Here is the Atmos Trio functioning as “The guys” in support of singer Cynthia Tarr. We’ve held down this regular gig in Glen Ellen CA at Olive & Vine for a couple of years and have developed a very enthusiastic audience there.
Here’s a fairly up-tempo tune that the band stretches out on a little. Good times!
This was filmed on a Creative Vado HD cam. Audio was EQ’d/ compressed using Ableton Live and video edited in Final Cut Express.
Here’s the classic “Cry Me a River” from my gig last Friday night in the California wine country. Glen Ellen, CA is home the the Olive & Vine where the Atmos Trio functioned as “The Guys” to singer (and wife to our bass player Cliff Hugo who’s currently rehearsing with Super Tramp for their European summer tour) Cynthia Tarr.
A few days ago I made my jazzified version of Led Zeppelin’s Rain Song available to my twitter followers in exchange for a tweet. I was thrilled by the number of downloads and positive reactions I received. You can still get the track for a tweet.
My biggest surprise came from Mike Conaty who, upon hearing the track, was inspired to film, edit and post this gorgeous video. It really captures the vibe of the tune. Thanks Mike!!
I always love it when these spontaneous collaborations occur. I hope to see much more of this in the future.
In 2006, the Atmos Trio released our first self-titled CD. On that album is a beautiful ballad written by our then bass player Jeff Obee called “Her Eyes.”
Around that time, in order to move music around the web, I used to have to store MP3s on my web server and link back to the files. A music streaming company has been leeching from my web server for years serving up the DEMO version of this tune to their listeners. It has received thousands of hits over the years. I saw no harm in this and took no action to stop it.
But it made me wonder if the demo was better than the “Real” version.
Here is the demo circa 2004.
Here is the officially released version.
Which one do you like better?
“Lembra de Mim” is a masterpiece-level composition by the great Ivan Lins. Our wonderful singer Cynthia Tarr wrote english lyrics to the piece and our version is “Think Well of Me.”
I play once a month with this group a the Olive and Vine in Glen Ellen, CA. If you’re fortunate enough to find yourself in the Sonoma Valley on a Friday night, come on by!
On February 5th, 2010, Steve Uccello & I performed an impromptu concert to an internet audience on my ongoing Ustream Concert Series. This collection of tunes documents that performance. This album is available exclusively here, at AtmosMusic.com and at our Bandcamp store.
Album artwork by Linda Palmer (www.ponor.info)
Steve and I met on twitter last spring. We organized and performed together at the Atmos Trio “Twitter House Concert.” Once he expressed interest in playing on my Ustream show, I didn’t waste any time arranging to make it happen.
The Ustream gigs have been the surprise of the year for me. From my home studio, I performed several solo guitar shows, and played host to special guests Damian Erskine, Todd Johnson and even broadcast some gigs from my group, The Atmos Trio.
Due to the regularity of the show, an audience from all over the world routinely returned, show-after-show. Among them is artist extraordinaire Linda Palmer. I had seen here wonderful artwork and I was thrilled when she agreed to contribute the album cover. She actually contributed many pieces, all of which are great. Please take in some of her fine work while you listen.
Here is a brief song-by-song reflection for those who were not present during the broadcast.
Song for Stasia: Originally recorded by Anna Maria Jopek and Pat Metheny, this Marcin Kydryński composition served as a beautiful vehicle for our musical simpatico. I put this chart in front of Steve and he’s sight-reading here.
Minor Matter: A completely improvised tune based on a minor blues form.
Alright Right Now: One of Steve Uccello’s composition. This is what I sounded like sight-reading Steve’s tune on this day.
Travels: A classic country jazz ballad by Pat Metheny. We tried to make this sound like we’ve been playing together for a long time–even though this session marked only the second time Steve and I had played together.
Autumn Leaves: A “Jazz 101″ type tune. All jazzers know this song. We called a tune and counted it off…
Tenor Madness: Contemplating Sonny Rollins on his blues classic.
On Friday, February 5th, 
Steve Uccello played bass with me during an impromptu Ustream concert.
As always, the show was super fun. Steve and I met when we organized and performed together last spring at the Atmos Trio “Twitter House Concert.”
We got together in my studio to play some tunes. I employed my Ustream rig which consists of the iSight cam on my MacBook which receives a nice audio mix from studio’s mixing board. I had also just received another HD camera as a gift so I had a 2nd video feed destined for YouTube. I also made a multi track recording of the show.
Upon reviewing what we had captured to disk, the music was deemed worthy to share. Just goes to show that a good sounding record doesn’t need to take a pile of cash and months to make. Just a couple of musos and healthy does of simpatico.
Please be sure to share this music with a friend.
If you would like to hear the rest of the album sooner rather than later, simply fill-out the mailing list form in the sidebar and you’ll be linked to an Exclusive Advanced Access Listener’s page.
Enjoy!
Album artwork by Linda Palmer.