Update: 4/11/08
My new cd with 16/NYC titled "Play That Thing" is now available for purchase at CD Baby.com, Amazon.com, and can be downloaded at I-Tunes and a number of other downloading sites. Links to vendors are in the "buy cd's" section.
Sound clips from four of the eight tunes on Play That Thing can be found under the "16/NYC" header. I also posted some pics from the Play That Thing recording session (Legacy Studios in NYC) in the "Gallery" section. Scroll down under the 16/NYC header to listen to clips from our previous cd "Castaneda's Dreams".
Once again it was a pleasure to record my music with a band the caliber of 16/NYC. The guys played great, we had a good engineer and studio(s), and I'm very happy with how our new cd turned out.
BIO.
After studying at Berklee in Boston -- composing/arranging with
Herb Pomeroy, saxophone/improvisation with Charlie Mariano and Joe Viola -- I moved to NYC in late 1971. I've been here ever since.
Over the years I've played with well known jazz groups such as
Clark Terry's big band, Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band,
Tito Puente, Lee Konitz Nonet, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Betty Carter among others. I've been fortunate to work with quite a few great players with a wealth of both musical and life experience. Rehearsing/working with fantastic musicians like Joe Farrell,
Jimmy Knepper, Snooky Young, Jimmy Maxwell, Jerry Dodgion, Charlie Rouse, Bob Brookmeyer, Marcus Belgrave, Frank Wess on various gigs in town and on the road has been - to say the least - educational and inspiring.
The creation and development of the internet has provided a new means for jazz musicans to get their music out to a wider audience.
To that end I've started my own independent label Glowbow Music, distributed through on-line vendors.
I started the first of my own groups in NYC -- a big band -- in 1974. Since then I've led a number of other groups (small and large), and I've been fortunate to have musicians such as Sal Nistico, Dick Oatts, Randy Brecker, Lew Soloff, Keith Copeland, Bill O'Connell, Joey Baron, Jim McNeely involved in my bands in addition to many other great NYC players.
Three of my groups are represented on the site so far, and you can hear sound clips from each group. Personnel for each group is listed under the group's heading. Click on "buy cd's" for links to vendors where you can hear more sound clips and purchase the new
Castaneda's Dreams cd. I'm still in the process of setting things up, but hopefully I'll have links posted in "buy cd's" for purchasing the Twelve On The Edge and Quartet-Live recordings soon.
My most recent project is a sixteen piece band called 16/NYC.
Our cd "Castaneda's Dreams" was released on Glowbow in July 2006. The music is all my own original compositions/arrangements and represents what I feel is some of my best writing. The band is comprised of some of the most accomplished and creative jazz musicians in NYC. They are all excellent soloists who have developed their own voices as well as superb ensemble players. Hopefully I'll be listing where you can hear us live in the near future.
The live Quartet recording was made in 2000, and is a purist/minimalist recording which utilized just one mic in front of the group. The result is truly representative of what you would have heard sitting in the front row of the audience. The music is a combination of my own original tunes and a few jazz classics. I'd say the music is primarily "straight ahead", with the emphasis on improvisation and interplay. I really enjoyed playing with such an empathetic rhythm section, and all three of them contributed great solos.
In the mid '80's I led an excellent twelve piece (fusion?) band creatively called The Rick Wald Band. The rhythm section was electric, included a percussionist, and provided burning time as well as smokin' solos. About half the charts are jazz 4/4 rhythm and the other half have a funk beat, but I'm not sure "fusion" adequately describes the music. It certainly ain't lame and boring "soft jazz" elevator music. We recorded my arrangement of Carol King's great tune "You've Got A Friend", and I composed the rest of the music on the cd. Yeah, this recording is over 20 years old, but it still sounds hip to me. Check out the sound clips and hear what I mean. The players were/are great, the band was tight, and the sound is excellent.
Well, check out the pix in the gallery and the sound clips from three groups. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you'll come back. See ya.
Rick