Dialogues - my 2nd album out now!

Dialogues, my second album is a collection of songs that don’t belong in any one specific genre. Rather, I decided to present music that I love…music that moves me.  Like my 1st album, Dialogues reflects my various musical influences over my lifetime, from Rock and Pop to Jazz and Funk and also my love for motion picture soundtrack music.  Some of this record is a direct result of my emotions dealing with the 2020 pandemic.  Some of the songs are love letters to some very important people in my life.   I titled this album Dialogues because it features intimate, musical conversations with some of my favorite fellow musicians that I’ve worked with over the years.  I’m grateful to all of them!  The CD’s cover & inside artwork is by my amazingly talented mother-in-law, Carol Tanenbaum. These are original pieces of art for this album and I’m so excited and thankful to her!   The back cover photo has always been one of my favorite shots of me, taken by photographer Joel Lipton and I’ve never used it until this project.   This gorgeous CD layout is by another great photographer, my dear friend Rob Shanahan. Rob also took both the Joe Porcaro shot and the Sister Mary shot, on the inside sleeve. He really made my ideas for this CD package come to life!

Dialogues is available NOW on CD via my Bandcamp page, which includes the original artwork, album credits and photos of the great players who appeared on this record. EVEN IF YOU DON'T OWN A CD PLAYER - the CD also includes unlimited streaming of Dialogues via the free Bandcamp app, PLUS the high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. This is the best way to support you favorite artists - and YOU GET BOTH VERSIONS! From this link, click “Buy Compact Disc”:   Rich's Bandcamp Page

Dialogues will be available on all your favorite digital streaming & download services, the 2nd week of August.

Jonathan & I

First and foremost, my most immense thank you to my brilliant music partner and co-writer for many years – Jonathan Clark, for making these dreams come true.  He’s an unsung hero in this town and one of the best producers around.  A great composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, producer and engineer, Jonathan and I have shared making music for over 20 years now, beginning in Glenn Frey’s band and it just keeps getting better.  We did my first record Travels together and also are currently writing TV/Film underscore music together for the music company, Atomica (that’s a link to our new release Destinations, that we wrote for them).  Dialogues is something I’m so proud of and I’m truly honored to create music with him.  We co-wrote 3 tracks on this record – Breathless, Dialogues and Prayer for Sister Mary (Amazing Grace).

Into The Ether. As I did with my first album, I wanted this album to begin with my love for percussion…something that has been very good to me. This song heads up the musical dialogue concept on this album, with conversations between congas, djembe and cajon, with a loop as the foundation. I love the banter between my piano part and Jonathan’s fantastic guitar playing and solo. For all you drummers out there, the conga solo in the intro was played on Gon Bops’ wonderful Mariano Series congas and recorded with just one mic - an AT4050 large diaphragm condenser. I love these congas with natural, cowhide heads. They just record beautifully. One other cool thing - that erie squeaking sound just after the conga solo, was a bathroom door from a very old house in Florence, Italy where my wife & I stayed years ago. It was so loud and weird and I just knew I had to record it and would use that sound one day. We ran it through some great reverb effects to achieve the Ether vibe!

Judgement Day, Isolation, Drifting Away and Breathless. All reflections of my emotions in 2020 dealing with the terrible pandemic. I felt such a profound sadness for so many who had to deal with losing a friend or family member to Covid. Just the horror of dying alone or being the one who was prohibited from being by their loved one’s side, I can’t imagine this and my heart breaks for them. The bridge on Breathless was written and performed by Jonathan…just a gorgeous twist to my initial idea and then added a beautiful electric guitar solo in the outro. In the intro of Breathless, that strange metal can sound is the very cool Jamey Haddad Hadphoon instrument w/some effects. Love that thing!

Tollak

Bouncing Back. A happier reflection on our slow but steady return to normalcy, after years under the Covid cloud. On this song, I asked the amazing Tollak Ollestad to play the lead melody…I’ve always loved his playing from years back, when we toured in Holland with Venice. Tollak currently resides in Northern Holland - where he ended up staying after our tour there, some 20 years ago! He also recently appeared on the Dutch version of The Voice, where he placed in the top 10 on that hit show! So happy to have him on this tune, as he’s one of the best chromatic harmonica players on the planet!

Joe Porcaro

Ode To Papa Joe. My tribute to the late Joe Porcaro, who we lost in 2020. Joe Porcaro, simply put, was like a 2nd father to me…and my musical mentor. He was also my life mentor. Joe was the kindest man I’ve ever met and right up till has passed away at age 90, remained an inspiration and showed his love for not only the musical artform, but for every other person in his life. Joe made everyone he came in contact with, feel better about themselves. He took time with people. He was a rare soul and I miss him every day and am so thankful to him. He was one of the greatest drummer/percussionists in the history of music. This is my humble nod to his beautiful approach to the drums…and to his life. This song features my 1st music video for this album, currently playing on YouTube - you can view it here.

Frank

Ode To Papa Joe features Frank Coglitore on upright bass. Frank & I have played together for years on various projects, beginning over 25 years ago with Blues guitar-great Jon Butcher. In the 1st rehearsal with Jon, we discovered that we were from the same home town of Syracuse, New York! We’d never met before but discovered that we had many friends in common. Being from a small town like that and close to the same age, you’d think we would’ve crossed paths before but since that 1st meeting, we’ve been close ever since. Frank’s playing on this tune provided the perfect flowing foundation and interplay with my piano part.

Pete

Snail Chuggin’. On this tune, LA master percussionist Pete Korpela plays my simple mallet keyboard melody with a great feel. Pete & I initially met through our mutual teacher, Jerry Steinholtz, who taught a whole list of great other percussionists. When I was working for Paiste cymbals, Jerry told me about Pete and I signed him to his artist endorsement with that company. I’ve loved watching Pete excel over the years to become one of the top studio-call percussionists, having played many of Hollywood’s top film soundtracks. You’ve all heard him on something you’ve watched! Originally from Helsinki, Finland, Pete’s warm personality and great talent has brought him a great career. I’m honored to have him on this.

Joe

That’s Joe & I, left side of the photo!

The saxophone parts and solo on Snail Chuggin’ were played by one of my oldest lifetime friends, Joe Cafarchio. Joe and I have DEEP history. He & I were in our very first band together, in the early 70s – a 50s music rock band which we formed together right when “Happy Days” first aired. (yep – dating myself here!) Joe’s appearance on this song marks the 1st time that we’re on a recording together since that 1st band and after all these years and it’s completely thrilling and fun to have him on my 2nd album. When I wrote this song, I had to have his grease on it, as he’s the funkiest banker I know! This is such a trip for me to share this with him since we literally were just kids, when we 1st met. The stories I could tell! Joe is definitely the older brother I never had. That first band, called “Rocky & The Rollers” was really hilarious…kind of a spin-off of Sha Na Na. Check out this band shot, from the early 70s! Cracks me up every time!

Rich

Jonathan

Dialogues. The Title track is a meandering, haunted idea that came from Jonathan Clark, who initially gave me a loop with his beautiful fretless bass playing and I built the song around that, adding drums, percussion and keyboards…creating a musical dialogue between what we both played.

Mark

Flattening The Curve. After completing this composition, I immediately thought of Mark Harris and wanted his bass solo to close out the song. Mark and I toured for years with one of my favorite bands, Venice, from Southern California and he’s always been one of my favorite bassists and humans. When we toured in Europe together, I loved how we held down the musical foundation each night and shared great European cappuccinos in the morning…a tradition we still continue here at home. This song’s our 1st musical duet together. I’m always honored to share music with him.

Cathy

Frozen Teardrops. A fun surprise! A co-write with my dear high school friend, pianist/vocalist Cathy Rush visited me in my studio one day and this song began as just an improv piano thing she played. We were just messin’ around but I loved it so much, I built this song around what she played, adding percussion, synth strings and Jonathan’s lyrical bass part. So cool to share this with her, after all these years. We share a lot of history as she was my high school girlfriend Lynne’s best friend, whom we lost to cancer in 2011. To this day, I feel Lynne watching over us and my bond with Cathy is a testament to Lynne’s amazing life force.

Louise (Sister Mary)

Prayer For Sister Mary – “Amazing Grace”. My tribute to Louise Sferra, who we also lost in 2020. Louise was my Aunt Mary’s sister and was someone who was very special to me and my wife Carrie. Louise was our family’s spiritual center and a huge inspiration to us. When she was young, she was a Nun and went by Sister Mary but eventually left the order after seeing things that went against her own beliefs. She went on to counsel hundreds of people of all faiths, spreading love, education and basic guidance on how to be a better human. Louise was the closest person to a living saint in my lifetime and she was the one who married us on a breathtaking hilltop in Ojai, California. This song began with my piano melody and after Jonathan heard it, he brilliantly suggested pairing it with a counter melody of Amazing Grace, playing the synth violin to my piano part. It worked perfectly and made the tune for me!

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