First is "Ridin' The Main Line." This is a bebop-blues tune I wrote in tribute to Roy Main, the man who taught me to play the trombone. I'm so incredibly grateful to him. He changed my life.
Trombone: Dana Douglas
Trumpet: Mike Rocha
Tenor Sax: Jacam Manricks
Guitar: Barry Finnerty
Piano: Joe Gilman
Bass: Ben Kopf
Drums: Tim Metz
The second tune is "Oblivion." This is a last minute substitution miracle. I had worked out a great arrangement of this tune with just me and a wonderful guitarist, with his absolutely gorgeous sounding Martin guitar. We spent a couple months working it out. I was so excited about recording it. But the morning of the session (which we had scheduled specially, just for the guitarist), he called in sick and said he couldn't make it.
So, I obtained an arrangement for trombone, cello and piano, and my (jazz) pianist and a cellist who was there for something else jumped in, and we all sight read the "replacement" arrangement. I'm grateful to those guys for filling in at the last minute and doing such a marvelous job. This isn't the unique guitar and trombone version we had worked so hard on, but I'm happy with this one. I suppose it was meant to be! Maybe I'll get to do the guitar version some other time.
Anyway, Oblivion is offered in tribute to Frank Rosolino, who fought pain, desperation, and hopelessness for as long as he could. Most folks play this tune haunting and cold. I tried to make it more melancholy than haunting, and more warmly reminiscent than cold, because that's how I feel about Frank. Here it is.
Trombone: Dana Douglas
Cello: Jia-mo Chen
Piano: Joe Gilman
Last, and probably least, is this third tune called, "Funk For St. James." I offer it in tribute to James Pankow, trombonist for the rock band Chicago, who was such an influence in my life. In my youth I was a huge Chicago fan, and Jimmy taught me that trombones can actually play hard rock!
And it was a childhood dream come true when I was able to record an album with Jimmy and Chicago as an adult. In fact, the very last gig I did before taking 30 years off from music was with Chicago, so they are a big part of my musical life.It's not much of a tune, frankly. And it's definitely the shortest. It's basically one lick repeated a few different ways, with "sneaky" solos (that's what the composer/arranger/pianist wanted), in-between. So, here is Funk for St. James.
Trombone: Dana Douglas
Guitar: Barry Finnerty
Piano: Scott "Scootie" Collard
Bass: Ben Kopf
Drums: Jeff Merriweather
