with Jeff Kamil, Tom DeFiglio, Pat T (and a special appearance by John Casolary)
I have been playing occasionally over the last six years or so with a group of friends I met through the local jam scene. A few times each year, we would rent a rehearsal space in San Francisco or Pacifica for three hours on a early weekend afternoon and play through some mostly jazz-oriented material.
Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic locked us all down in March 2020, I thought it might be nice to do a remote recording project. I could start things off with a reference file with guitar, bass, fake drums, and a metronome. Then I would make copies to send off to the others to add their parts. For example, for Tom I would mute the fake drums and send that for him to play over. Once we had everyone's contribution, I or Tom could assemble the pieces and mix them down to stereo.
So we put together a song list and started chopping away... and here's what we've come up with so far... These are in reverse order, so the newest tune is at the beginning of the list and the earliest at the end.
(See also shelter-in-place project #2, which is just me, Tom, and Pat.)
This is another that is not one of our remote collaborations, it was (mostly) recorded live at one of our masked get-togethers in Tom's back yard in September of 2020. Tom felt it was worth sharing with y'all. The vocal was too low in the mix and had lots of bad notes, so I decided to record a clean vocal track, which Tom mixed in with the live recording. It's an old Cream song from their 1967 album Disraeli Gears. Jeffrey Kamil on guitar (first solo), me (vocals and second solo), Tom DeFiglio on drums, and Pat T on bass. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. Posted 25 April 2021.
"Use Me"
You might think this is strictly an instrumental project, but every so often I open my yap and attempt to sing. Here's us taking a hack at the classic Bill Withers hit song "Use Me" from his 1972 album Still Bill. Jeffrey Kamil on guitar (second solo), me (vocals and first guitar solo), C. Quenser on clavinet, Tom DeFiglio on drums, and Pat T on bass. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. Posted 16 February 2021.
"Povo"
Here we have an instrumental written by Freddie Hubbard that appeared originally on his Sky Dive album from 1972. Tom pointed us to a version performed by Lee Ritenour on his 2006 album Smoke 'n' Mirrors. We used that as our model, but ended up playing it at tempo closer to the original. Jeffrey Kamil on guitar (second solo), me (intro, melody, first solo, improv on the outro), Tom DeFiglio on drums, and Pat T on bass. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. Posted 4 February 2021.
This is an instrumental written by José Feliciano and recorded on his 1975 album Just Wanna Rock 'n' Roll, though a more well-known version of it was recorded by George Benson on his hit album Breezin' from 1976. Jeffrey Kamil on guitar (second solo), me (intro, melody and first solo), Tom DeFiglio on drums, and Pat T on bass. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. Posted 3 January 2021.
A blues, this one by Kenny Burrell from his 1963 album Midnight Blue. Jeffrey Kamil on guitar (melody and first solo), me (second solo), Tom DeFiglio on drums, and Pat T on bass. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. Posted 1 December 2020.
This one is an blues by Dizzy Gillespie first recorded (I believe) on his 1958 big band record Birk's Works. Jeffrey Kamil on guitar (melody and first solo), me (second solo), Tom DeFiglio on drums, and Pat T on bass. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. Posted 5 September 2020.
This one is not one of our current remote collaborations, but was recorded live at one of our get-togethers back in July of 2018. Tom surfaced it and I thought it had a nice vibe. So I decided to put it up here. It's a well-known Stevie Wonder song from his classic 1972 album Talking Book, done without vocals here. I play the melody somewhat loosely and Jeff improvises a solo. Jeffrey Kamil on guitar, me, Tom DeFiglio on drums, and Pat T on bass. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. Posted 12 August 2020.
This one is an instrumental by Shelton Laster, from guitarist Grant Green's 1972 album Live at the Lighthouse. Jeffrey Kamil on guitar (harmony line, synth pad, and second solo), me (melody and first solo), Tom DeFiglio on drums, and Pat T on bass. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. Posted 5 July 2020.
Here is a lovely instrumental by Frank Zappa from his 1973 album The Grand Wazoo. Jeffrey Kamil on guitar (first solo), me (melody and second solo), Tom DeFiglio on drums, and Pat T on bass. We left in some keyboard "fairy dust" that was part of the MIDI sequence I used as the basic reference track to play our individual parts over. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. Posted 9 June 2020.
This is a fun instrumental written by Pee Wee Ellis, often associated with the version by Jaco Pastorius and his Word of Mouth Big Band from the 1981 album The Birthday Concert. Jeffrey Kamil on guitar (first solo), me (melody and second solo), Tom DeFiglio on drums, and Pat T kills it on bass. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. Posted 29 May 2020.
Our first number is an instrumental by the Meters from their 1969 album Look-Ka Py Py. Tom had his friend John Casolary add keyboards to it and made this mix. Jeffrey Kamil on guitar (first solo), me (melody and second solo), John Casolary on keys, Tom DeFiglio on drums, and Pat T on bass. Mix by Tom DeFiglio. Originally posted 5 May 2020.
Update: The mix was revisited in early August and an updated version with some minor differences was posted 9 August 2020.
Last updated 25 April 2021