Special EFX (featuring Chieli Minucci) - Without You (January 2022)

I’m proud to announce the release of the new Chieli Minucci & Special EFX CD, “Without You”. This comes at a very significant time in our long concert career, our 25th anniversary! Containing 22 brand new tracks, including new arrangements of familiar Special EFX favorites, the featured vocal work of longtime bandmember Philip Hamilton, as well as guest vocalist Will Brock, plus a tribute to my late, great partner, percussionist George Jinda, this new release finds our famously eclectic music evolving towards fresh, contemporary world jazz-fusion sounds. Rounding out the regular EFX lineup are guest musicians, keyboardist Jeff Lorber, violinist Karen Briggs (ex-Yanni group member), as well as NYC stringman Alan Grubner. West-coast pianist Lao Tizer makes a special appearance as well.

Over the last few years our compositional approach has steadily shifted towards a global, high energy fusion experience, sometimes even mixing in cinematic ‘sound-design’ textures. Not one to be shy of variety, I've packed this release with all kinds of music - jazz fusion, world-beat, world-pop vocals, contemporary melodies, rock-tinged versions of EFX classics, and even our first ‘straight-ahead jazz’ piece. I'm sure new listeners, as well as our longtime fans will feel exhilaration as they listen to this unusual mix of new music! 

1. Quivering 03:30

2. Healing Waters 01:02

3. Lakeside 04:53

4. You Make Me Blue 04:59

5. Prelude 00:23

6. Love's Lost in Translation (radio version) 04:26

7. Hushabye 03:42

8. The Night is Ours 06:00

9. Indelible 01:33

10. Wonderboy 05:35

11. Ballerina Rocks 06:51

12. Mountina Jamerooni 05:38

13. Man With a Drum 02:46

14. Afterglow 01:34

15. Bacchanalia 07:14

16. Gathering Wind 03:25

17.You Make Me 05:01

18. Electraglide 05:26

19. July 06:18

20. Twilight 05:43

21. Love's Lost in Translation (full version) 06:14

22. Undeniable 03:19

SPECIAL EFX is:

Chieli Minucci..........guitars, keyboards, arrangements

Jerry Brooks............bass

Lionel Cordew.........drums

Jay Rowe.................acoustic grand piano, keyboards

Philip Hamilton........percussion, vocals

additional musicians

Lao Tizer

Acoustic grand piano on Afterglow, Bacchanalia

Karen Briggs

Violin on Wonderboy, Lakeside

Jeff Lorber

Keyboards on Mountina Jameroon

Will Brock

Vocals on Hushabye

Dave Anderson

Fretless bass on Man with The Drum, Love's Lost In Translation

Alan Grubner

Violin on Bacchanalia, You Make Me, Man With the Drum, Quivering, Ballerina Rocks

PRE-ORDER

Dave Anderson - Dave Anderson's Blue Innuendo (2016)

Label: Label 1

Source: Gapple Gate Guitar Blog

To get to it straight off, this is NOT a guitarist's album. So why am I posting it on this blog? Because it is a very together organ band headed by a very together tenor man, and as that it is a model for such things today, the guitarist's role being played to perfection, as is the role of the organist, the drummer, and...of course the tenor.

Dave Anderson is the tenor (and soprano) man in question. He leads the band through a set of hiply swinging originals on Blue Innuendo (Label 1 2003-2). This is music rooted in the toughness of hard bop, yet fully modern in its tang of the beyond. It is no accident that Dave dedicates one of the numbers to Joe Henderson, for there is some of that sophisticated, hard-driving facility going on here, plus Dave himself showing his own way through nicely.
Dave Anderson sounds great, with plenty to say on both horns and a way of saying it that channels sax soulfulness and a true sense of what matters, yesterday and today.
Pat Bianchi on organ is a model for the extensions of organ bop-soul into now. He makes me smile as he always seems to. Tom Guarna, the guitarist, has a perfect presence in the ensemble and solos with authority. He also in his own way channels bop-and-after giants yet sounds original and contemporary.
Matt Wilson on drums comes through as he ever does as the swinging giant so necessary for the success of this kind of thing.
It's a model for how the organ-band roots can be enacted but with the modern complexities brought to the fore at the same time. A blazer, a hip disk is this! Hear it.

1. Urban Dilemma 07:54
2. 22 Doors 06:51
3. 12-Step Blues 05:25
4. Parallel Present 05:06
5. Genealogy 05:31   
6. Stuck 04:36
7. The Phantom (for Joe Henderson) 04:56
8. Two-Tone Tune 03:39
9. Blue Innuendo (for Joey D) 06:42
10.Redeye 06:56
   

Dave Anderson - tenor & soprano saxes
Tom Guarna - guitar
Pat Bianchi - organ
Matt Wilson - drums  

BUY THIS ALBUM