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| All songs composed by Joe Smith except where noted. |
- Happy
- Ahora
(B. McHenry)
- Duet Now
- Sing a Song
(G. Valle)
- Lady Friend
(B. McHenry)
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- Motion of Slow
- Time
(B. McHenry)
- Nic's Nite
- Limpalong
- Sing a Song (Part 2)
(G. Valle)
- Funny Bunny
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Liner Notes Reviews
Produced by Joe Smith, Giulia Valle, and Bill McHenry.
Executive producer: Jordi Pujol
Recorded by: Jordi Vidal at Estudios Moraleda, Barcelona
Mastered by: Zeke Zima, Brooklyn, NY
Cover art: Georgia Elrod
Photography: Ariadna Sisquella |
Joe Smith
- Drums
Born in Chicago, 1971. Joe attended the Cincinnati Conservatory and
the Manhattan School of Music studying with Vernel Fornier, Jimmy
Lovelace, John Riely and Jeff Williams. During the 90's, Joe lived
in New York City where he was the leader of many groups featuring such musicians as Reid Anderson,
Ethan Iverson, Chris Lightcap, Jason Lindner, John Stetch and Ben
Waltzer.
In February 2003, Joe will be featured on the latest
recording of Jazz Legend John McNeil. Joe was also a founding member
of the African Funk group 'Fatima' and will be
featured alongside Jesse Murphy and Jorge Rossy on a new disc to be
released this spring. Joe is currently living in Barcelona. |
Bill McHenry
- Tenor Sax
Born in Maine, 1972. Bill attended the New England conservatory in
Boston where he studied with Bill Garzone, Dewey Redman and Jimmy
Juffry. Playing a major role in the New York City Jazz scene for the
last 10 years, Bill has been featured as a sideman on the discs of many great young Jazz musicians
such as Chris Lightcap, Reid Anderson, Ethan Iverson, Ben Waltzer,
Rebeca Martin, Guillermo Klien and John Stetch.
As a leader, he has
released two discs for the Fresh Sound New Talent label, both
receiving honors from the New York Times. Bill's latest disc
features jazz legend Paul Motion, Reid Anderson and Ben Monder.
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Giulia Valle
- Bass
Born in Italy, Giulia attended the
Liceo Concervatory studing with Enric Ponsa, Mario Rossy and Horacio
Fumero. In Paris, she studied privately with Francois Rabbath, and in
the last few years in New York with Scott Colley and Ben Street.
In
New York, Giulia has worked with musicians such as Jason
Lindner, Jeff Williams, Ben Waltzer, Gerald Cleaver and John Mcneil.
Giulia Has recently been featured on the discs of the groups
Micamale, Lindner-Valle-Ayza and the John Mcneil Quartet.
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Benet Palet
- Trumpet, Flute
Born in Barcelona, Benet is well know
for his very personal and natural sound and is a favorite of many
musicians from Spain and around the world. He has recorded and performed
live with Albert Sanz, David Mengual, Chris Cheek, Elizabet Raspall,
Omar Avital and Emilio Solla. He has played in all of the
major international Jazz Festivals in Spain and Europe. |
Joan Monné
- Piano
Born in Barcelona, Joan studied in
the Taller de Musics with Francesc Burrull, Inaki Salvador and Lluis
Vidal. For the last 12 years he has dedicated much of his time to
teaching in many of the best music schools in Spain, most recently in
the new concervatory in Barcelona, ESMUC.
He has recorded and
performed with the groups Alguima, Pep Callaghan Group, Carme
Canela Quartet and appeared in the groups of Dick Oatts, Don
Braden, Deborah Carter and James Moody. He also leads his own trio
and has released two albumns for Fresh Sound Records
featuring drummer David Xirgu.
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Buy "Happy" Now
at CD Baby
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"Happy" Liner Notes
- by Joe Smith
I met Bill McHenry in 1987 when we were attending the Interlochen
Arts Academy, an arts high school in Michigan. We played in a rock band together (our first rock experiences).
It was the start of a close friendship and musical connection that is still developing. In 2001, Giulia Valle
and I organized a tour in Spain, forming a new group with trumpet great Benet Palet and pianist Joan Monne.
Bill came over from New York to join us and the rest is "happy" history! We played 6 or 7 gigs featuring music by
Bill, Giulia, and myself and it felt great! We did it again 8 months later and recorded "Happy" after the tour.
The first track "Happy" is my tune, featuring a bossa-loo beat and a "happy" melody working around the Bass line.
This tune was very new to us in the studio (I had finished it a few days before the recording session) and has that
"new tune" energy. A great singing in Church solo by Bill.
"Ahora" is a free swinging tune Bill wrote the year before when he was playing in Barcelona. For those who don't
know, Ahora means Now in Spanish. Check out the trumpet. Pure music Benet!!
"Duet Now" is a tune based on the Slendro scale used normally in the music from Bali. Basically this tune is to
see what can happen creatively between me and Bill. The duet parts are totally improvised and Bill cues in the
band each time with a simple two bar phrase.
"Sing a Song" by bassist Giulia Valle is a simple melody that gave us a lot to work with. We played it very
differently each time in the studio and lots of great band interaction came out.
Joan Monne fell in love with Bill's "Lady Friend". We decided to record a few versions in trio without the
horns (and the composer). Left alone with her, Joan shows his power of directing a trio through intimate waters.
In the Spanish language many times two word phrases are turned around and the word "of" is placed in the middle.
"Motion of Slow" comes from my idea of a melody felt in slow motion. Its a peaceful melody meant to evoke the
sense of vast spaces.
In the period before our group was formed, Bill wrote a book's worth of beautiful melodies with chords. "Time"
features the melody playing over the drum's more or less constant beat. Everyone one is separated and yet we
all (the listener included) can feel the forward motion moving us down the road of time.
"Nic's Nite" was written as a Bass feature for a trio I had with bassist Nic Thys. We all got a chance to
blow on the free changes a bit here.
"Limpalong" is a funny little tune I wrote. Its meant to be nothing more than it is. A funny little tune.
We brought "Sing a Song" back again to say a few more words.
We had all grown attached to our "Funny Bunny", the first tune I ever wrote. It's a blues that we just had fun
on and seemed like a great way to end a disc with so many different styles.
It was a challenge to put together a CD that had a natural flow, considering that all of the tunes are very
different from each other. Overall, we start out grooving with energy and by the half way point are into
the peaceful OAMs of "Motion of slow" Then we gradually bring the energy back up to finish it.
A good friend,
trumpet legend John McNeil gave me a great compliment on the disc. He said ....."I like it, Joe, because it's not
boring."
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