A DAY IN THE LIFE-Creative Coalitions' 2000 Spotlight
Awards, November 13, 2000
by Rob Mullins
Sometimes things happen at the last minute.
Sometimes they are good. Sometimes they are not so good.
The Creative Coalition 2000 Spotlight Awards was one of those things
that was
not only good, it was very good.
I arrived in New York a day before the rest of the band on Saturday,
November 11.
I had a chance to see some friends and enjoy warmer weather in New
York than that I had
left in LA (that was a first) and the Italian food in New York seems
to always taste better to me
than even that of Italy itself.
Miles and the rest of the guys rolled in at about 6 pm on Sunday November
12 and we headed over to
SIR New York for rehearsal about 8 o'clock. I knew this was going to
be interesting because
the band had been described to me as the best of New York and the best
of LA.
When I went into the studio to fire up the gear and meet the east coast
guys I was pretty thrilled to find Will Lee on Bass, Tom (Bones) Malone
on winds and brass (the guy from the Blues Brothers), and Jerry Vivino
on sax (Conan O'Brien show). Steve Ferrone (drums), Miles Joseph (guitar),
Skunk Baxter (guitar), Lee Thornburg (trumpet), Gavin Christopher
(vocals), and myself represented the west coast in the group.
The LA guys had all flown in on different flights and arrived at the
studio at different times. These days everyone is so busy, its common for
none of us to see each other while traveling and end up meeting at the
rehearsal spot for the first hello of a trip.
After warming up a bit, the band started getting hot when we got into
Gavin's material. Will Lee was just kicking serious butt and making jokes
while doing so...my kind of guy. Ferrone's pocket was just stupid, as it
always is. Miles was flawless as per usual. And instant horn arrangements
by three of the best studio pros in the world certainly didn't hurt anything.
It was a lot of music to think about....Paul Schaffer was doing a duet
piece with McCoy Tyner which needed bass and drums. Michael Bolton had
sent a cd of his tracks and we had five tunes of his to learn, not knowing
which ones we were going to do on the show. Gavin's stuff was a combination
of everything from Marvin Gaye to Isley Brothers, to his own stuff.
Then there was my version of Chamelion to show everyone. It was a full
night. MORE
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