Working with Horns

The last time I worked with a horn section was high school.  In truth Lora-Faye and I had wanted to get a horn section on the “Flood Waters Rising” album but there’s only so much you can do at one time, particularly with a comeback album, so we ended up canning the idea.  In the time since that was released I did a lot of woodshed listening: BB King’s “Live at the Regal,” Albert King’s “Born Under a Bad Sign,” and T-Bone Walkers “T-Bone Blues.”  So for Whelan’s upcoming CD “The Story of Ike Dupree” I was ready to for a horn section again.  This past August I reached out to funk, R&B, soul & jazz legend Fred Wesley and he agreed to take on 8 of the album’s tunes, from arrangement to recording session.  NYC-based Jazz trumpeter and arranger Ron Horton agreed to take on 3 more from arrangement to recording.  We already premiered all the horn charts live at the West End on 10/18.  They’re phenomenal.  What a pleasure working with such giants of brass!