It’s the first Sunday of the New Year 2008 and I gave myself a personal deadline to get another article out to my readers. When thinking of what to write I shifted my thought waves to my early days in the recording studio. I thought… what were some of the albums I was listening to when I got to New York? And what album did I pack in my luggage and continued listening to after I settled in …

I listened to a lot of jazz oriented material and Tony Williams’ Album The Joy of Flying was one of those albums that was on the plane with me on my move to New York City … So I loaded some Williams tunes on my MP3 player and got on my treadmill and started to think about ...

Long Island City, Queens, 1979

It was early in the evening and my turntable skipped yet again as another subway screeched by. I lived just a few feet away from the Flushing line in New York and the clanking of steel wheels was a common resonance...

I was blinking with pain as I stared at Bruford’s One of a Kind LP as the needle on its arm slid from the beginning of the vinyl to the end and then lifted up and went back to its seated position. I guess I’m going to have to get into cassettes because these trains are killing my LP’s and my routine meditation.

I had passes to see Tony Williams at the Bottom Line and I was pretty excited. The plan was for me to meet my drummer friend from back home at his rehearsal studio and make our way down to the village and then go to the club.

The sound of squeaking bed springs complete with lustful moans would set the background tone at my apartment. My upstairs neighbor was home and she was working … Boy she sure got into her work I thought. I must admit listening to her work and those trains going by had its interesting moments at times.

Several months prior I lucked into a gig at an upcoming recording studio. They were expanding and there was plenty of opportunity for work. I did everything from scrubbing toilets to eventually working on some pretty cool sessions. I would often stay there for days on end. I got paid by the hour and the hours I accumulated were massive...