My Musical Tastes

My musical tastes run along traditional lines. I like ballads and Broadway show tunes but I also like some country music and good old rock-and roll. I’m not much into classical music and opera (with apologies to my intellectual friends). I like Latin music (especially Brazilian Bossa Nova) and jazz (if it doesn’t get cacophonous). Basically, a song for me has to have a well-defined melody and I’ve tried to follow that dictum whenever I write lyrics or create music.

My Song Collaborators

Since I don’t play a musical instrument I was obliged to rely on talented musicians to provide me with music. I’m very grateful for their collaborating with me and I’d like to acknowledge them. I worked on two or three songs with both Heather Griffin and Jack Lane and there was also one song supported by music from a rock band in Atlanta called Ultra Max. By far, my greatest collaborator and long-time songwriting buddy has been Chuck Graham. Together we've created at least fifty songs.

On our first collaboration Chuck Graham and I produced an album called Spirit’s Got Me (available on iTunes). It’s a CD of “Christian Jazz” songs. I never thought a guy like me would find myself working with such a genre, especially since this was to be my first collaborative effort, but we were both very pleased with the result. We also worked on a musical called Ulysses Goes Home (based on a play by the Spanish author Antonio Gala) and, who knows, some day it might be staged.

Chuck also wrote tunes for five songs for a second musical called Fontana (which, who knows, might also be staged some day). In addition, we’ve put forth joint efforts on quite a number of ballads and jazz tunes.

I am also very grateful to three marvelous female vocalists who have worked with me along the way. The first of these is Jill Cohen, a top-notch stylist who recorded well over a dozen of my songs and was the vocalist on the Spirit's Got Me CD (under the name Jill Contrucci). The second is the talented Ashley Smedley and I appreciate the contributions of her sweet voice. The third is Caroline Ogle, who was a Rollins student when she recorded the songs sung by Penelope In Ulysses Goes Home.

Garageband Songs

Even though I don’t play a musical instrument I’ve been fortunate enough to live in a technological age where I can create music on the computer. Apple’s Garageband program allows me to lay down tracks of rhythm sections and it provides me with tools to create a melody, which I can accomodate to a variety of computer instruments. The program basically turns my computer into a recording studio and I’ve composed over fifty songs using its wonderful features.