Four newer albums of note:
Standards 2, Movie Music, with Alan Pasqua, Darek Oles and Bob Mintzer (Fuzzy Music). Using the same state-of-the-art stereo microphones developed by KMF, the quartet records once again in the acoustically rich concert and lecture hall in La Jolla where we made the Grammy-nominated Standards album. Everyone chips in with arrangements, and we have a ball playing music from the movies. The band also doubles as the USC Faculty Jazz Quartet, and part of our mission is to redefine what West Coast jazz means nowadays. I like to think that Webster’s Dictionary as well as Shorty Rogers would approve.
Also on Fuzzy, my New Trio’s debut album Joy Luck, featuring Vardan Ovsepian and Damian Erskine. The title track (“Joy Luck Club”) marks my marimba-playing debut on one of my own albums. This might prove to be one of our most popular CDs to date.
Last but not least, I had the pleasure of playing in a remarkable big band with strings for multi-talented Seth MacFarlane, the creator and voice for “Family Guy” and other shows, who happens to be a really great singer. Music Is Better Than Words is the album’s name. Joel McNeely did the arranging and producing, and the album was recorded onto analog tape with no punching in or digital fixing. The “A” and “B” rooms at Capitol Studios served as the playing venue, and I used an old Gretsch kit with calf heads, recorded with a single ribbon overhead microphone. There’s no sound like all of the musicians playing in the same room at the same time: the ultimate in concentration and commitment. Plus, with Chuck Berghofer and Alan Broadbent in the rhythm section, and Wayne Bergeron playing lead trumpet, you know this music swung!
Honorable mention as well to Vince Mendoza’s latest opus, Nights On Earth. Beautiful, and enlightening. Wow!
I can only look forward to completing another list that highlights 50+ more albums out of x many in the future.
Afterword
Thanks to my wife, Mutsy, for providing the time, space, and place necessary for me to write this book. My deepest appreciation to photographer Shigeru Uchiyama for making his library of Weather Report tour photos available to me. Shigeru quickly became the most-trusted and favorite photographer of the band, as evidenced by the extraordinary number and quality of photos taken on and off stage. And a huge tip of the hat to: Stanford University’s Jon Krosnick for insisting I undertake this writing endeavor (and for reading through the early drafts), with thanks to Jerry McBride and his team at the Music Library and Archive of Recorded Sound at Stanford University for digitizing my audio and videotape collection. Thanks to Mitch Haupers of the Berklee College of Music for his generous Foreword and advice. Thank you, Bill Bruford and Neil Peart. Biggest thanks go to all the others whose names are mentioned in the book; the story could not be told without you. I trust that my memory will prove both accurate and adequate; for what it’s worth, I kept notes during most of my years of touring — and I am grateful for all of the experiences and music shared. And thanks to you, the reader.
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT www.petererskine.com for additional media resources: videos, audio files, more photos, and an ongoing blogsite to keep this book a living document.
photo: Kaori Suzuki
photo: Shigeru Uchiyama
photo: Shigeru Uchiyama
photo: Peter Erskine
photo: Peter Erskine
photo: Peter Erskine
photo: Rick Laird
with Vic Firth and Louie Bellson, 1983 PASIC convention
American Drummers Achievement Awards dinner, 1998, Boston
photo: Mutsy Erskine
photo: Mutsy Erskine
The “Sweet Soul” band: Randy Brecker, Kenny Werner, Marc Johnson, Peter Erskine, Bob Mintzer, John Scofield and Joe Lovano…wow!
The “ECM Trio” with Palle Danielsson and John Taylor
with Alan Pasqua and Dave Carpenter
photo: Jean Radel
photo: Karen Miller
Bonus Photos
No Beethoven: An Autobiography & Chronicle of Weather Report Page 29