Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Watch out for a new recording to be released soon by Rick Drumm, the President of D’Addario Strings, who is also a fantastic drummer. Rick produced the recording and will title it Rick Drumm and Fatty Necrosis. He and Fred were members of the NORAD Band in the ’70′s while in the Air Force, as was trombonist Mike Brumbaugh. The compositions were written for this project by Fred and Corey Christiansen.

HighTIME is a funky band! It is Fred Hamilton, guitar; Pat Coil, keyboards; Lou Fischer, bass; Ndgu Chancellor, drums. We released the CD A Morning Walk for Summit Records this year. Ndgu Chancellor lays down a groove that will not stop and has recorded with a long list of international stars, which include Miles Davis, Santana and Michael Jackson. He and Lou Fischer played with the legendary jazz funk group The Crusaders and Pat Coil is a Nashville session player and has toured with Michael McDonald for a long time. I am blessed to record with these musicians and as Lou said, “It’s high time we recorded together,” hence the band name. You can download from I tunes or get the hard copy from Summit Records.

Afternoon of the Soul is available on the site as a digital download and a CD with wonderful art and design by Erin Hamilton. The music was recorded over a six month period in Calcutta, India in Seattle, Washington and Argyle, Texas. I recorded three ragas and two of my compositions in Calcutta in January 2009 with legendary santoor maestro Tarun Bhattacharya and Nikhil Kamti Roy (Raja) on tabla. One of my pieces that I call Finger of Flame was included in this recording. Marc Seales, a good friend, jazz pianist and professor at the University of Washington recorded five duets with me in June. Four of those are included on Afternoon of the Soul. Ed Soph, a remarkable drummer, good friend and colleague at the University of North Texas layed down five duets with me. Two of them grace this CD. I recorded five of my compositions with James Driscoll, who is a very soulful bassist and Rob Avsharian, a killer groove drummer. One if those included Poovalur Sriji on mrdangam (South Indian drum). Two of the trio tracks are included on the recording. As you can tell there was much more music than I could put on one CD, so I have made it all available on two additional recordings on this site for digital download only. The raga music I titled The Calcutta Sessions and the remaining Seattle and Texas music is called Peace in Time. All of this music is available by clicking on the Store. Thanks to all my friends. Enjoy!