Operation 365... Blog 317

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Archives - 323 Paul Lopez and Friends "South Bay Boogaloo Blues" 12-3-2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRRvNutA5Z8


Here is another song from Paul Lopez Music group's set on December 3, 2009. I was a huge fan of the short-lived band. Who knows? Reunions happen. I miss my friend Paul Lopez. He is a fabulous musicians and I always enjoyed his company. I hope this finds him well.

Lopez is joined by Paul Ruiz on trumpet, Mikey on drums (I don't know his last name), Soul Man on guiro, and "JT" Jim Tuggey on bass. I don't know Mikey very well, but JT, Ruiz, and Soul Bro are as cool a 3 dudes as you're ever gona get. Doing music with individuals of this quality of character makes making music an honor, a pleasure, a privilege and a treat every time.

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Covers - 323 "Super Freak" by James and Alonzo Miller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=400xmEdTkb0


"Super Freak" is a pretty universally adored tune. I had never played it before, but it is very fun to play, I learned quickly. Rick James is funky, or was funky and the Charlie Murphy skit about him on the Dave Chappelle Show was really funny. Funny and funky. "I'm Rick James" ...sir.

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Originals - 323 "Independent Girl"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At0MozHRIPM


So yesterday, I was feeling gung ho poochie, in the afterglow of discovering that my friends' Lauren and Jeremiah had adopted a second pooch, a 2-month old boxer named Rosie. I recorded a couple of tunes saluting pooches and then I set about recording a pooch-related archive. About an hour later, I have put together this "Independent Girl" video , atribute to my bestest friend Angel. Angel is 11. She 3/4 lab and 1/4 border collie. I grabbed all kinds photos taken throughout her life and put them together with this tune I recorded long ago, when I was coming to terms with the fact that "Angel does what Angel wants to do."

The story behind this song is pretty interesting. So a number of years ago (2003? 2004? 2005? It was shortly after that huge tsunami in Phuket.) I was exploring methods to bring my music to a whole lot more people. I came upon a company called Taxi designed to help get independent artists' music in the hands of movers and shakers. I went to this convention they held called The Road Rally. It was alright. The best part about it was the chance to connect with some of my peers, so we could all commiserate about the uphill climb of the unsigned artist. I liked most of the folks I met a lot. Probably the coolest part of the whole thing was meeting Shawn Kilroy, an interesting artist from Philadelphia. We became fast friends and concocted a plan to meet up in Jersey and do some recording together.

It turned that we had my mom's whole house to ourselves for a weekend and we decide to challenge ourselves. (Think Operation 365.) Te challenge we created for ourselves was to record to a whole CD with all new material, start to finish, during this roughly 36-hour period. We started. Shawn did the heavy lifting early, producing beats and other parts of songs. He pretty much produced the whole thing actually. I did the lion's share of the writing. I was a bit distracted by a lady friend early on, so I got busy later. No pun intended. Late that night, I wrote a handful of tune, including this here "Independent Girl."

36 hours is 36 hours, but I was very proud of what we accomplished. It was fun too. Tere were lots of different kinds of tunes. My pal, Spencer Katzman guested on a couple. So did the legendary Carlos Comitini, The Mack Daddy. So, I never play this song, but I think of it from time to time and I am proud of the loving retrospective it's provided here on the first 11 years of Angel's life. It was a blast working with Kilroy, We named the band, which has just that one CD to its credit, Jefferson Kilroy and we named the offering, "The New Jersey Sessions." Out of respect and appreciation for Mr. Kilroy's indispensable efforts on the expedition, I stuck a picture somewhere in the middle of him sitting at a computer working on these tunes.

Angel has a million nicknames: Ange (pronounced Ainge), Strange, Strangel, Angellica (her whole name), Strangellica, Flizeppo, Strangellina, Strangellina Jolie, Poochesa, Jackie, Blackie, Sweetie-Pie, Poocherella... No matter the name, I love her the same. She has been my best friend and a never-ending source of love the entire time. I am so proud of her. She has been a great dog for quite awhile now. She is my best reference, my Ambassador of Love. Playing ball with her always makes me smile and when I'm sad, there is no one more comforting to cry on. Unconditional loving everybody always is highest height we can hope to achieve on this plane. Many humans can't even conceive such a way of being. For my dog, it's just another day of being Angel.