A few words from Craig Pilo on the making of Just Play

My first solo endeavor came in 1996 after I made a firm decision to move to Los Angeles.  I was living in Dallas Texas, one year after graduating from North Texas and I decided to make a demo.  I got together with a friend who had just bought one of the earlier versions of Logic Audio and wanted to help me create and track a few tunes to help familiarize himself with his software.

A couple months and 8 tunes later This N That was created and handed out to anyone who would take a copy.  Although it looked and sounded like a real CD, it was nothing more than a college demo and I was quite happy to have something recorded.  The drumming, recording quality, and overall presentation was a good representation of the times, but my songwriting and the general content was marginal at best.  The CD also lacked direction.

Fast forward 10 years to 2006.  The music industry is in disarray.  Major and independent record labels are merging or closing shop, Tower Records has closed its doors, and downloading music from the internet has taken over.  In the midst of all this I came to the conclusion that I just want to play.  Sitting around and trying to guess where the industry is headed or what form of music is coming next is not really my existence.  My existence is largely made up of playing the drums.  All I want to do is play.

So in the midst of the gloom and doom of the music business, I looked towards some of the players that I work with, respect, and admire the most for guidance.  I wrote a few tunes, assembled a few others, and I set out to record.  The result is Just Play, which I am thrilled to be releasing on the independent label Rue de la Harpe Records. 

Here are some comments I’d like to share about the tunes and guys who joined me on the CD:

Shades of Blue:  I wrote this tune and brought over Ed, Jim, and Roman to give it some life.  I liked the melody and the simple changes, but they gave it life.  Furthermore, this is the tune that identified the sound I wanted on the entire CD.  It was my original intention to have this assembly of players do an entire CD under some sort of band name other than my own.  Logistics and geography made this feat impossible, but the sound was stuck in my head and it left me with a project that I wanted to finish.

Ed Czach: really helped me get this thing off the ground.  His playing is something I’ve admired since we first played together with The Slow Club Quartet.  His color tones, solos, and musicality are relentless.

Mitchel Forman: has been a favorite of mine since I first saw him play with Gary Burton, Peter Erskine, and Marc Johnson back in the late 80’s.  I got to play with him a couple of times in Jack Sheldon’s trio and approached him about playing on my CD.  His explosive solos and dedication to making every one of his tracks sound as good as it can show that he is a consummate professional down to the bone.  Be sure to check out his group Metro and visit his website: www.mitchelforman.com

Roman Dudok: was one of my roommates at North Texas.  He helped me get my demo together in 1996, and he helped me get my CD together in 2006.  He’s a lifelong friend and one of the best saxophone players I get to play with.  I love the character of his solos.  He’s been touring with Toby Keith for a few years now.

Doug Webb: is another of my favorite sax players here in Los Angeles.  Doug’s done a lot of CD’s over the years and we’ve worked together a lot.  His solos are quite electrifying and really sound great on Red Clay and Teen Town.  Which brings me to...

Red Clay and Teen Town:  I always enjoy it when musicians rearrange standards, change up the grooves, rework changes, and make a new version of something old.  These two tunes seem to have stood the test of time and were best left alone.  I did write in a vamp for the drums to solo over in Red Clay and I drew in a few repeat signs to extend some of the solos in Teen Town, but the arrangements are basically the same as the originals.

Awkwardly Mobile: In my head this started out as a movie cue.  The problem is that I don’t really write movie cues and never have.  I think it might be fun someday, and this tune might work well.  I came up with this groove and then wrote a bass line to match.  Then I came up with a cool rubato intro using all sorts of weird keyboard patches (all of which sounded like a drummer playing weird keyboard patches!).  This is when I called Ed to come play a Rhodes sound and give it some “mobility.”

A few words about the bass players: To a drummer, as many of you know, the bass player is the most important person in the band.  I have been fortunate to work with some world class bass players over the years and I was really excited to see that some of them were available to play on my CD. 

Jonathan Pintoff: brought such a great vibe to the Latin flavored tunes.  Although All Blues is the only track he played on that made it onto the CD, he played on several.  All of which sounded great. 

Keith Hubacher: is the reason I joined Frankie Valli’s band.  He’s a rock, and you couldn’t ask for a better hang.  I asked him to play on a few tunes for the CD and he was gracious.  His playing on Autumn Leaves, Awkwardly Mobile, and Miles Mode is as solid as it gets. 

Bart Somolis:  My CD was done and in the can when I realized I wanted to add another tune.  When Early Cynical Mystery came to me, I figured Bart was the guy for the job.  His solo is amazing and his ideas support the tune throughout.  His playing and personality really made another of my original compositions come to life.

Jim King: is one of the funkiest bass players I’ve ever worked with.  His groove, choice of notes, and approach is something I’ve marveled at since we first played together with Danny Weis in the late 90’s.  He has this ability to make any drummer sound good.  His playing on Shades of Blue really helped me identify the raw sound I wanted for this entire CD.

Dave Enos:  I met Dave in the winter of 1997 when I had just wrapped up working with Maynard Ferguson and he had just finishing touring with Arturo Sandoval.  His bass line on Impressions is out of this world.  I’ve always admired Dave for his bass playing, but when it came time to record Softly, I took advantage of his harmony and arranging skills as well.  He really helped me tweak the bridge to help distinguish this version from all others. You can check out some of his verve recordings by clicking here: www.vervemusicgroup.com/artists

Tom Kennedy:  I don’t think I need to write too much about Tommy that hasn’t already been said.  Along with a lot of other people, I’ve marveled at his playing with Dave Weckl’s band and Steps Ahead.  He’s one of the closest modern day Jacos that we have.  So when it came time to record Teen Town, he was the obvious choice.  Be sure to check out what he’s up to at:  www.tomkennedymusic.com

Enough about bass players.

Bryan Brock: was a college buddy of mine from North Texas.  We both relocated to Los Angeles after graduating, and ended up reuniting through Jonathan Pintoff a few years later.  Bryan’s dedication to his craft is amazing.  He’s got more grooves (and more toys) than any other percussionist I know.  He recorded about 3 tracks for this CD, but only All Blues made the final cut.  You’ll hear more from Bryan on some future recordings of mine and Angela Carole Brown's.  Check Bryan out at:  www.bryanbrock.com

Ruben Valtierra: is a longtime friend and keyboardist.  None of his playing made it onto the CD, but I did use two of his original ideas.  Ruben and I recorded Betcha By Golly Wow, Night and Day, All Blues, and Autumn Leaves.  Out of the four, I used his arrangements of Autumn Leaves and All Blues, but had to have the Fender Rhodes in order to fit the format I was trying to maintain.  Ruben is an awesome keyboardist and does really cool Latin arrangements of standards.  Check him out at:  www.myspace.com/rubenvaltierra

Softly As In A Morning Sunrise:  I was on the verge of using another Latin tune to replace Softly from square one.   The problem was that Dave Enos took such an amazing solo right out of the gate that I couldn’t bring myself to walk away from it.  I did four takes on two separate sessions before I came up with a drum track that sounded good enough to accompany Dave’s playing.  Mitch came in and nailed the rest on the Fender Rhodes and that’s the version that made the CD.

Miles Mode:  I forget where I heard this song for the first time; it’s not one of Coltrane’s most popular tunes, but I love it.  I came up with the arrangement and straightened out the groove from its original swing feel.  Nobody will be able to play it the way Elvin did anyway, so this was a good example of something to rework.  Keith, Roman, and Ed did the rest.

I really hope you enjoy this recording.  It was tracked over quite a few years ,yet I managed to maintain a certain integrity of the early Zawinul/Cannonball sound that I had in my head the whole time.  Even though it was tracked in a few different studios, each take from start to finish remains in its original form with very minimal editing.  I really don’t like Pro Tooling something to death so that every little expression is cut and pasted to perfection.  We used no midi on this recording and everything was played as audio just as you hear it on the final CD.

    Enjoy!