Sweet Divines with Special Guests Tami Lynn and Nicole Atkins

I'm playing Rockwood II on Wed Mar 30 with The Sweet Divines and special guests Tami Lynn and Nicole Atkins. It's a Night of 1000 vocalists...

Sets at 7 and 8:30.

Get your tickets now before they sell out!

NYE with Marva Whitney, Billy Prince, and The Sweet Divines

What a night!

Marva Whitney, Billy Prince, The Sweet Divines -- NYE 2010

Let's party like it's 1969...

I'm playing with Syl Johnson

Playing with Syl Johnson tonight (Fri Dec 3) at Southpaw. Sweet Divines doing an opening set!

A good NY Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/arts/music/03syl.html?_r=2&ref=music

And a Time Out NY article:

http://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/music/616001/syl-johnson

This really makes me want a lavender or possibly lime green suit:

Dig Deeper Documentary Trailer

Sometimes it's really hard to describe to people exactly what the Dig Deeper series is, and it's even harder to impress upon them just how magic the whole process is...from learning the music, to meeting the artist, to rehearsal, to dress rehearsal, and then of course the show itself. I've been really lucky to play bass for almost every Dig Deeper show and it's exciting and wonderful every time.

So I'm really pleased that someone is finally putting together a documentary about it that gives a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into putting on the show.

The filmmakers are trying to raise funds in order to complete the film, but here is a sneak peak:

http://www.indiegogo.com/Dig-Deeper-?i=pite

The opening few songs are by The Sweet Divines!

Billy Prince @ Southpaw Sat Mar 27

I'm playing with Billy Prince of The Precisions tomorrow Mar 27 @ Southpaw. What a voice!

Instead of the usual Sweet Divines opening set we're having a multitude of guest singers. The rehearsal was a blast so I'm really looking forward to the show.

The lineup on Sat is:
Saturday, March 27
DIG DEEPER @ Southpaw
125 5th Avenue, Brooklyn

Advance tickets ($10) available here:
http://tinyurl.com/billy-prince-digdeeper

10:30p - THE DIVINE SOUL REVUE
Featuring:
The Divine Soul Rhythm Band
Ashley Vitha and Jennie Wasserman of the Sweet Divines
Meah Pace (The Mellomatics)
Alba Ponce de Leon (The Suspicions)
Inyang Bassey (Moby)
Cici James (Loser's Lounge)
and Eli "Paperboy" Reed (Capitol Records)

12:00a - BILLY PRINCE of THE PRECISIONS
(Gut-wrenching Motor City soul)
Backed by the Divine Soul Rhythm Band

And some history on The Precisions:

"The Precisions were a vocal group formed by Arthur Ashford, Michael Morgan and Dennis Gilmore on the Motor City's west side, a neighborhood mecca for much of the city's R&B talent as well as the site of its densest aggregation of recording studios.

With a few obscure mid-'60s singles on the prolific Detroit soul and R&B label D-Town already to their name, the Precisions would go on to add young college student Billy Prince as a lead vocalist in 1967. This selection, the debut release of the reconfigured group, would be the first of five Precisions records on Drew Records, a label whose discography, as it turns out, only included other Precisions records."

Tami Lynn and The Sweet Divines - Tonight @ Southpaw

I'm playing tonight @ Southpaw with Tami Lynn and The Sweet Divines. Show starts at 10pm, see you there!

Darrow Fletcher Recordings and Video

What a show! Darrow is a truly unique and inspiring talent. He had so many great tricks up his sleeve for directing the band...he knew the little things like when to choke the guitar strings, how long to make the bass notes last, which voicing to play on the piano, etc, etc All those little things add up in an arrangement. He said he learned a lot from Ray Charles who was his executive producer when Darrow was only 25. He also had a story about Ray when he first signed Darrow to his label...Ray asked him what he wanted as a signing bonus and Darrow asked for a motorcycle to get around LA. Ray agreed and got him the bike, but insisted on doing a test drive first! Everyone watched in horror as Ray took the bike across the parking lot, but somehow Ray had a 6th sense and drove the bike with perfect balance avoiding every obstacle. Apparently Ray *loved* to drive, which gave his manager a heart attack every time (maybe that's why he liked it?).
But of course the highlight was grooving with Darrow and the band on stage...
Some recordings of the show can be found here.

What I Did On My Summer Vaction

Nothing worse than someone with a blog who never posts. But, man have I been busy. Here are some highlights from July and August.

Played the Prospect Park bandshell twice! First with The Sweet Divines:


And second with Naomi Shelton and The Gospel Queens:



Did some recording at Seaside Lounge with Cici James. Hopefully it will get released soon...but sometimes these things take a while I know. It was a blast do to -- we did all the takes live with minimal micing which really added to the excitement. JB Flatt, Al Street, and Brian Wolfe. What a band!


And then played a few fun Ambulance LTD shows:

Did a run of shows with Ali Hoffman:


and to top off the summer, played a triple bill with The Sweet Divines, Maxine Brown, and Otis Clay! It was all part of the Brooklyn Soul Fest:






Here's a vintage clip of Otis Clay doing "Trying To Live My Life Without You" on Soul Train, 1972 (which we also got to play at the Soul Fest).

The Sweet Divines @ Prospect Park

I'm playing Prospect Park this Fri July 17 with The Sweet Divines, opening for Robert Cray. (I think Robert played on every single PBS blues special ever made, jamming with BB King, Buddy Guy, etc).

It's my first time playing Prospect Park Bandshell...and hey the last show I saw on that stage was Bob Dylan!

We go on at 7:30pm sharp. See you there.

Lee Fields is one baaaaaad mutha.

I'm still high off the gig I did with him a few weeks back. He's really one of a kind. He can do the straight funky JB style like he invented it, but can also really lay into a ballad. It was just a magic night...and a real honor to play music with him.

He has record coming out on Truth and Soul, which is worth checking out (backed by The Expressions). 

I hope to get to play with him again soon.

Here's me and The Sweet Divines playing with Lee at The Five Spot:

Getting Ready for Renaldo Domino

I'm psyched to be learning the tunes for my upcoming gig with Renaldo Domino. It's put on by the good people at Dig Deeper and will be at the Five Spot in Brooklyn (459 Myrtle Ave). The band will be The Sweet Divines.

Renaldo Domino is a lesser known name, but he has some deep soul. It's going to be great learning these parts.

Here's a clip of some of his old tunes: