Greetings Good Folks!
Jobim is filling the morning with supreme groove and clever chord harmony. Joao’s on the guitar and Getz’s delivering an array of notes that last in one’s memory forever. Oh how I love Brazilian music!
And that’s what’s on the menu for this week’s Live(ish) From Spragueland — Peter Sprague Plays Jobim.
“Estrada Do Sol,” the road to the sun, is our path to the enlightened music of Antonio Carlos Jobim. My dad had Jobim’s bossa nova on the turntable and as a kid, even in the trenches with rock music, Jobim’s music touched me deeply. There’s something magic about the rhythm of samba coupled with the harmonic wealth of jazz that seduces the ear and makes us live upgraded lives. Listen to “Corcovado” and tell me there isn’t divine beauty hovering in the air waves.
For this livestream we explore the full spectrum of Antonio’s vast wealth of songs including, “Agua De Beber,” “Wave,” “Waters of March,” “Girl From Ipanema,” “Desifinado,” “One Note Samba,” and the list goes way out to outer space. I’ve even put together a few medleys that touch down to various gorgeous locales of Jobim – dom. Almost hilarious!
The band includes some of the best with Allison Adams Tucker on vocals, Tripp Sprague on sax / flute and piano, Mack Leighton on bass, Duncan Moore on drums, and Peter Sprague on guitar.
It’ll be a hoot and we’re even doing a CD giveaway so be sure to sharpen up on your Jobim trivia.
Price of admission? Actually the concert is free but we will have a “virtual tip jar” complete with PayPal, Zelle and Venmo info for you to donate whatever you feel good about. Also good old snail mailing checks works too. We’d love for this to work out too.
Paypal: petersprague@sbcglobal.net
Venmo: @PeterSprague
Zelle: peter@petersprague.com
mail checks via snail mail to: Peter Sprague
311 East Glaucus St.
Encinitas, CA 92024
Link to concert
Exploring out to the recent video-sphere, these projects surfaced and they might be fun for you to jump in on:
Leucadia
I live in Leucadia which is the hippy sister city to a still fairly liberal Encinitas. Both towns are located on the coast in southern California near San Diego. Surfing is a big deal here and so is music.
Back in 1977 a 16 year old flower child named Diana Monzeglio wrote a folk anthem for her beloved town. It’s a good tune! Fast forward to the present, my neighbor and friend Tony Kranz introduced me to the song and funded a Sprague-ized recording to capture what Leucadia looks and sounds like with a little jazz fairy dust sprinkled on it.
I recruited Mack Leighton on bass and Sylvia Lindsay Lange on vocals for our new version. It turns out that Sylvia was friends with both Diana, the song writer, and Tony, the producer of this project, as they all attended San Dieguito High School at the same time. I went to San Dieguito too a few years before them.
With so much synchronicity flowing what could go wrong?
A lot went right and a ton of fun was had.
Can’t Find My Way Home
A little while back we played a livestream concert featuring the music of Cream. It was a great show and this version of Eric Clapton’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” was a real highpoint of the concert. Leonard was transfixed and singing some of his best notes ever. Check out the vamp section at the end where he’s improvising. Wow!
To check out the whole concert go here…
Mudra
This was such a cool surprise! A few months back we produced a livestream for the Del Mar Foundation and it featured a fantastic vocalist from Long Beach named Christine Guter. It turns out she also teaches vocal jazz at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach. She told me that one of their current projects was to make a recording and video of a song that me and Randy Phillips wrote called “Mudra.” The song is complete and it’s such a thrill to hear this new interpretation! Beautiful and uplifting! Young musos—the hope for the future!
That’s the story for this week over here at SpragueLand. In case you we’re hoping for a surf report, the conditions are stellar and there’s a little swell running so after I finish the gig email and practice Jobim notes I’m heading out to the wild blue. See you soon!
adios, Peter