Number 69 May 1, 2011

I haven't posted in a while, because we've been so busy with The Valence Project and our first gig at Yoshi's SF.  All agreed it was a huge success.  With band members Brain, Kai Eckhardt, Emily Palen, Melissa Reese, Baron Shul and yours truly, everyone in the band had a blast.  It also gave us lots of ideas for the future.  We did video the performance, and also recorded it on a Korg DSD 1 bit machine, so there will be youtube footage and downloads for theose who missed the gig.  I'll be writing about a couple of great shows I saw last month in the next few days.

Number 60 December 25, 2010

A couple of weeks ago I saw the great John McLaughlin & the 4th Dimension at Zellerbach.  With Gary Husband  on keyboards and drums, Etienne M'Bappe on bass, and Mark Mondesir on drums, the group is one of the more fully realized electric bands John has had in recent years.  They play with a high degree of empathy and energy.  Like his idol, John Coltrane, John has always had an overtly spiritual aspect to his playing.  He is trying to take you somewhere.  My label, Valence Records had an ad in John's tour book, which was a thrill.  Kai Eckhardt , who has recorded The Search and Reincarnation with me, is also on The Valence Project.  And of course Kai played with John on the legendary Live at The Royal Festival Hall and Que Alegria recordings.

Number 38 April 14, 2010

We are mixing a new song for The Valence Project.  It was written and recorded the way we have been working so far.  Kai Eckhardt  laid down eleven bass tracks.  Then Brain recorded a drum track, also to 2 inch tape.  While he was looping the tracks in Logic, Melissa Reese and I were writing lyrics.  We often like to incorporate several themes and even points of view.  I had been speaking with her about the origin of the words thugee and hashishin.  Also, a freind had mentioned to me that men looked at her as if they wanted to put her in a cage and own her.  We spoke of some people's need to feel betrayed. All of these ideas somehow wound up in the song, "I Am Shiva".  Our producer Cookie Marenco has been invited to be an Artist In Residence at Indaba  and will be writing a weekly blog for 2 months on how The Valence Project collaborates in the studio.  The blog will be entitled "The Art of Collaboration".

Number 36 March 29,2010

Another wonderful week of art events.  Last Thursday we went to a performance piece by Krisztina Lazar at the Swell Gallery, an extension site of the Art Institute  , the REAL art school in town.  Krisztina, as you may know, did the cover painting for The Valence Project.  She was body painting and throwing herself against the canvas tacked to the wall.  Very edgey, and beautiful.  Saturday was The Merce Cunnham Dance Company at Zellerbach.  The piece was Cunningham's last, "Nearly 90" with music by John Paul Jones  and
Takehisa Kosugi.  One is reminded of the quote that "Talent does what it can, genius does what it must."
And then last night a benefit performance in a private home at the top of Belvedere for the Marin Symphony by my dear friends Caminos Flamencos.   Yaelisa, Jason, Felix and Fanny were brilliant, and stunning set against the bay and San Francisco skyline.  My only regret was missing Ralph Towner Saturday, but I guess even I can't be two places at once.

Number 31 February 18, 2010

Fear as a motivator.

Jeff Bridges was being interviewed by Charlie Rose a few weeks ago, promoting Crazy Heart. Asked if he was ever nervous while filming, he told the story of shooting a scene with Robert Ryan many years ago at the end of Ryan’s career. It was a western, and Bridges and Ryan were seated at a table for the scene. The crew had to wipe Ryan’s sweat off the table. “Still nervous after all these years Bobby?” asked Bridges. “I’d be really scared if I wasn’t scared” was the reply. “Of course I’m nervous”, Bridges told Rose. “You want to get it right”.

The great guitarist Pat Martino describes writing original tunes a few years ago. Having played standards for many years, he was afraid to write his own songs, and so he forced himself to do it. Humans maybe the only creatures capable of doing that which they fear, intentionally.

Emily Palen confided in me a week or so before we recorded her at Grace Cathedral: “I’m getting pretty scared”. Which I took as a good thing. When I mentioned the idea of a solo recital there as a cd release celebration, she said “That’s pretty scary. Let’s do it!”

The Valence Project recording was scary for me, working in a completely new, and experimental way. I think it has a great energy to it, in large part because the musicians were all in uncharted territory.

Number 28 December 7, 2009

Why I’m changing the name Rogue Records to Valence Records

I started my own label, Rogue Records, in 1981, after having been on the Inner City label out of New York. To me Rogue represented rebellion, and also possibly the Rogue River. From time to time, other Rogue Records have surfaced. (One, an LA punk label with an elephant logo, sent me nasty letters 10 or 15 years ago for a few months, until they went out of business). Recently I’ve noticed a few Rogue Records around the world. They must not do very thorough internet searches. Because I’ve been in international commerce with the name for over 25 years, my attorneys are confident I would prevail in any legal proceedings. But the name seems tired to me. The eighties to me were about rebellion; I see the 21st century as about collaboration and co-operation. But the final straw for me is the title of Sarah Palin’s book, “Going Rogue”. I will not have my record label name associated with a woman who shoots wolves from helicopters for sport. Hopefully the former governor and her husband the first stud will take their royalties and retire.

Gregory James

Number 13 September 27, 2009

“A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people”. Thomas Mann.


I’m very fortunate in that I’ve very rarely experienced writer’s block in music. (In fact the only time I recall was when my friend the producer David Kahne needed a song immediately – I think it was for Jorma Kaukonen. I came up with something dreadful, I think I called it “ Not Quite Magdalena (But You’ll Do) that we both agreed wasn’t usable. I rarely have entire songs come to me out of the blue, though. Usually I’ll have a phrase, and I’ll play it for a few days or weeks or months until the next phrase comes along. I write things that are easy for good players to improvise over; often a fairly complex head with a simple modal section for solos. Although I’m facile with words and am the product of a Jesuit education complete with Latin and Greek, I’ve always felt that I was not a good writer of song lyrics. Idolizing Jimmy Van Heusen and Cole Porter (as sung by Frank) and then Dylan and The Beatles, the bar was a little too high.

But on a new band I’m involved with called The Valence Project, I’m really enjoying writing lyrics. The players are wonderful. We have Brain on drums, Jon Herrera and Kai Eckhardt on bass, and Melissa Reese and Deborah Charles on vocals. We are recording in a very unique way. Brain will record a drum pattern to 2” analogue tape (I’ll suggest rhythms; a samba, something African, something in 6/8) and Brain will then download the drum tracks to his computer and start making loops. Borrowing an idea from Dylan’s last three recordings, I’ll suggest an old blues lyric married to a modern phrase to Melissa, and we massage the words around until we have something new. Some of the songs may be about two or more completely different things. The end result is something very fresh, and yet vaguely, or eerily familiar. It’s probably the most positive creative environment I’ve been in. Everyone is excited about being involved, and there are no pre-conceived notions.

Gregory James

Number 9 September 16, 2009

We are mixing our new band recording, The Valence Project. Duke Ellington defined success as “Doing the right thing, at the right time, with the right people”. All the musicians are world class. They are excited about working together. There were no pre-conceived notions of what it should sound like, and a very refreshing willingness to do new things. And they are lovely people, one and all. In life, in art, in love, the effortless is also often the most magical. (Although there were plenty of technical and musical challenges, it was emotionally always very positive and smooth). I have an almost superstitious idea that the order in which tunes are written (if they are written in the studio, which these were) and recorded is often the best order sequence for the finished recording. We recorded to 2” tape, and are mastering to ½” tape, so the sound is huge, and warm. We feel the tunes will lend themselves to multiple remixes; there are so many good performances on each take that one would be happy with five or more versions of each tune.

Among the players are Brain (Primus/Tom Waites/Guns N’ Roses) Kai Eckhardt (John McLaughlin/Wayne Shorter/Clarence Clemmons/Garage Mahal) Jonathan Herrera (Zigaboo Modeliste/Miguel Megs)

Deborah Charles, Melissa Reese, Enrique Padilla, Baron Shul (Indigo Swing ) and the mysterious Blu Cube.

Gregory James