JOHN grew up and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. He started playing guitar at age 14 after becoming obsessed with recordings of Mahavishnu Orchestra. In college he fixated on the music of Charlie Parker then Thelonious Monk. Jazz, free, rock, punk and classical music inspires him. He still plays in a pianoless Monk cover band. Along the way he studied guitar with Harry Andrew (a graduate of New England Conservatory) and Adam Levy (long before his stint with Norah Jones) and learned much in Attila Zoller's Vermont workshops with Jim Hall and others.
RICK RIVERA'S approach to drumming is very musical, and you can often hear melodic-style phrasing in his solos. I've known Rick for several years now, and also regularly play with him in a Monk cover band. Rick's from Boston and sometimes lets his accent loose.
GABE DAVIS was born into a musical family and really didn't have much of a choice about becoming a musician. He settled on bass after a dispute in a Green Day cover band. He's since played in jazz, rock, funk and techno bands and even classical orchestras. Music takes Gabe throughout the U.S. and Europe. (He never mentions this, but he graduated with a degree in music from Stanford University.)
JEFF CHAMBERS played bass on 6 of the 9 CD tracks. Chambers is a very experienced and highly regarded bass player. He's played with many wonderful musicians, from Dizzy Gillespie to Freddy Hubbard, Herbie Hancock and many others. He holds bebop close to his heart but also loves latin jazz and other types of music -- he even recorded with MC Hammer and played in a Mahavishnu -Weather Report cover band.
TODD SICKAFOOSE lives and plays mostly in New York. He's recorded with several fine musicians and released his own CD, too. Sickafoose coordinated a vacation trip to the San Francisco Bay Area with recording with me in Berkeley at Fantasy Studios. He played wonderfully, in spite of catching a flu-like glarg thing from me and the drummer (it screwed up Todd's vacation and caused him to miss his good friend's wedding). He was gracious and philosphical about this, and after mostly recovering, hunkered down in the studio for a day of sweaty, inspired playing.
Dave Wellhausen is an excellent engineer with over 25 years experience, including a long period of owning and operating his own studio in San Francisco. He's recorded many big names. He also rips on blues harp and has recorded several of his own blues and bluegrass CDs playing harmonica, mandolin and guitar. Dave knows how to make it relaxing in the studio among all the gear. Davewellhausen.com
Audrey Heller took the CD cover photo (also used on the main Flash animated page of this website). Audrey is a professional and fine art photographer. I considered using another photo for the CD cover, but it was too scary for some people. The filing cabinet photo and alternate photo (Japanese hinge and red door) are copyrighted by Audrey Heller (© 2003 Audrey Heller) and used with her permission. Audrey Heller Photography
Alex Kopps did the layout for the CD. Alex tries to remain underground in the art world, but it's difficult for him since he has shows all over the world. He's one of my favorite artists.