Richard Smith Takes The Group Approach To 'Chillharmonic'
Guitarist Richard Smith assembled a who's who of Los Angeles musicians to record the ensemble CD L.A. Chillharmonic, featuring the current single, a version of Stevie Wonder's "Boogie On Reggae Woman."
Featured on the CD are bassist Brian Bromberg, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, percussionist Alex Acuna, keyboardist Jeff Lorber, pianists Patrice Rushen and Greg Karukas, trumpeter Greg Adams, and saxophonists Gary Meek, Michael Paulo, and Eric Marienthal.
Smith, also a professor at the University of Southern California-Los Angeles, says that in writing and orchestrating music for so many top notch players, he had to focus on the strengths of the musicians. He explained: "When you're doing something artistically, one of the things I tell my students is, do it for somebody else. If you're making a record, make it for your mom or your dad and take yourself out of the equation. Duke Ellington did this as well. When he wrote pieces he thought of the members of his band. And he wrote things, just either subliminally or overtly, for specific musicians. "
He continued: "Here I am surrounded by these amazing cats that I've been working with for years, Brian and Jeff Lorber and all these guys who give me this kind of imagery musically. And so I decided to follow my own advice, and I stopped thinking guitar and I stopped thinking about what my sensibilities are and I started thinking, well, is this guy gonna have a lot of fun when I get in the studio with him. So I made each tune sort of a little feature statement for those guys. And I guess that's why it kinda sounds like there's a group ownership to the whole thing."
Smith's L.A. Chilharmonic ensemble performed this past weekend at the JazzTrax Catalina Island Festival in Avalon, California.
Listen To Richard Smith On Writing For Member Of The Band:
Listen To Richard Smith On Writing For Members Of The Band 2:
Guitarist Richard Smith assembled a who's who of Los Angeles musicians to record the ensemble CD L.A. Chillharmonic, featuring the current single, a version of Stevie Wonder's "Boogie On Reggae Woman."