Album, "On A Journey, Ailing"

Wataru Uchida - tenor sax, Fima Chupakhin - piano, Oleg Osenkov - upright bass

Album “THE HEART INTACT”, recorded on open reels. A diamond needle cuts the groove on the mother disk. It’s an old school vinyl production process. Wataru Uchida - Tenor saxophone, Noah Haidu - Piano, Kenny Davis - Bass, Mark Whitfield Jr. - Drums.

Title tune of my new album. This is an old school one-room recording project, like those from the first half of 20th century. I imagined a story to write the tune. In the dark of early morning, some kids, about 8 years old, sneak out of their houses and get together to do something bad, like drawing graffiti on dogs in the neighborhood, and go back to their beds before sunrise and they can't wake up when moms call them for breakfast. Vanderlei's drum solo is the scene that kids run to their houses about dawn. And the coda after that was the sky turning the color from violet to orange.  Tune ends with a rooster's crow. I hope you'd like the tricky Brazilian rhythm.

The pianist, Abelita Mateus, had been playing this tune more than 50 times with me before the recording. She suddenly changed the harmony of the intro and said 'Oops!' after the roll. Itaiguara, bassist, said 'well, it fits!, and I said 'oh, it's alright! Never mind!' I think the interaction went quite well on this tack. It's a footage video of Predawn Shenanigans Club Recording Project. My friend, DooSoo Dooks Kim, shot the video on March 30, 2015, at Eastside Sound Studios, NYC. The sound of this video is not mastered. Please check out my new CD for the better sound!

This is my laid-back tune in 13 beats, Bed-Stuy Lullaby. The day of the recording, I saw the pianist, Abelita Mateus, playing this tune for a while to warm up and I asked her to take the first solo. And it turned out very well. we played this tune twice. It's the first take. The CD is available now. Please check out the banner!

A day I had a gig in Harlem, my guitarist was driving us from Brooklyn to the venue. We were stuck on traffic and very irritated. It was rainy and, in the middle of the way, we saw a huge rainbow over Harlem. I was inspired by the beautiful view and I wrote this tune. At the 10th bar of this tune, it changes into 7/4 samba feel and that projects the feeling I got when I saw the rainbow. First half is in tension, second half is a kind of happy. This video is the first take of two takes we played at recording and it's rough on the edges. But I love the energy. Itaiguara, on Bass, is very strong and Vanderlei, on drums, shows his creative idea in this take. Abelita is wild as usual.