Hey web-land! What's up?

Been very busy on projects and thought I would drop in with a quick update.

I did get the horn parts done (5:30 AM Sunday) and delivered for Shannon Kennedy's new CD. I don't know if she really cared much for parts of them, but I did my best and she can use what she wants and change it up if she needs to.

In other news - a new My Space page is pretty much done and up at mySpace.com/gregvailsax. There is 8 full tunes in the player to listen to from a couple of my CDs and pics and all that other My Space stuff, so check it out when you get a chance!

Other tasks this week included David Pack sessions for an Ambrosia re-make CD. This took 2 full mornings and was probably my hardest session in over a decade.



David is a wonderful guy and a very talented musician. The fun came in the task and process.

The task was to play the old hits that Ernie Watts played, exactly like the original tracks. Not a problem I thought since I love Ernie Watts playing and have listened to him for years now. I also had played with David Pack for a while and thought I knew the songs really well.

What worked live did not fit the task for these sessions. I needed to play the exact thing Ernie did, recreating his soul yet being convincing. Attitude, feel, sound, expression, amount of vibrato on this note and swell on that. It was the hardest anybody has worked me in years. I don't work that hard on my own CDs.

I am always looking for a 'great performance'. This needed to be his preformance. I did 2 of the big Ambrosia hits and spent to long session days getting very little air time in the finished product. Even after all the time, further study on my part and long sessions, it is still not "perfect".

I don't know if the last session would have ever ended with the exception of my schedule requiring me to get out to get my daughter from school. I think they have dozens of takes and will get what they needed in the final product, but dang it kicked my butt.

As always, I tried my best and really hope they can use and end up really liking the tracks we recorded!

In other news - got the My Space thing rocking and have been tryin g to get busy with YouTube. The reason I had a minute to post here was my buddy Gordon Rustvold had to cancel on an editting day this morning. I hope to get some live jazz club video up on You Tube and My Space soon, but we have to get it all ready. Stay close for more once it is online!

Well, a few more pics from the Runners from the Bash and I'm out --





The Runners have there 2007 BASH Page up now! Click Here for more BASH 07 Pictures.
Bash Pictures on the KSBR Site - Click Here.