ON the ROAD to SOUND HEALING: Rock Bands with Horns

© 2010 Steven Halpern

Two of the few blogs I subscribe to focus on Bay Area jazz (Brian McCoy's blog at http://www.examiner.com/x-12458-Oakland-Jazz-Music-Examiner), and the Beatles (Steve Marinucci's blog at http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beatles-Examiner). I usually only quickly scan the latter, but a recent post included video of Ringo Starr's 70th birthday concert. Reading further, I was surprised to learn that his All-Starr Band included Gary Wright, Edgar Winter and Rick Derringer.

Many of you may remember at least two of the last three. But for me, it triggered a multi-leveled déjàvu.

One of the most common questions I get asked in interviews is, "How did you get into music?"

The short answer always is, "It got into ME!"  The longer answer includes a small list of life-changing moments that remain indelibly etched in my mind and anchored in my neurochemistry.  Several involve darkened auditoriums and the effect of reverb on my solo trumpet and solo voice (more on that next month).

Like millions of others, the music of the Beatles, which I had pretty much ignored until "PS I Love You" and their revolutionary chord progression, changed my life. Up until then, most every song was a variation of three or four chords, over and over. (This made it very easy to learn hundreds of rock and roll songs). When they released their album Revolver I was hooked into a whole new world of sound possibilities.

And then, the final chord of their "Sgt. Pepper" album, as I've written about before, was a truly mind expanding experience, from a sonic standpoint alone. Who knew a piano could create so many overtones? It taught many of us how to listen to "the furthest away sound", as Alan Watts later described the listening process. 

Reading the blog, I was delighted to see Ringo was having such a great time, and truly surprised that Paul McCartney jumped on stage to jam with him. What a birthday gift!  As I've often done in the past, I mentally thanked the four lads and Sir George Martin, their creative genius producer, for changing the sound of modern music.

Derringer Déjà vu

Forty seven years after the Beatles burst upon the international scene, many books have been written about their effects on our culture, so I don't need to say more about that now. But as I read further into the blog, I flashed that it was forty one years almost to the day that I was jamming on guitar with Rick Derringer in his apartment near Greenwich Village in New York City. Not only were we trading our favorite jazz licks from our heroes, like Larry Coryell, but would you believe that I was possibly the only person to have a conversation with Rick about healing music! 

Whodathunk it?  He was into it, back then.  He was moving far beyond his pop star days with his hit "Hang On, Sloopy" and was soon to come out with a rock/jazz album of his own. In fact, he invited me to stay in NYC and co-produce a new artist (Edgar Winter).  But my plans were to go back to grad school after taking a brief trip to the West Coast.

As you may know, all that changed shortly after I landed in California, but back to this narrative. I hadn't seen Rick since he headlined a concert at the Oakland Coliseum in 1974.  It was so loud I had to stand outside the building. I had read of his various substance abuse issues, and of his born-again conversion.  I was happy to see him playing with Ringo and enjoying himself.

Wright Déjà vu

When I met Gary Wright at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in August 1993 (another August adventure), he introduced himself to me as he was standing at the booth of his spiritual teacher.  He told me he was a fan of my music, and I, in turn, told him I was huge fan of the new sound he introduced to the world in his mega hit, "Dream Weaver". Every synth player tried to emulate that amazing Moog bass sound.  

Meeting him as I did, it was obvious he was deeply into yoga and spirituality. If you check out his website, www.thedreamweaver.com, you'll see that an Om t-shirt is prominently featured.  Yet, from what I have read about Fundamentalists and their negative opinion of New Age and other spiritual traditions, I was surprised that Rick would even appear on the same stage as Gary.  All things are possible when the music comes first, I guess. I immediately ordered his new album from his website, and look forward to renewing our last conversation.                 

ROCK BANDS with HORNS

A few days before reading the Beatle blog, I was speaking with a friend about another revolution in modern music, one that has not gotten nearly as much play. I'm talking about the possibilities that opened up when the standard 4 piece rock band (lead guitar, rhythm guitar/vocalist, bass and drum) added a horn section, of trumpet, sax and trombone. For me, it was love at first "hear".

Standing next to the sax and trombone player, I could feel the organic breath-powered harmonies vibrating inside my chest, and it felt great!  Plus, since my main instrument at that time was trumpet, combining a horn section with rock it opened up a way for me to play trumpet rather than guitar and still make money. After all, it's pretty lonely (and boring) playing trumpet by yourself.

Take a minute right now: do you remember the first time you heard the amazing sounds of the bands we now know as Chicago, and Blood, Sweat and Tears?  I sure do.

My friend knows whereof she speaks. When she introduced herself to me at the Marianne Williamson forgiveness workshop last August (discussed in my September 2009 newsletter) she said, "You may know my father. He started Chicago".

To which I replied, "As a matter of fact, I did meet him. Our band was invited backstage when Chicago performed in Buffalo in 1968. They were incredible. Give him a big 'thank you' from me."

Before then, I had heard blues bands and R&B bands with horn sections when my friends and I attended reviews at the legendary Apollo Theatre in Harlem (we were usually the only white faces in the audience.) But the horns were never an integral part of the arrangements, and they certainly were not grounded in jazz.  The moment my friend David Gittler turned me on to their first album, we decided to start our own 8-piece jazz-rock band!

As we soon discovered, there was, and still is, a limited audience for an instrumental-only band, so we added a male singer, and covered many of the songs of those groups, as well as The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, American Flag, and Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers.  We went through a major personnel change, and when we reformed, we were one of the hottest jazz-rock groups outside of the above-mentioned acts.

Our group featured the already legendary Madeline Davis on vocals, who also wrote some of our hit songs.  On alto sax, Joe Ford was a phenomenal player, who went on to play with McCoy Tyner. Tyner was the pianist with John Coltrane, who anchored the spiritual and world music revolution in jazz that became my own path to self-knowledge, and ultimately, to the music I am know for today. 

About our band name: it was a mere coincidence:  When we were introduced at our first gig, we didn't have a name. But because we were a racially-integrated group, most restaurants would not serve us.  The only one that would, was New Chicago Lunche, so that was the first thing we thought of.  Not a great name, but it stuck.

Recording a band in 1969 was not easy, and there is only one non-professional recording that we are aware of.  I recently rediscovered the old reel-to reel tape, and spent some time with my engineer to salvage what we could of the shredding master.  There are some flashes of brilliance there. I wish you could have heard us in our prime.

I invite you to enjoy a trip back in time. The resurrected Lunche lives again. The streaming audio is available as the latest in the bonus material available to premium members on my website. Click here to find out how to join: http://www.innerpeacemusic.com/premiummember.html

You'll also find some archival photos.  I'll be posting additional text and podcast in the near future, so be sure to check back.  I'll also tie in some of how our music that we played then evolved into New Age music, and to my latest release, PARADIGM SHIFT.

Speaking of PARADIGM SHIFT, samples and MP3 downloads are available now on my website. The physical CD itself will be available by the beginning of September from my website, and soon thereafter from Amazon.com and your other favorite local retailers.  I consider this album to be among the top three recordings I've ever done, and invite you to enjoy some of the most uplifting and exquisite music I know of.

Wishing you a great rest of the summer,

Steven Halpern

Steven Halpern was named "One of the most influential artists of the past 35 years who changed how we compose, market and listen to music" by Keyboard magazine. His new album, PARADIGM SHIFT, features two songs with a melody you can hum, a few seductive grooves, and virtuoso bassist Michael Manring.