and feel where it goes--that's the concept behind Jazz Rosco's "Rosco's Place," the latest creation from master jazz keyboard artist Roger Smith as he delivers an unstructured, all natural, pure jam-band project where the plan is: there is no plan!
Featuring music conceived, written and performed on the spot, "Rosco's Place" invites listeners to a freewheeling, two-day live studio session with seven of the finest talents in jazz, funk and R & B. Besides Smith, who produced "Rosco's Place," this includes drummers David Garibaldi (joining Smith from Tower of Power) and Steve Self, along with guitarists Ray Obiedo and Mick Valentino, and bass guitarists Mike McKinnon and Mike Kirkhouse.
"The
idea was to come up with something raw and natural. I would call out
the changes, and we just went for a ride," said Smith, keyboardist-organist
for funk-rock's Tower of Power. "When you're blessed to have this
kind of talent in the same place, at the same time, you can forget about
rehearsals and having sheet music."
The effect is that of walking into a nightclub and happening onto a one-of-a-kind, live performance by unmatched, unscripted talent. Smith and fellow members decided to skip the standard industry approach of recording or overdubbing each instrument separately.
"We wanted to go in the opposite direction of overproducing it and making it slick. Friends came in and out of the studio during the session, having fun--some more than others. That's why you hear chatter and clapping in the background. With people in the studio, it gave me the atmosphere I wanted without having to deal with the logistical hassles of a nightclub or concert venue," Smith said.
"Rosco's Place" is currently available on CD through Amazon.com, CDBaby.com, HomeGrownMusic.com, and Strokeland.com.
A Review of the Jazz Rosco CD
[September 20, 2004, San Francisco, California.]
An Adventure in Musicianship
By Al Carlos Hernandez
Nationally-syndicated columnist and professional screenwriter
A Hammond B-3 organ can all at once sound like a carnival, a big band, a horn section, a small jazz combo, a funk group, a percussion section, a flute and/or countless other things. At Rosco’s Place, Roger Smith made it sing off-the-cuff during a two-day session captured live.
On the B-3, nine drawbars represent the nine most important harmonics, going in order from left to right, the sub-octave, the fifth, the unison or fundamental octave, the 8th, 12th, 15th, 17th, 19th, and 22nd. All of these except the 17th are either roots or fifths. The 17th is a third.
There are literally millions of tone qualities and endless shades of dynamic levels available on the Hammond organ. Roger Smith knows the right ones to play when he is weaving an aural tapestry telling a story all about how it went down at Rosco's.
There was drama when Pablo Picasso unveiled his “Woman in a chair” painting because it was a series of geometric angles, cubes, earth tone colors, unrelated parts, the woman disengaged. When asked to explain Picasso said, “The painting is about how she feels sitting in the chair...”
Smith and his compatriots on the Rosco CD, take us to Roscos, tell us stories around the table, changing the climate colors and mood like an automatic transmission, a place in space and time, where words are ineffective.
A virtual performance-art piece, music was invented and laid out on the fly, this the first of five CD’s invites intimates to an in-your-face studio session, laying it down the old school, Robert Johnson styled, one-take way: “Look Ma no overdubs” with seven of the baddest cats around who can play if you let them, and let them he did.
On the project Smith is flanked by stellar funk percussionist supreme drummer David Garibaldi, master of the smooth guitar Ray Obiedo, journeyman Mick Valentino tag teams Obiedo on guitar, Steve Self holds down the chair for Garibaldi, while bass guitarists Mike McKinnon and Mike Kirkhouse nail down the bottom.
One time Miles Davis told Billy Cobham, “Whatever you play, don’t ever play it straight.” Smith quotes heavily from the book of Miles, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evens, even Booker T., with a wink and a nod out to Isaac Hayes.
With titles such as “Good Question,” “Ray-O’s Bounce,” “All about you,” “Preface to Insanity,” “Five Alive,” “Sloppy Joe’s,” “Cape Town Jump,” and “Armadillo Race,” the Jazz joint Juke adventure no doubt chronicles the life of working musicians pounding the pavement and working the road.
Appearing Tonight Jazz Rosco: buy the CD and you will be in the house, and taking the ride, an adventure in musicianship you won’t soon forget.
Photo credit: Steve Schwartzenberg, Milford, CT.