Giocoso: News

You know, within the jazz community of players, there is often a lot of trading off of players between bands. It's great to not have an attitude of competition between bands, but a willingness to experiment and share, and experience the different chemistries that different combinations of musicians bring to a project.

Alfonso Garcia (bass) and Dave Gruber (keys, leader) were recently invited to join in on a recording project called, "Project Seven" spear-headed by gifted drummer, Yasmin Wevers. Yasmin is a gracious woman who loves God, people, and jazz. On July 17, 2006, 5 players (Dave, Alfonso, Yasmin, Ed Peffer (sax) and Randy Penland (guitar) assembled at The Drum Lab <http://www.thedrumlab.com/home.html> in Lake Forest, Orange County, Ca. to record 3 tunes. They were: the standard, "Little Sunflower" (complete with a section that went Samba on us!), "Cold Duck Time" (saxophonist Eddie Harris's tune), and "Napoleon For A Day"(a bluesy, jazz line by guitarist Randy Penland. We experienced a wonderfully inspired session with the help of owner/engineer, David Demeter and his very helpful assistant John Murphy and drum tech (as well as budding bassist, Katje Blue). The only drawback was ending at 3:00 a.m.!!!! ouch! But it was worth it! I can't wait to hear the mixes. In a couple of weeks when Randy comes back from his "reserves" service stint, we'll go back and lay down another 4 tunes to round out the project.

Recently, Dave Gruber's composition, Aerobic Tune was chosen to be included on an upcoming CD by saxophonist, Norm Douglas. Norm is currently recording it in the San Diego area with Jeff McCullough producing.

A "number" of years ago, Dave was subcontracted to work on an aerobic video that was to be an auxiliary accompaniment to the "Thighmaster"® exercise apparatus. (You may rememer this springy, "V"-shaped thing with the blue foam padding and red plastic spring cover in the middle. Nope? Ok, guys. Maybe you remember Susanne Sommers? Yeah. I thought that would jog your memory! She was the one in the commercials.)

So, to make a long story even longer; Dave was hired to compose music for the "high impact" video, while project supervisors, Joey Arreguin and Mark Vincent composed the remaining 10% of the music, plus ALL the music for the "low impact" video.

"There was this one segment of video," Dave Gruber writes, "...in which the aerobic instructors did a particular exercize for something like 7 measures of music. Most music comes in 8 measure sections, so writing to that section was difficult. To accomodate the odd numbered measures, I used a sort of 'out there' turnaround to get back in sync and have the section end where it should and not sound TOO weird. When all was finished I liked the composition well enough to use it in Giocoso. In fact, I even liked the weird little turnaround, and opted to leave it in the tune. For me it has become one of the unique earmarks of the song. I've always liked writing tunes with something a little different than what everyone else is doing."

See the "links" section of this site for links to Norm Douglas's site and Jeff McCullough's.

Recently, Giocoso did a concert/talk at "Beatitudes Of Our Lord" elementary school in La Mirada, Ca. It was for 5th thru 8th graders, many of which had NEVER heard live music of any kind before. What a blast. They loved it and we did too. Here's what music teacher Lynn Kaiser had to say:

"Dear Mr. Gruber and the members of Giocoso:

Thank you for your wonderful performance for the 5th – 8th grade students at our school today. The students were very excited as they left the concert, having just experienced a live music performance, many of them for the very first time. The instrument demonstrations were highly informative, as well as thoroughly captivating…the students were absolutely fascinated by the different styles, techniques and instruments of each of the performers and didn’t realize how much they were learning, too! We also appreciated your willingness to answer their questions about the performance and working together as a group. Listening to each other and “staying out of each other’s way musically” was an enlightening perspective on the cooperative nature of a musical ensemble that I don’t think they had thought of before and brought a new respect for those groups that are successful.

The teachers who attended the concert were as enthusiastic as the students and praised the educational, musical, interactive and witty elements of the performance. They were grateful that they had the opportunity to see the show.

Thank you, again, and I hope we have the opportunity for your group to come back again next year."

Sincerely,

Lynn Kaiser
Music Teacher