| Hello there!… This is IT! It is FINALLY here, my all new, all improved web page. Thank you all for your patience and no!…it was not due to some malfunction of your PC (thank you for admitting that you ARE a PC user!) but only to procrastination on my part. That being said, thanks, really, for hanging in there. I hope this new site will be worth the wait. Here is a recap of the episodes you have missed! The beginning of the year has been MAD crazy. In January, we started recording the new trio record with David Finck, Scooter Warner and Goh Hotoda co-producing and mixing. This is tentatively called “Body & Soul” or “The Body and Soul Sessions” or whatever…we are open to suggestions. This is a self-produced album that will be available strictly on line for the first 1000 copies and until we secure some distribution in various countries. So we need all the help we can get! 6 tunes are done, 6 more to be recorded in the next few weeks to be finished by July. Please check out the few sound clips from it. I worked on a record with Japanese artist Nokko called “Inventions & Sinfonias”. Not only was it a fun record to make and nice music, but it also was the inspiration and the harbinger to make my own record and create my own label. That is what Nokko and her husband, Goh Hotoda, have started since their first album. They have done an amazing job with this and I urge you to check their cool web site:http://www.nokko.jp. |
 With Kelly At Valerian Studios working on a commercial |
In February, Windham Hill released an album called “Cinema” and I did a track on it, “The Summer Knows” from the classic Michel Legrand film score “Summer of ’42”.It featured my dear friend and outstanding Emmy winner composer Jeff Beal on fluegelhorn and was mixed by Goh Hotoda. Michel Legrand told me that he found my version of it “delicious” and asked for Jeff’s number!…
In January, the Trio performed as we often do at the Kitano Hotel. We had some dear musician friends in the audience: Michael Davis, Bill Evans, Randy Breker, Jeff Golub, Thierry Arpino…
David Scooter and I played on a Sega soundtrack for an upcoming game. I also arranged the strings for it.
In February, I played on my dear friend Marc Antoine’s album (don’t know the title yet). He lives in Madrid and I did all my piano and Rhodes parts in New York, thanks to modern technology! It’s a really cool record and Marc is a great player. Check it out!
I also arranged a couple of tracks for “Pop Idol” runner up and everyone favs Latoya London, produced by my dearest friend and brother Narada Michael Walden.
I played on a couple of gigs with Jeff Golub’s band at the Metropolitan Café and the Berke Jazz Festival. Ron Jenkins on bass, Shawn Pelton on drums…”que demande le peuple”!
I did a stint on the new Rod Stewart album (Great American Songbook IV!)…still Finck on bass!
And…on my birthday, I got an official missive from the French Minister of Culture and Communication informing me that I had been “elevated” to the rank of Chevalier des Arts & Lettres (that’s Knighthood to you!). Made me eat all the bad words I ever said about France… When I told my dear friend Jean Claude Mézières (famous artist of legendary French comic hero Valerian, a long standing source of inspiration for my music) about it, he snarled back at me:” So?…I got MY medal in 1985!!! Shut me right up!
Speaking of Valerian, my first Windham Hill solo album by the same name which has been discontinued for some time is now available for download on iTunes. I am really happy about that for all the email I have been receiving from fans of it looking for it.
In April, the trio was back again at the New York Kitano Hotel. It’s always fun to play there and see our friend hanging out. Check out the Kitano Hotel’s web page for their upcoming events.: http://www.kitano.com.
David Fink Shawn Pelton and I played on the Dave Koz upcoming album of standards produced by legendary producer Phil Ramone.
Still that month, I appeared on an upcoming episode next season of reality tv hit show “The Apprentice”. They had an A-list team of musicians at hand which included Omar Hakim, Shaun Pelton (again!), James Genus, Tom Barney, Jeff Mironov, Bruce Flowers and Rodney Jones. The great Kevin Killen was on the faders!…
Warner France invited me to Paris to tape and interview for the upcoming re-release of the Claude Nougaro album I worked on in 1988, “Nougayork”. A special re-issue ot that album plus the follow-up, “Pacific”including a DVD of a live show at the Zenith as well as footage I recently discovered of the recording sessions will come out in early June. Check me out in tight jeans and long hair!
Well, I’ll sign off for now. Hopefully, there’ll be more to tell next month…unless the phone stops ringing!
Philippe
| 2005 Philippe Saisse |