'Santiago' showcases guitarist Clinton Carnegie's smooth contemporary jazz, fusion and World music influenced compositions. Featuring spirited improvisations soaring over dynamic grooves, fans of melodic guitar-driven music will enjoy the retro-jazz funk, legato fusion, lush acoustic and singing fretless guitar stylings. 'Santiago' features the astounding musicianship of Andy Peterson (electric bass), Stephen Rufus (tenor and soprano saxophones), Jeremy Monteiro (Rhodes and Hammond B3 keyboards), Clinton Harn (drums) and Reggie Perera (didgeridoo and percussion). Former Frank Zappa drummer Chad Wackerman guests on 6 tracks. Mixed by Guy Dickerson and mastered by Don Bartley at 301 Studios, Sydney. - Clinton's Comments on Each Track - Truth Be Told: A Grant Green meets Wes Montgomery soul-jazz tune. I’ve always had a deep admiration for Green and Wes. For this track I wanted to capture a vintage ‘Blue Note’ guitar vibe and feel and put it in a contemporary setting. I used my Gibson ES347 for this one. Soaring At Sunset: The melody and laid back groove of this song was inspired by the breathtaking orange sun that casts its radiant glow every evening over Sunset Boulevard CA. The Australian aboriginal didgeridoo adds an ethereal feel throughout the track and conjures images of Ayers Rock in my mind. I decided to use my Don Grosh electric nylon for this tune. Santiago: My visit to Fort Santiago in Intramuros, Philippines for the photo shoot for this album’s cover moved me deeply. An old Spanish military stronghold, Fort Santiago is now dedicated to one of the Philippines’ greatest martyrs Jose Rizal and his struggle against the occupying Spaniards. I tried to make the melody of this song reflect the struggle, martyrdom and ultimately, the Hope that Rizal had in his heart for his country. I used my Suhr Classic Strat with V60 pickups for this one. New One: I wanted to write something in a heavy New York fusion style so I enlisted the help of Andy Peterson and Chad Wackerman who really lay it down on this track. Stephen Rufus’ tenor harmonizes beautifully with the overdriven guitar on the melody. The Suhr Classic Strat again. Midnight On the Beach: A decidedly romantic tune, I wanted the electric and nylon string guitars to have a ‘conversation’ on this one. I used the Gibson ES347 and Don Grosh electric nylon on this track. Who Do Udu?: I broke out my old Ibanez fretless guitar for this track. I love the tone and almost vocal quality of fretless instruments, the Indian sarod in particular. Against the percussion of the clay udu drum, this is my version of ‘Western sarod’. This is a sound that I’m definitely going to explore more of on future albums. News At Seven: A respectful nod and a tip of the hat to one of my all-time favourite guitar heroes Allan Holdsworth. I used the Suhr Classic Strat on this one. The tune alternates between 7/8 and 4/4 time. Chad Wackerman smokes! Set It Straight: Certain experiences in life causes one to rethink things, especially when one discovers that certain people in one’s life are not all that they make themselves out to be. But rather than breaking ties and burning bridges, I feel that they are the way they are for a reason. I accept them and my door is always open to them. I based the contemplative melody of this song on my experiences. Q-Zambique: Frank Zappa had a term for the Billy Cobham fast and furious get-it-all in-2-beats multi-tom roll. He referred to it as ‘Quaalude thunder’. I was also always fascinated by Steve Gadd’s Mozambique pattern and how he used it so often in his playing. I figured that Chad Wackerman would be the ideal candidate to fuse the two, hence the title Q-Zambique. I used a Yamaha APX7 acoustic on this one. Gato: Dedicated to my late cat ‘Cat’ who was my house companion for a decade. The emotion I felt at the time enabled me to track this tune in one take at the first pass. I used my Tyler Studio Elite PV on this track. Truth Be Told - Paul T’s Club Remix: I’ve been a fan of Paul T’s remixes for a long time and I’ve been fortunate to have played on some of his projects. Its interesting to listen to one of my songs filtered through another person’s sensibilities. Clinton's Recording Journal I began composing for the new album 'Santiago' in January 2001. It was the usual process of throwing down as many ideas as I could in MIDI format into the Mac, letting them stew for awhile and later reassembling them into the initial drafts that became the tunes. In July 2001 I found myself in 301 Studios in Sydney with the awesome Chad Wackerman, breathing the very life of rhythm into those tunes. But we need to backtrack a couple of years, to when the seed was planted so that events could unfold.... Sydney, Australia, 1999 When I visited my good buddy Clinton Harn in Sydney in March 1999, we spoke often about getting the drum tracks for my next project recorded there. That way, we could take advantage of the talented pool of Sydney's established musicians, or to be more precise, Sydney's great drummers. A few names came up -- Gordon Rytmeister, David Jones, Chad Wackerman... Wait a minute, Chad Wackerman!? Having heard him for years on albums by one of my guitar heroes Allan Holdsworth, not to mention his stint as sideman to Frank Zappa, Harn could probably sense my enthusiasm brimming at the prospect. But when I came home to Singapore after a month in Sydney, I'd all but put the idea to bed. Something in the water here, I guess.. That is until I had the jones to compose and make a record again I called Harn in the first few months of 2001, telling him I had some new tunes brewing and asked if he would like to play on the new album. We had talked about collaborating for years, and this was as good a time as any. "And see if we can get Chad Wackerman to play on it", I asked nonchalantly. Harn sprang into action almost immediately and I soon got an email saying that Chad would like a draft CD of the tunes. Naturally, with Mr.Wackerman in mind, I went about composing a couple of 'fusion' ditties, one of them in 7/8 on the verses alternating with 4/4 on the choruses. I also wrote another tune in a latin-style entitled 'Q-Zambique', with a 32-bar tag at the end so Harn and Chad could perform a drum duet. The Session at 301 Studios, Sydney 2001 The drum sessions at 301 Studios took place on 3rd July 2001. I called Chad the previous evening to tell him I had booked a 14-hour lockout, starting at 10:00 am. "No problem, we'll be all set to play by 10:00", he said. I went down to the studio with Harn at 9:15am, walked through the reception area and to the studio. Chad's DW kit was all set up and he was tweaking his cymbal stands. Such professionalism was immediately reassuring. The session went extremely well. The 14-hour lockout included an engineer and an assistant to run ProTools. Guy Dickerson, who engineered and mixed The Chad Wackerman Group's 'Scream' album was on hand to get the best sound possible out of the mics on Chad's drumkit. During soundcheck Guy even detected a faulty overhead mic on the drumkit through the milieu of sound spilling forth from the monitors. Pretty good ears, this Guy. I knew I was in good hands on both sides of the studio glass. Throughout the session Mr.Wackerman was extremely focused and attentive to the minutest detail in the music. His impeccable time, groove and signature sound are hallmarks of a world-class drummer. Watching him play and hearing my tunes come to life was really awe-inspiring. The last tune we recorded with Chad was one I called 'Q-Zambique', a reference to the tune's 'Mozambique' rhythm pattern, and 'Qualude Thunder', a Frank Zappa-ism, which Chad told me was Frank's way of describing a Billy Cobham-style fast and furious multi-tom roll. But the drum duet idea with Chad and Harn never made it to the CD as it would have been an engineering nightmare setting up two drumkits with their numerous microphones. Not to mention being another absolute nightmare to mix the darn thing. It was going to have to be a Wackerman-only 32-bar solo. Clinton Harn was up next on the drum throne, with his gleaming black Yamaha Recording Custom drumset set up where Chad's kit sat just minutes ago. The mics were repositioned by Guy to compensate for the difference in tuning. Although a little anxious at first -- and what drummer wouldn't be, following Wackerman's authoritative display -- Harn quickly found his footing and really laid down the groove, with his own vocabulary of modern fills and ideas. Good on yer, mate! Aussie bassist Ralph Marshall showed up after Harn had finished his tracks. I thought it would be a fun idea to record Harn and Ralph as they played a free-form groove which I could later manipulate in ProTools and create a....ahem.... bonus track out of. Armed with several basses and an Eden amplification rig, Ralph proceeded to lay down some funky, percolating lines, ably accompanied by Harn who was probably glad to be free of the click track in his headphones. Great playing guys. The jam didn't make it to the album but you can hear the '301 Jam mp3' excerpt at the 'Music' section of my website. The Electric Water Studio Sessions, Singapore Back in Singapore, I began serious planning and scheduling. I brought the tracks with their new rhythmic additions and my guitar parts to Raymond Ng at Electric Water Studio. Upon hearing them Raymond immediately and very kindly offered the use of his studio for overdubs and mixing. Interestingly, ProTools had then just recently released a major software and hardware upgrade -- their 192-bit HD system -- and Electric Water had just acquired one along with a spanking new ProControl mixer. Then came the scheduling and recording of sidemen. Long-time Vicious members, saxophonist Stephen Rufus and percussionist Reggie Perera were the first I called on and what a great pleasure it was to work with both of them. I've known Stephen for many years and we have performed at many gigs and a few jazz festivals together so he was a natural choice for this album. I had in fact written some of my melodies based on his style of phrasing which is a very East Coast, New York-type sound. Although known primarily as a tenor player, he added hauntingly beautiful soprano saxophone lines to two tracks, 'Truth Be Told' and 'Soaring At Sunset'. Definitely an instrument he should take out more often. His muscular tenor tone on the fusion tune 'New One' doubles the guitars and beefs up the hard edged melody, topping it off with a well-paced, emotional solo. Thanks Steve! Percussionist Reggie Perera is probably best-known for his incredible skill on the didgeridu or 'yidaki'. An ancient Australian aboriginal instrument invented several thousand years ago, the digeridu is played with a circular-breathing technique producing a long, constant, undulating drone. In the hands (or the lips) of a masterful player such as Reggie, the drone is embellished with the sounds of the birds, animals, insects and other indescribable elements of the Australian outback -- put to great effect on the intro to 'Soaring At Sunset'. Elsewhere, his Brazillian-based percussion style peppers the album, adding little textures at every turn. Turn up those headphones to really hear him in action! Then came the critical factor of the bass parts. I had spoken to bassist Ralph Marshall at the 301 session and he was very keen to fly to Singapore to lay down tracks. Unforeseen costs, unfortunately, ate into the existing budget and put an end to that plan. I wasn't sure who I was going to call to fill the all-important bass tracks. As we were tracking saxophones, Stephen Rufus mentioned former Asiabeat bassist Andy Peterson, commenting on his great feel and impeccable sense of groove. Stephen handed me Andy's business card, which he happened to have in his wallet, and I called Andy the next day. Andy is based in Malaysia and makes occasional trips to Singapore to play on sessions. As luck would have it he was going to be in Singapore for a week, rehearsing for a well-known Hong Kong artist's Canadian tour. He requested I make a cassette copy of the tunes and mail it to him so he could learn his parts. Over a period of 3 nights, after his 10am-7pm tour rehearsals, he would come to Electric Water Studio where we were tracking. The first thing he would do upon settling down before every session was to change strings on his 5-string Status Empathy bass, saying that new strings recorded better -- somebody get this man a string endorsement quick! Interestingly also, the charts I prepared for him lay on the mixing console untouched as he had memorized all his bass parts from the demo I had sent him! It was great watching him play as I recorded him to ProTools. Standing **barefoot** in the studio control room, he would lay down his lines with incredible feel and authority and then want to do them again, saying he could do better. He also seemed to dislike punching in, preferring to lay down the tracks in one continuous take. I'd learned a long time ago that if there were enough available tracks, to never delete or erase any good takes. I proceeded to 'collect' 3 or 4 great takes for every song to see what I could do with them later. "Gimme me a second Andy, and let me open another track for you." I thought it would be a good idea to ask famed local jazz pianist Jeremy Monteiro to guest on some cuts. I figured it would also be something of a longshot as he was in the midst of preparing for a concert with Toots Thielemans and was also shuttling between Singapore and Chicago where he was working on his own album. Amazingly enough, he agreed and taking time out from his already packed schedule, added his masterful touch to two cuts, 'Midnight On the Beach' and 'News AtSeven'. In 2002, master remixer and groovemeister Paul T invited me to play on his debut CD 'Steppin' Out'. The track turned out great with my archtop jazz guitar overlaying melodic lines on a modern dance groove. So great that I had to have me one of my own! I thought 'Truth Be Told' with its retro Grant Green-style would be a prime candidate for a remix. Paul is definitely a remixer with an identifiable style and sound -- detailed, multi-textured and dynamic, he creates a story that gradually unfolds taking the listener on a sonic journey. Great stuff! The Mix In August 2002, Australian veteran engineer Guy Dickerson flew to Singapore to mix the album. His 'ears' of experience in the studio were apparent from the first day of mixing to the last. His creative choices, some of which, I admit, were unusual to me at first, made perfect sense at the final outcome. I must say that I learned more by watching this master mixer at work than on any other project that I have been privileged to have been a part of -- no offence meant to anyone reading this. The Master At Guy's recommendation, final mastering of the album was done by Don Bartley at 301 Studios mastering facility. The entire ProTools mix was transferred to 1/2" analog tape and then channelled through Don's analog mastering gear. When the audio was finally transferred back to the final CD master, the analog stages, particularly the initial 1/2" tape transfer added incredible warmth and depth. Journal Coda The creation of an album involves a collective of individuals who get together with a common musical goal, offering their time, talent, skill and artistry. I am indeed blessed to be surrounded by individuals who care enough to contribute to my projects and I hope that, when it is time for theirs, they will ask me to do the same. Thanks guys!