This week’s post isn’t going to have a lot of commentary since my computer is acting like Tito Puente beat on it like a rented timbale. I’m phone blogging, but since I’m working on a little screen I figured I’d post about a big band a Big Phat Band to be exact.
Gordon Goodwin is a composer, arranger, keyboardist, and sax player and he assembled Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band. I’ll let him explain it.
I assembled what would become the Big Phat Band in mid 1999 with the intention of recording a record and nothing more. I wanted to document the music I was writing for the big band genre, but no way did I want to hassle with doing live gigs and all the logistical problems and phone calls and…no way. But around the time of the release we got a call to play a concert at my alma mater Cal State University Northridge. I remember some of the guys had doubts we could even get through a whole concert of the charts I had written. But we did, and not only did the audience love it, we had a blast. For a bunch of session musicians, playing for a live audience again was intoxicating. It reminded me of why I started playing music in the first place, because the life of a session musician can get to be fairly isolated. You rehearse the cue, record the cue and move on to the next, and you don’t hear it again until the film comes out months later. But here you had a live audience, reacting in real time! Not only reacting but interacting with the musicians! So, with that fun experience resonating in my mind, I started to dip my toe into the water and attempt to get some gigs for the band. Which was easier said than done. But little by little we built the organization and the band slowly started to congeal and get a sound of its own, a sound based on the talents of these fine musicians and whatever assets I could bring to my charts.
The bottom line is these guys are probably the most talented, elite musicians you’ve never heard of individually. All of them in one band is something really special.
Here they are with special guest Arturo Sandoval (one of the greatest living trumpet players, if not THE greatest) and as always the Spotify playlist. Enjoy.
- A Tale of Revenge That May Have Inspired The Statue of Liberty - February 6, 2019
- Tom McGuire & the Brassholes’ Debut Album Body-Slams You With Glaswegian Soul - February 1, 2019
- Monday Mop Up: Explosive West Coast Funk from ORGŌNE, Irish Country, Cannibal Rockers, and some Wunderkinds - January 28, 2019
