“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!
Here’s another quick preview peak into a project I’m wrapping-up. This an excerpt to a rough mix–just to show you what I’m up to.
“Reptile” is basically a funk tune. The instrumentation is a little different in so far as the rhythm guitar part is played on a steel-string acoustic guitar. The solo is my old work-hourse frankestein ’80’s-era Strat.
This track features my buds Joe Shotwell on drums and Jack Hines on bass.
Having just received my nylon-string guitar back the repair shop from my man Gary Brawer, I was excited to get back to work on some projects requiring this instrument.
I love playing this guitar, this excerpt from an upcoming album provides a glimpse into why.
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 February 5th, Steve Uccello and I played a lovely duo set together during one of my LIVE Ustream Jazz shows. Afterward, it was discovered that we had apparently just recorded a live album. That alone is pretty special. Add to that the wonderful album art that UK artist Linda Palmer contributed to the project and you have a full-on internet-fueled collaboration.
…but there’s more.
Rather than simply announcing to the world that there is this album can be had at a “Pay what You Want (even nothing)” price, I decided instead that I would make the new album available only to a small set of friends on my mailing list. I linked them to a private password protected site here on my blog. Anyone already on the list or who cared to join, would then be encouraged to share their thoughts on the music and share the music itself with anyone they like.
The response was quite a surprise.
Within 3 days, my mailing list grew by nearly 30%. The number of people who listened to the music during this pre-release was far and away more than during any promotion that I have done thus far (by a margin of ~500%).
…and the album has yet to be released.
Pretty cool huh?
Coming Tuesday, March 9th, Live Stream Jazz: Rob Michael & Steve Uccello
If you’d rather not wait, you can still gain early access by joining the mailing list.
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.
Bassist Todd Johnson joined me last Thursday on my Ustream Show. He’s a master musician and a super sweet guy that I’m happy to count as a friend.
Here we are having a musical conversation on Luis Bonfa’s Manhã de Carnaval.
Rob Michael has been “Living the Dream” of an active professional musician and has enjoyed a very successful private teaching practice in the San Francisco Bay area.
He leads the instrumental Jazz group: Atmos Trio.
