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Smooth Jazz comes to REH
| Article published on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009 |
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CLEARWATER - Guitarist Peter White joins the all-star lineup of Dave Koz’s Smooth Jazz Christmas Tour at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Thursday, Dec. 3, 8 p.m.
For nearly 20 years, Peter White has made the acoustic guitar a dynamic and expressive voice in the overall soundscape of contemporary jazz. Since his first recordings in the early 1990s, he has infused pop standards and his own original material with a sense of innovation and energy.
Set for September 2009 release on Peak Records, Good Day features all-new original songs sprang from ideas White accumulated over the past 10 to 15 years.
Now joining famed Saxophonist Dave Koz’s Smooth Jazz Christmas tour, jazz with White and friends, includes pianist David Benoit, trumpeter Rick Braun, singer-songwriter Brenda Russell and Dave Koz.
Tickets are $45-$80. The Hall is located at 1111 McMullen Booth Road in Clearwater. For tickets call 727-791-7400.
“I hadn’t made a CD of original songs for some time,” says White. “The last one was Confidential, which was released in 2004. So I just started going through my backlog of material – songs that I’d never finished, some going as far back as ten or fifteen years – and I discovered that I had a lot of gems. I wanted to record them in my own time and in my own way, without any outside influence or interference.” It all comes to the surface on Good Day, his new CD released on September 8, 2009, on Peak Records, a division of the Concord Music Group.
While it’s White’s vision that ultimately drives Good Day, he does get some assistance and inspiration from “DC,” the versatile keyboardist/programmer/songwriter who has produced and/or collaborated with a variety of artists in recent years, including Paul Brown, Jeff Golub and Chuck Loeb. Also on hand was keyboardist/producer Philippe Saisse, an accomplished solo artist who has helped to re-shape the careers of Rick Braun, Marc Antoine and Gato Barbieri. “Both of them helped me enormously with this project,” says White. “They brought something to each one of these songs, bringing them to life in a way that I never could have because I’ve lived with them for so long.”
The set opens with the lively title track, a piece co-written by White and arranger Michael Egizi that features an intriguing vibraphone solo from Saisse. “Philippe played this wonderful solo on the vibes,” says White. It’s something I’ve never put on a record before, but I try to do something on every album that’s a little different – some sound, some instrument, some style. This time, it was the vibraphone.”
The genesis of “Love Will Find You” is an intriguing story. “I basically took the song that Basia and my younger brother, guitarist/songwriter Danny White wrote, chopped it up, took her scat part – which she sings at the beginning and at the very end in the original version – and put it into the middle of the song as well,” he says. “I use it as a hook throughout the song.”
Upbeat and uplifting, “Bright” is dedicated to the late bassist and NBA hoopster Wayman Tisdale, with whom White had performed onstage a number of times in recent years. “The guy was always so happy, so positive, always had a smile, always made you feel great,” says White. “Even before his death, I’d always called this song ‘Bright,’ because it sounded uplifting and happy and funny…that was the way he came across to the world.”
Driven in some parts by a passionate flamenco rhythm and in others by a quieter and more melodic sensibility, “Ramon’s Revenge” has an epic, cinematic quality that tells a tale of two rival Spaniards vying for the affections of the same woman. The easygoing closer, “Say Goodnight” – is a tip of the hat to pop balladeer Al Stewart, with whom White toured and recorded for nearly twenty years (and co-wrote Stewart’s 1978 hit “Time Passages”). “We would end the show with just him and me playing the guitar after the rest of the band had left the stage. He’d say to the crowd, ‘Say goodnight to Peter White,’ and I would leave the stage for him to finish the show. The phrase has always stuck with me in the years since.”
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Article published on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009
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