H i Friends,
It’s a day at the beach and the current soundtrack is Billie Holiday’s masterpiece “God Bless the Child.”
Back in the early days both my brother Tripp and I grew up with a father that was completely into jazz. Miles and Coltrane and Stan Getz were on the main menu but he would sometimes stray to other more modern groups that had jazz and rock built-in. One of the records that stood out was Blood, Sweat, and Tears with a recording of their version of Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child.” It’s a great arrangement that starts off with a semi-classical introduction and then gets into this gospel groove for the main body of the tune. From there it launches into a Latin flavored solo section and then eventually returns back to first the gospel vibe and then finally the classical exit. It’s a brilliant way to showcase the song and this was the model that we use for our version.
Today our new single vid-song of “God Bless the Child” makes it’s way into the world. Rebecca is sounding so good and the way that she bends notes and adds riffs to the already gorgeous melody is just fantastic. Tripp on sax carves some beautiful lines!
This performance first appeared on our Episode 6 Live(ish) from SpragueLand livestream and here is the link for the whole show.
the group:
Peter Sprague — guitar
Rebecca Jade — vocals
Tripp Sprague — sax
Mack Leighton — bass
Duncan Moore — drums
For live music this week we’re pointing the cars to the south to play a concert at the Pacific Beach Library on Saturday June 29 at 4pm. It’s me along with maestro Fred Benedetti and Mack Leighton. It’s free and it’ll for sure be fun…
That’s the word for now and thanks for tuning in… best, Peter