VIDEO

With Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s 1999 Super Bowl Halftime performance with Stevie Wonder and Gloria Estefan

With mPhaka playing “Brevity”

My other passion project is a band called mPhaka, we made a record in my home studio in 2019. It was all recorded live with no overdubs. Here is a video of us recording “Brevity.” For those counting, the beginning features a section where the band is simultaneously playing 15/8 over 13/8. Our record is a collection of odd meter tunes that are surprisingly accessible given the complex meters. You can check out the entire album for free on our website at mPhaka.com

Transcription of Walt Fowler’s Trumpet solo on Frank Zappa’s Dupree’s Paradise on the album “Make a Jazz Noise Here”

One morning back in 1991 I was driving to school at Santa Barbara City College, and playing a cassette that a good friend, that knew I loved Frank Zappa, gave to me. Frank Zappa's "Make a Jazz Noise Here." I was hearing it for the first time and this solo came on. I was blown away by this solo for so many reasons. The speed of the groove, that it's in 5 ....or 10/8..... or a bar of 2/4 and a bar of 6/8 alternating, depending on how you'd like to count it.) But more importantly I was blown away by Walt's sense of time and how he was able to phrase so cleanly at such a ridiculous speed. And how his phrases seemed to dance over the shifting downbeat. Then I totally obsessed on this solo, rewinding it so many times that I was eventually able to consistently hold the rewind button exactly long enough to get to the beginning of Walt's solo again. I played it every day going to school for some time and I kept thinking "I should transcribe this solo. Fast Forward 30 years and I finally got to it. How's that for procrastination? It took being stuck at home for a year for me to finally do the work, and it was a lot of work. Writing it out certainly took a while, but playing it enough, so I could play it at the speed of the original solo took a LOT more time. It's certainly not perfect, but I'm ready to let go and work on another transcription. (Especially after looping certain licks for 20-30 minutes with my slowdown app, and finally getting them clean, and perfect, only to realize that I was still at only 80% of the normal break neck speed. ) I don't imagine this is anything less then super human to play on a Trumpet, but one things for sure, some of the altissimo passages are virtually impossible to play on a tenor sax at full speed. (At least with where my technique is at today.) I would dare to say that there are few mortal human beings that could improvise a solo like that on Trumpet besides Walt Fowler. Especially with his laser precise phrasing

KArl With the Simon Philips’ Band

Funk Covid video Collaboration projects

With Iggy T and the Crazy Makers

With Hans Ottsen Quartet

November 2015