John Basile - Undercover (2014)

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John Basile - Undercover (2014)

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Recording cover tunes employs it’s own set of challenges in order to achieve any real lasting interpretation of the original.
In the jazz context perhaps even more of a dilemma as many pop songs don’t contain sufficient harmonic material - the palette most jazz musicians rely on to allow for any meaningful improvisation.
On “Undercover” we tried to glean material from the 70’s and early 80’s that offered up combinations of great melody and chord changes as well having the advantage of familiarity to the listener.
We hope this collection captures a spirit of reflection but also looks ahead as a modern and contemporary statement both musically and technically.

The advantages of recording guitars and MIDI tracks in Apple’s DAW Logic X provided both opportunity and challenges for this project.
Multiple live guitars along with MIDI tracks all programmed from the guitar represented the rhythm section. These tracks were married with drum/percussion loops and subsequent layers of live guitar improvisations.
We hope the results reflect both the musical surprise and integrity evident in both an improvisational context combined with the magic of true 21st century digital recording software.

(John Basile)