With She Said, She Said I wanted to see how far I could stretch a 2 minute Beatle tune, and I wanted to do an arrangement where I have some of my soloists play over an extended form. This features Matt Owens on trumpet, Dan Levine on Trombone, Stan Harrison on Tenor Sax. Guitarist Michael Aarons is playing through his Revolver Fuzz Pedal.

When my brother and I were kids we spent a couple weeks every summer with our grandparents in Fresno, CA, where grandpa was a rabbi serving the community for over 60 years. (It was also very hot there in the summer.) Grandpa’s record collection was made up entirely of recorded speeches and sermons with one notable exception. Someone had given him the original concept album of Jesus Christ Superstar. The two record set in the brown box with the libretto. I’ve listened to this amazing album constantly since its release in 1970. My arrangement of Heaven on Their Minds is one of my favorites in our book, and we feature Frank Vacin on soprano sax (and alto flute.) I hope you dig it.

The Grateful Dead represent a large segment of our repertoire, and we have enough of their material to do an entire album. It was hard to pick just one Dead arrangement so I picked two. Our arrangement mashup of Saint Stephen and Turn on Your Love Light features solos by most of the band. There is improvising going on by one player or another almost the whole way through.

Uncle John’s Band features our woodwind section (including French Horn) as a unit, and solos by the great Oz Noy on guitar and Stan Harrison on Soprano Sax. We’d love to play at a Grateful Dead festival at some point. Just saying.

Freddie King’s Hide Away is the band having a good time. Our guitarist, Micheal Aarons, is featured in the Freddie King role here. Stan Harrison also contributes a tenor sax solo during a detour within the arrangement. Listen for Audrey Flores on French horn during the detour.

Speaking of pretty ballads, here is my arrangement of Van Morrison’s Into the Mystic. It features the beautiful trombone playing of my friend and co-producer, Dan Levine. I also need to point out the gorgeous bass trombone sound of Jack Schatz here. Jack’s sound to me is the foundation of the ensemble. To me Dan and Jack sound like one player even when they are playing disparate parts. 

Whipping Post is another staple of our live shows. This arrangement features Steven Bernstein on Slide Trumpet and Frank Vacin on Baritone Sax bouncing off of each other. Whole lotta improvisation going on here by Steven, Frank and the entire rhythm section. When we play it live I am often left speechless, and this recording is no expectation to that. The reaction in the studio was incredible.

As a child of the 60’s (Ok, technically the late 50’s) I was exposed to a lot of great music on television. Some of it in color, both visually and musically. As a kid I didn’t realize the music that really spoke to me, and pushed me further to study music, was written by the late, great Billy May. He wrote a lot of the underscore for my favorite TV show of the time, Batman. He also wrote the theme and underscore for my other favorite TV show of the time, The Green Hornet. It gives me great pleasure to close our musical adventure with the theme from The Green Hornet featuring Matt Owens on Trumpet, Bill Hayes on Xylophone and Michael Aarons on Guitar. 

Thanks for checking out What Is? I am so grateful for the love and support of this band, and I can thank them enough. Thanks to everyone that contributed to making What is? a reality. Suzan Saar, Allison Mackey and Erica von Kleist for the artwork. Charlie Rosen for his ears. Special thanks to Dan Levine and John Kilgore for their guidance through this. Extra special thanks to Steven Bernstein and Oz Noy for being our guest soloists.