Darlene Love is best known for her work with the girl group  “The Blossoms” and legendary producer Phil Spector.  A staple of  ’50s and ’60s rock and soul, Love worked with Sam Cooke, Dionne Warwick, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, and Sonny and Cher.  Love’s biggest hits were the ’60′s, “Da-Doo-Ron-Ron” and “He’s a Rebel”.  Love made her singing and acting returns in the 80′s with appearances as herself in the Musical “Leader of the Pack” and her portrayal as Danny Glover’s wife in the “Lethal Weapon” series of movies.

Melba Moore got her start on Broadway in 1967 as the lead in “Hair”, replacing Diane Keaton.  In 1970 she won a Tony award for her role in the Musical “Purlie”.  In the ’70′s Moore signed with Mercury Records and received Grammy nominations for albums in 1971 and 1975.  Moore continued to have hits throughout the ’70′s and ’80′s working her way up the charts in both the UK and the US.

The 8-day, 9-show run was a lot of fun.  The music ranged from Melba’s work on Broadway in “Hair” and “Purlie” to her 70′s and 80′s disco/R&B hits.  Darlene’s portion of the show was focused on the great Phil Spector hits of the ’50′s and ’60′s; including work by Ike and Tine Turner where she sang back up.

The band, except talented bassist Seth Glassman (Darlene Love’s musical director and bassist), was comprised of a great San Francisco based crew; Tammy Hall (Piano and Musical Director), Fil Lorenz (Sax and Flute), Mark Rosengarden (Drums) and yours truly (guitar).

Below are some pics of New Years Eve and, soon to come, a short, funny video..Fil Lorenz (Sax) and I look bored out of our minds, but we were actually having a good time..this was the 2nd show of the night and it was 12:30am!  Haha!  Enjoy!

Rrazz Room Video

Stay  “Tuned” and thanks for reading!

Terrence

I first met Stephen while he was working as the Chief Engineer for the legendary and world famous Fantasy Studios in Berkeley; a job he held down for over a decade. Stephen and I became fast friends as we worked on recording, mixing, and mastering QuintEssential, the third album on my Strong Brew Music record label. Stephen has an amazing list of folks he has recorded…a whose-who of the rock, pop, and jazz worlds…Santana (Shaman), Tony Bennett & Bill Evans, White Stripes, David Bowie, En Vogue, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Albert King, Issac Hayes, Steve Cropper/Booker T./Duck Dunn, John Lee Hooker, J.Garcia & Merle Saunders, Henry Kaiser, Brandi Shearer, Patti Austin, McCoy Tyner…to name just a few!! I was honored to have his wisdom in making this record; his, almost, three decades of recording knowledge made the process easy…and the record sounds amazing!

Stephen’s mixing/mastering space is called The MixRoom. The MixRoom also serves as the control room when making studio recordings or live sessions in one of the two largest studio spaces at BASS.

Along with my trio (Tim Campbell – B-3 Organ and Micah McClain – Drums), Adam Theis’ band ‘Super Taster’ performed. Along with the happening music was great food and lots of good friends. All-in-all it was a great night..:-)

And I have to give a “shout-out” to Brad Dollar, Stephen’s assistant; Brad keeps everything on-track and moving in the right direction…plus, he portrays the “voice-of-God” rather convincingly! Brad, tell your sister Karen to get me the pictures from that night so I can include them in the blog…shame on her!!

Blues For Katie from the album QuintEssential
5 O’Clock from the album QuintEssential

Thanks for reading!