Since its release the Vegas Breeze album has become a listener favourite on Jazz stations around the world, especially the stand out track “When In Rome”. 

Talking about Rome, we thought we would be touring Europe with this album at this time. 

Since the whole world is grounded (again) for the moment I felt releasing a new track and video would be the best way to bring more music to our fans around the world! 

For those paying close attention our focus on Vegas Breeze was to find unusual songs from the showroom era and chose material from beyond the regular Rat Pack repertoire.  (Creating an “Alternate Vegas Playlist” if you will!)

That led to a really fun period of research, discovery and exploration for myself and the band! 

FINDING THE SONG(S)!  

You know when you are kids (before legal age) you hang out in each others houses a whole bunch (Whoever had the best basement!)   In fact it was while playing records in the basement of a friends house I came across a Nat King Cole song that seared itself into my memory-  The melody was bluesy and swaggering, the lyrics smart and sexy, the arrangement, played by Count Basie’s band, so fun and swinging!  
Although it the album was out of print and unavailable for decades. (There are some advantages to streaming services!)  
Searching for the song I came across another tune, a delicious ballad written by one other than Mel Torme with the same name!  How strange and wacky was that?

TWO SONGS IN ONE! 
The new release “Welcome To The Club” combines the two little known songs, one recorded by Nat King Cole and the other one written and recorded by Mel Torme, (both with the same title!)..and sits firmly in the tradition of the “sophisticated swinger” giving advice to his fellow “loser in love”. 

Working closely with my band on the Vegas Breeze project (Micheal Shand, Russ Boswell and Al Cross) we experimented with arranging the two songs together and it felt like the most natural thing in the world! 

The joining of a tradition “bar stool ballad” with a swinging Vegas “showstopper” seemed to cover all the Vegas traditions at once! But what was really incredible is that BOTH lyrics give advice to a fellow “swinger”after being screwed over by a cheating lover! Perfect for our Vegas Breeze album” 

Cant wait for folks to see the Video Dropping Jan 21st!

A few words about The End Of A Love Affair. 

What attracts a singer to a song? Is it the melody, the lyric, the overall mood, or perhaps the emotional resonance of another artists performance?   With "The End Of A love Affair" it is for all of those reasons  that I was interested in working on my own version for the Vegas Breeze album. 

Certainly this little known standard written by Edward Redding lands firmly in our #BeyondTheRatPack concept of avoiding the regular Vegas playlist.  Many fine versions exist including by Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra but its actually Johnny Hartman’s 1956 Bolero version (which switches to a waltz on the bridge!)  that made me excited to try it myself. 

What happens when we are suddenly alone at end of a love affair? We may drink to much, we may drive too fast, we may talk too loud. But hopefully were still in the game-hoping to love again.   There’s such a perfect beauty to this classic saloon song, the listener never drowns in the emotion but stay buoyed up in its mood of sophistication and intelligence. The rhyming scheme alone makes the singer of this song sound “world weary and wise” rather than broken & desolate. How grown up and true to life experience.

Like all the tracks on Vegas Breeze the arrangement for this song started life with the band in our weekly creative sessions long before we hit the studio.  When we landed on the slow sensuous Bossa feel the vocal seemed to land for me. Once pianist/arranger Michael Shand worked his magic re-harmonizing the verses I felt we’d deepened the languorous mood and really put our own stamp on the song. 

After laying the bed track with the trio (including Russ Boswell on Bass & Al Cross on Drums) and getting that  classic Bossa Nova feel on guitar with Rob Piltch the next move was to bring in master trumpet man William Sperandei who’s soulful playing makes this essentially a duet between two heart broken guys, all surrounded by Don Breithaupt's deliciously silky & smooth string arrangement.

The final results perfectly expresses the kind of mid century torchy “cool” that I was hoping to create on the Vegas Breeze album. 

Have a listen here folks: Spotify:track:7EqZm9hnuIHWL73unAsRI9 

Finding the songs for the Vegas Breeze album has been a gas. Searching meticulously through the canon of late 50’s early 60’s Pop has meant hours and hours of enjoyment, discovering lesser known material of the classic showroom era.

It was an interesting time for song craft in that most of the hit parade was generated from Broadway and Hollywood, where songs from musical scores made up the mainstay of the pop charts. Its not a generalization to say that meant a more sophisticated sense of lyric and melodic structure in that pre-rock n roll period. (No wonder so many of the Jazz standards have their genesis in the Musical Theatre tradition!) 

Our first single having been the Frank Sinatra classic “Thats Life”,  I knew it was important to look beyond the Rat Pack tunes (which are sung so often and by so many) on the rest of the collection. So I went deep diving into the repertoire of other Las Vegas entertainers such as Nat King Cole, Mel Torme, Judy Garland, Tony Bennett and Ms Peggy Lee.  In fact our 2nd single “When In Rome”, written by Cy Coleman & Carolyn Leigh (Witchcraft, The Best Is Yet To Come etc) was first recorded by Peggy Lee in 1964, although it is the Barbra Streisand version (released the same year) that I was most familiar with from my families record collection at home. A fresh “self-empowered” approach from both ladies suited the song well, however When In Rome didn’t officially enter the “jazz” canon until the Tony Bennett included the song in his collaboration with Bill Evans in 1975. 

Arranged in collaboration with my stellar band Michael Shand, Russ Boswell & Al Cross, with the notable addition of Rob Piltch on guitar, we settled on a breezy Bossa Nova arrangement with strings (with a beautiful arrangement by Don Breithaupt!), for that “international playboy” approach, after all When In Rome is essentially a very smart and sophisticated “cheating song”. 

I believe the NY Times said it best ; “When in Rome” has lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, Coleman’s greatest collaborator and the only major American lyricist whose bon mots consistently match Cole Porter’s in capturing an attitude of jaded sophistication fraught with heartbreak. The more pain is exposed, the sharper the wit that covers it up”.

Ah yes that mid-century American attitude- Jet setting to the tune of international infidelity! LOL

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Frank. Although his phrasing, choice of material and superb arrangements are impeccable, the standard bearer of mid century pop artistry, his macho swagger and tuff guy personality has always turned me off the music. 

His whole “Rat Pack” act may have defined a kind of “screw the establishment” hipster attitude at the time but Frank’s definition of “masculine cool” seemed   hopelessly dated & old school by the time I started listening. Even his softer more vulnerable love ballads suffered from our knowledge of his treatment of the opposite sex. 

When looking at material for the upcoming album “Vegas Breeze” It was pretty deep in the process before I realized that we needed to include at least one well known Sinatra tune in tribute to the great contribution he made to the American songbook. 

“Thats Life” was the first Sinatra tunes we tried and ended up being one of the last tunes recorded for the album.  A late 60’s hit for Frank that I had previously only known through Aretha Franklin’s 1967 incendiary version. Apparently Frank hated singing the song ( because of it’s “loser” narrative) but because audiences always requested it he was forced to keep the song in his live sets. 

Looking to create our own “Micah” version of the song, the band (Michael Shand, Russ Boswell and Al Cross) and I experimented with playing the song at breakneck speed and that “go for broke” tempo seemed to express the songs hopeful spirit the best! 

Im really happy with the power and punch that our arrangement delivers! LOVE what having the full horn section and the back up ladies does for the whole vibe-like you’ve just stepped into a classic era Vegas showroom in full swing!

The Band upstairs at The Jazz Bistro in Toronto

I knew the new album was going to consist mainly of existing songs that I have long wanted to sing but when we first started working cover tunes into the live shows I still wasn't sure which direction the album was taking. It was Russ Boswell who called it one day in rehearsal, remarking that all the material I was bringing in felt old school Vegas showroom tunes!

That was an important moment in helping me focus the song selection! Russ (bass) and Michael Shand (piano) and I dug in on the arrangements around my piano for a few months before taking them to Al Cross (drums) over at the Cherry Jam rehearsal studios (Room #4!) and locking in the grooves. We took the time to dig and pull apart the arrangements many times, making sure we had tried all of the material out live, so that when we hit the recording studio, this music was already deep in our bones.

Recording session at Union Studio in Toronto

Recording "live off the floor" with engineer John Beetle Bailey at the helm, we cut bed tracks at Union & Revolution Studios in Toronto, setting the instruments up so that we could all see each other and play together as a band. Thats long been the traditional way to record Jazz and I've always appreciated the extra prep time that it takes to make the tracks feel "alive" and "in the moment"

 My deepest and ever-lasting thanks to Michael, Russ and Al for their musical contribution. The musical personalities of each of these players is embedded deep inside of every track on this album. Thats the delicious result of having a consistent band of top level musicians to work with....  

 The results speak for themselves. Cant wait for you to hear this music!

    Its really exciting when you meet a new musical soul mate. It has long been my dream to work with horns and thanks to Master Arranger Don Breithaupt (and his awesome taste!)- Vegas Breeze now features an all star horn section!

Have a peek at the video about and you'll see Don conducting the horn section through a tune. It was magic to hear his charts unfold with such incredible attention to detail and such deep musicality!

 Pictured are Don and myself with Jason Logue(Trumpet), John Johnson (Tenor),Vern Dorge (alto) & William Carn (trombone) Talk about your All Star Horn Section!  Cannot wait for you to hear this music!

Why have the entertainers that worked the strip during the classic Vegas era held our attention all these years? While working on my new album and creating the new concert evening “Micah Barnes At The Sands” I have been thinking about that question a whole bunch.  

 It feels like the answer lies in what Vegas has represented in our collective memories all these years. 

 It’s certainly fun to imagine Vegas crawling with swingers out for a good time, theres an argument to be made that Vegas was where the American personality and culture found its greatest expression! In fact the romance of that bygone era with its atmosphere of sin and smoke and sex seems like the last time we were classy and lowdown at the same time, especially as we look back through the prism of decades of loosened morality, shorter hem lines and a much more casual approach to night life.  Now “dressing up to get down” is a quaint look back at another era. Back then it was an expression of sophistication! 

 For many decades we looked back at that “Mad Men” moment in the 50’s and early 60’s as last gasp of the old guard before a younger generation toppled the establishment and took over the pop cultural landscape.  The teenage revolution that gave us Elvis, The Beatles and The Supremes seemed to suddenly make Frank Sinatra your father’s music, but in fact there was a time when The Rat Packers were the hip new thing!  

 Frankie, Dean and Sammy encapsulated a fascinating moment of masculine cool and non conformity that expressed a new kind of new swagger that poked fun at the rules of the old establishment. But back when Broadway shows and Hollywood movies still gave us our hit songs the heppest cool cats and chicks of the day like Judy Garland, Lena Horn, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett and  Mel Torme played the Vegas showrooms on a regular basis. 

 It’s been an awesome adventure uncovering some of the lesser known songs from these great entertainers and finding my own way to express that exciting moment in time when the biggest names lit up the big showrooms of Las Vegas!

Nothing compares to the thrill and creative energy when an artist is taking new music to the recording studio.  

My band, Micheal Shand, Russ Boswell and Al Cross and I have been developing arrangements for a new batch of songs which we will be testing with live audiences throughout the recording process. Thats what worked so well for me while writing, arranging and recording “New York Stories” and I wanted to follow the same approach with this new batch of tunes. The major difference is that whereas New York Stories was made up of original songs paying tribute to romance and The Big Apple, this new batch is mostly comprised of cover tunes. 

Touring across Canada with NY Stories I’ve had a chance to “road test” a whole lot of the new material. However last spring when I was still struggling to figure out the “spine” of the new recording I had a revelatory moment while thinking about the “stories” these new songs seemed to be telling.  More about that later down the road but suffice to say once the new album had landed in a focused direction making decisions about which songs to try and include started to become easier and thats when I knew it was time to begin the process of readying the music for the studio.  Starting over the summer the band and I got together for arrangement sessions and this fall we’ve begun cutting tracks “live of the floor” at Union Sound Company downtown Toronto. 

We’re also doing a series of Ontario shows to put this new music on it’s feet in front of the public. Check the website for dates and venues!  Its the audiences  who told me which songs belonged on New York Stories and this time around it’s no different! 

Birdland is a famous jazz club in New York City located at 1678 Broadway at 44th Street. Owner Morris Levy rnamed the club Birdland in honor of Charlie “Bird” Parker and it is that club after which this classic Jazz standard of the Bebop era was named.  The legendary venue continues to book the top Jazz acts today, and with it's lushly appointed booths and classic look serves as throw back to a time when nightclubs were  where you found the sophisticated elite of society.

 Jazz Pianist George Shearing, composer of “Lullaby of Birdland,” first played the venue in 1949 the year that it opened.  In 1952 Levy decided to have station WJZ in New York broadcast a disc jockey program from there, and he asked Shearing to record a theme song for the show.  For weeks Shearing tried to come up with something but to no avail. Suddenly one night in the middle of dinner he jumped up, went to the piano and wrote the whole thing in about ten minutes. The pianist explains, “Actually quite a lot of my compositions have come this way--very slow going for a week or so, and the finished piece comes together very rapidly, but as I say to those who criticize this method of working, it’s not that I dash something off in ten minutes, it’s ten minutes plus umpteen years in the business.”

Somewhat later George David Weiss added lyrics to the tune, and Sarah Vaughan recorded it in December, 1954, for Mercury with trumpeter Clifford Brown. It was one of her biggest hits and became a standard in her repertoire. Being one of the first Jazz standards I attempted to learn as a young teenager, Ive always appreciated both the songs Bebop style melody which manages to nicely pay tribute to Charlie Parkers inventive playing style and to the simple poetry of the lyric, which is both imminently singable and emotionally engaging.

 I'm including Sarah Vaughan and Clifford Brown's classic version of "Lullaby Of Birdland" here for those who haven't heard it!

Audiences tell you what they like. You just have to listen. 
Many years ago while living and making music in LA a friend took me to a Frank Black concert at the Troubador a legendary venue on the Sunset Strip and I learned a really valuable lesson. Frank Black (the founder and frontman of the hugely influential band The Pixies), tours new material for a year before stepping into the studio to record.  Working out the kinks in front of his die hard fans allowed him to hit the studio ready to record material that had been already lived in and worked out in front of audiences instead of second guessing brand new arrangements.   

Thats how I approached the making of New York Stories, testing each "chapter" of the story in front of live audiences at the Jazz Bistro in Toronto and at venues across the country before cutting songs live off the floor with the trio. The audiences tell you what they like if you are listening and so of course I was able to shape and reshape the album long before stepping into the studio! It worked so well that I'm planning the same approach on the next recording! 

Performing  the"New York Stories" material across the country I have been working cover songs into the set to help communicate the vast musical history of New York from Uptown Jazz and Broadway to Back Alley Blues and Doo Wop. The songs that have gotten the most response have stayed on the set list and Ive brought those tunes home to my trio in Toronto for us to work out the arrangements in advance of upcoming shows where we will test out the tunes some more! 
 Songs by Tom Waits, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, Mose Allison and Laura Nyro are all getting their moment to "audition". It's surprising what material is getting the most response, the little known Marvin Gaye tune "The Bells", an old Harold Arlen tune covered by Sammy Davis Jr  from the show "St Louis Woman" called "AnyPlace I Hang My Hat Is Home" and of course "A Sunday Kind Of Love", (an old pop standard that became a Doo Wop hit before Etta James shaped it into an R&B classic)  

The music will be Crowd Sourced in that we're taking our cues from the audiences favourites,  
so come out and make your choices heard!  
The musicians are listening! :)