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NEWS

KARUKAS WEBSITE HACKED!!!!!!!! now being fixed 

In March, 2008 this website was hacked and it took two days to get the pages back to life, thanks to Google and Wayback machine internet archive.

Karukas family moves to Thousand Oaks, new Nightowl studio is up and running. Gregg is working on his new CD. Look for a Fall release on Trippin 'n Rhythm Records.

After a 3 year search our patience finally paid off. We found our dream house have moved to Thousand Oaks, CA, with Wildwood Park Wilderness (Wildwood Mesa) in  our backyard. We cannot believe our good fortune. 

They filmed Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Wuthering Heights and many other westerns there before the development was built, and now we are on the edge of civilization –  in Thousand Oaks, right down the street from Yvonne’s sister Michelle and a little further to Yvonne’s Dad (the house she grew up in)….and Trader Joe’s!!!!   My dad, Harry, will be living in the downstairs bedroom with us. He has recently been diagnosed with kidney failure so he goes to dialysis 3 times weekly. Other than that, he is getting his strength back and excited about the new house. 

The first time we walked up to the house, we already knew it was perfect from the Zillow and aerial pics,….we has seen another house down the close by with the same floorplan and were prepared to have me set up my keyboard workstation in the living room and add on or convert the garage to a nice studio…

 But……. the listing didn’t mention anything about this: Our agent met us at the door and said, deadpan, ”The owner has a music studio in the garage, but he will convert it back if any buyer wants the garage back.”     !!!!!   I thought he was joking and I walked in just as I normally do, not wanting to show how much we want the place – studio or not. Well, Yvonne walks through the laundry room and into the garage……Bingo!!!!!  STUDIO!!! 2 bays are already very nicely converted with a small booth in the corner!!  Not quite as big as my original studio, but I've added a big Drum booth in the 3^rd bay and I'm set. 

We silently freaked, and the rest is history. Both kids love their new schools and we are hiking twice a day with the owls, coyotes and hawks. 

Back from Hawaii (KONA) again. We had a great trip and the concert was a blast, with Michael Paulo, Pauline Wilson, Oleta Adams, Ray Parker Jr. and Jeffrey Osborne 

Hi Friends,

 I have some very good news about LOOKING UP.

 My new single “Girl in the Red Dress” has been added in POWER ROTATION at THE WAVE in Los Angeles and many other staions across the country -  it is currently #3 on the R&R National radio charts.

They had a listening test and it rated exceptionally high. This is the science of radio these days. They are also featuring the track as a free download on www.947thewave.com in the next week.

The song (as well as the previous single “Show Me the Way”) has had some early support from some other important stations  (San Francisco, Seattle, Orlando, Atlanta, etc.) but the way the Radio chart works, it needs to have many more stations add the song at the same time to make an impact.

 Back in 2000, we had a similar situation with “Nightshift”. It got widespread medium airplay for 6 months, longer than most songs, but it wasn’t until KKSF San Francisco put the song into POWER rotation that the stations across the country took notice and “Nightshift” ended up being my biggest hit at #1 nationally, also named #2 CD of the Year by R&R (Radio & Records magazine).

 So, here is another opportunity to get my music into the TOP OF THE CHARTS. If you’d like to help, please call your local stations and request the song. Here is a directory of Smooth Jazz Stations websites that list their request line phone numbers. You can email them too, but phone calls really can make an impact.  

All the great emails I get with requests to come play your particular city can be fulfilled with more success on radio. This is my goal for 2007.

 On another note, we had some great shows recently in Atlanta , Denver , Orlando and Huntington Beach . Thanks to all who attended and especially the promoters who thought of me in the first place.

 Now we have the Jazzmasters Tribute that premiered in October at the Jazztrax Catalina Festival.

 This show is Smoking!!

 Along with Chris Standring and Shilts, we are The London All-Stars and we have created the first live performance of the music of Paul Hardcastle and The Jazzmasters.  The show also features our music in the opening segment. We post  selected dates coming up in 2007 soon so watch out for it on the Tour Page.

Thanks again for your support.

 Gregg  

TIM EYERMANN RIP

I was very saddened to hear about Tim's passing and just got off the phone with Shannon Ford (the original drummer in East Coast Offering, along with bassist Carl Cable).
East Coast Offering on DC Morning TV Show 1976

We both agreed that Tim had an incredible impact on our lives as a mentor and partner in our early journey in the music business. 

To say: "Tim gave me/us our start" is the ultimate understatement.

I first met Tim Eyermann in 9th grade while I was the pianist in the Bowie H.S. Starliners Stage Band. His enthusiasm and command as a guest clinician was my first glimpse of what it meant to "make it" in Music. It was fun, and we were a better band immediately thanks to his concepts of phrasing and swing. He was the featured alto soloist in The Air Force -Airmen of Note, the TOP big band in the World as far as I was concerned, and through those rehearsals with Tim, Larry Skinner, Rick Whitehead and band director Col. Joe Carley, I learned much about jazz and playing together with others.

Tim lived right down the street from me and I became friends with him after graduation in 1974 (and after he got out of the Air Force). He let me record his great LP collection on cassette. We discovered Weather Report, Chick Corea's Return to Forever, Spyro Gyra and other original fusion groups together. He had heard Tom Scott and the LA Express and wanted to form a similar band…..hence, we came up with the name: East Coast Offering. We started playing parties and weddings and I also met his Air Force Band buddies: Dave Palamar, Lee Robertson, Dave Wundrow, Kenny Smuckel and other great, young players who would all go on to stellar careers.

Together, we took part in our first original recording project in 1974: we drove up to rural PA to a studio to put our own music to the spoken word recordings of Naturalist Euell Gibbons reading Henry David Thoreau. We improvised some and I used some of my song ideas and Minimoog to make a free-form sound tapestry.

Drummer Shannon Ford, bassist Carl Cable and I lived in Tim's former house in Bowie, MD together as a band and spent 4 &1/2 years rehearsing, writing and playing steady gigs and having fun. Our travels were exciting for us, as it was the first time any of us had been on the road. We paid lots of dues traveling up and down the East Coast and to Tim's hometown, Pittsburgh, in Tim's van.

At home, the Fairfax Jolly Ox - Steak and Ale was our most frequent 5 night/week gig. We were lucky to play a mixture of jazz/funk and pop that made us the hot fusion band that was also commercial enough for a lounge. Tim's signature song, Jobim's "Manha de Carnival" was an experience to see; he switched off 8 horns for each section and played everything great; from oboe to piccolo. Every Concert in the Park Series in the Washington area hired us for their free concerts. We packed them in on weekends at Harold's Rogue and Jar, a tiny basement club that was home to Richie Cole, Eddie Jefferson, Marshall Hawkins and other regional jazz headliners. WGTB, the Georgetown U. radio station supported us, along with our friends Happy the Man and New Jazz Coalition. We opened for many National acts at the famous Cellar Door, Childe Harold, and had our own nights at Blues Alley with our new Jazz/operatic singer Jessica Farrow. Later, Columbia Station was the hot gig, especially in the Summer.

Tim was already a master at "doubling", playing all the woodwinds, from oboe, clarinet, flute to sax, and he was in demand constantly for studio overdubs. Through Tim, we became involved in the studio/jingle scene and were frequently hired as a band to crank out 2-6 jingles in an afternoon at Bias, Track Recorders, Sounds Reasonable or Omega. This was such a big break for young players like ourselves. We recorded a few East Coast Offering projects (2 lp's) and cut our teeth in the studio with Tim. I got another education learning how to produce and engineer from all the great engineers and jingle/film writers at those studios.

I was lucky to be able to develop my compositional skills in that band and I spent my days practicing Hanon and pentatonic scales before driving 1 hour to the Fairfax gig. Tim could play anything I wrote the first time, perfectly and was very tolerant of my stylistic experiments. I was influenced by so many people, but Tim's alto and flute became my lead "voice" to the new grooves Shannon and Carl were creating. We also became involved in Modern Dance/Jazz Collaborative Concerts with Carla Perlo and Dance Place with them choreographing to our original songs. Looking back, it was the opportunity to write in so many styles that helped me get to the point of playing less notes (fusion) and developing more of a personal (melodic, soulful) style. Later, once I had moved to Los Angeles, Tim recorded my song 'Walkin' With You" as the title cut of his first MCA LP, and that was my first real album cut, allowing me to establish my publishing company.

Tim was the ultimate OPTIMIST, and anyone who ever met him will agree. He was TYPE A+; practiced all his horns every day, spent hours making his own reeds, drinking coffee, chain smoking…. and always thought the next gig would lead to the "big deal" record contract. Some of the connections were scam artists, and that was an education too. There are so many stories…...for a later time.

After a few years apart, having split to form Natural Bridge with Shannon and Carl, I spent the Summer of 1983 playing with Tim again in DC and Pittsburgh before moving to LA. We played on of the biggest gigs of our life on the DC Mall for 500,000 people opening for the Beach Boys. I met his bassist Jay Dulaney then, and he and I would go on to tour and record together in LA, and we still play gigs on the East Coast after 24 years.

Tim spent time in Atlantic City playing with Clint Holmes and was a mainstay on the MD, DC, VA Jazz scene for over 30 years. Every young player who was any good played with Tim. He was always open to playing the songs of the members of his bands.

Teaching music was another, if not the most important, outlet for Tim. Both in the public schools, and private lessons, many of his students have gone on to excel in music and that is the true testament to Tim's contribution in life.

That is exactly how is all started for me, and I am filled with both immense gratitude and sadness since learning of his passing.

My deepest condolences to his family in Pittsburgh, daughter Angela, and all those whose lives he touched.

Thanks,

Gregg Karukas

www.karukas.com

Joni Mitchell's Blue 'River' Flows Onto Holiday Playlists

Here's a great article mentioning my collaboration with Peter White on one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite artists, Joni Mitchell. There was a lot of history for me in this song. When I was 16, my 19 year old girlfriend, Eileen,  wanted to start singing in coffehouses, so I learned this and many other Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro songs and accompanied her in church basements and college coffehouses. When Peter asked me to do an arrangement of this song with Kenny Lattimore singing  I was instantly thrilled about it and we are very proud of the results. Listen  Peter and Mindi Abair still perform the song on his Christmas Tour.

Why didn't I record the tune on 1993's Home for the Holidays?? Shelby and I  were more interested in writing and recording some new original Holiday songs to go along with the classic standards we rearranged. Hopefully, they will be rediscovered and covered someday. Happy Holidays, Gregg

 

By J. Freedom du Lac

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 21, 2006; Page C01

Michael Ball, a British stage actor and singer, was watching a performance of traditional Christmas songs at a London drama school this month when the students unwrapped Joni Mitchell's 1971 song "River."

Ball says he was somewhat startled, given that "River" isn't really a Christmas song.

"River," written by Mitchell in '71, was not intended as a holiday song. But neither was "Jingle Bells." (1972 Photo -- Associated Press)   Save & Share Article What's This? Digg Google del.icio.us Yahoo! Reddit Facebook

Never mind that its opening melody is "Jingle Bells" in a minor key and that Mitchell's lyrics begin, "It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees /They're putting up reindeer, singing songs of joy and peace." Ultimately, it's a bereft song about a woman whose romance has gone bad and who wants to escape. The drama just happens to be set around the holidays.

Calling from London, Ball says: "There were all these 18- and 19-year-olds doing traditional Christmas songs, and then, bang -- they start doing 'River.' I'm thinking: Where on Earth did this come from?"

Of course, Ball might ask himself that same question: Six years ago, he recorded a version of "River" for his own holiday album, "Christmas." At the time, he thought he was a maverick for placing "River" alongside the likes of "Silent Night" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."

As it turns out, though, plenty of artists have been dreaming of a blue Christmas over the past decade, as Mitchell's song -- originally featured on the not-exactly-festive album "Blue" -- has somehow become a seasonal favorite.

"River" has long been a popular cover among musicians, more than 100 of whom have recorded it for commercial release. But since smooth-jazz guitarist Peter White featured "River" on his 1997 holiday set, "Songs of the Season," the tune has been included on more than two dozen Christmas albums. This year alone, it's appeared on at least seven new seasonal discs, from Sarah McLachlan's Grammy-nominated "Wintersong" to "James Taylor at Christmas."

"I don't know why it's suddenly getting picked up as a Christmas song," Taylor says. "But some things just become identified as seasonal songs, and this is now one of them."

Taylor knows "River" well, having first heard it when Mitchell played it at her home in Los Angeles.

"I've known it from the time it was written, and I've always loved it," he says.

When he finally decided to record a Christmas album, he decided to include "River" alongside various seasonal staples. "Most Christmas songs are light and shallow, but 'River' is a sad song," he says. "It starts with a description of a commercially produced version of Christmas in Los Angeles . . . then juxtaposes it with this frozen river, which says, 'Christmas here is bringing me down.' It only mentions Christmas in the first verse. Then it's, 'Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on' -- wanting to fall into this landscape that she remembers.

"It's such a beautiful thing, to turn away from the commercial mayhem that Christmas becomes and just breathe in some pine needles. It's a really blue song.".........read more b following the link. 

Joni Mitchell's Blue 'River' Flows Onto Holiday Playlists - washingtonpost.com

Hi All,

We are just back from an incredible week in Hawaii !!! I was playing an all-star show with Brenda Russell, Jeffrey Osborne, Rick Braun , Pauline Wilson from Seawind and Michael Paulo.

 Dolphin Days was the event at the Hilton Waikoloa on the Kona Coast of the Big Island , and we hung out with the real dolphins too!! They live in a lagoon and have an up-close encounter and show with people who are willing to pay $200!!! Meanwhile, we sat on the lawn about 20 ft. away and watched every afternoon. for free.

The kids did lots of swimming, snorkeling, kayaking and we did our best to relax and enjoy the perfect weather. It is hot and dry on that side of the island and there is always a breeze across the lava landscape. The Hilton resort is like Disneyland , they have a monorail-like tram and boats in a canal that take you all over the property to the many pools and restaurants.

Now, back to the mainland and some shows in Vegas and on the East Coast. I'll be back in Maryland/PA to play with my old buddies Jay Dulaney, Brad Collins, Mark Stewart and John Grant on guitar. For Reading , PA and Blues Alley, we'll add the Berks Festival Horns who were formed back a few years ago to play my show at the Berks Jazz Fest.

Please check out the tour page for future tour dates. 

Backstage with Jeffrey Osborne, Pauline Wilson and Brenda Russell.

Ripps: Gregg is featured on 3 tracks on the new Rippingtons 20th Anniversary CD  He arranged 2 tracks (Bingo Jingo,  the first single, and Rainbow) and played a piano solo on A Kiss Under The Moonlight" with Russ and Dave Koz.  

From: JAZZIZ Smooth Jazz Vibes December 2006 Archives

J"Back in 1994, as Jazziz celebrated its 10th anniversary, this column was asked to make subjective choices as to the most significant recording in the growing smooth jazz genre up till that time. No other option came close to Moonlighting, the 1986 debut recording by Russ Freeman and The Rippingtons, which, in addition to its still-appealing melodies and easy rhythmic energies, featured numerous performers who would go on to become staples in the genre well into the new millennium  Kenny G, Gregg Karukas David Benoit and Dave Koz (credited then as David Koz, and playing EWI!)." Jonathan Widran

Gregg with Original Ripps at the First Catalina Jazz Fest in 1987 

Meanwhile, Gregg's Tour Schedule is filling and Gregg is also playing some dates with Rick Braun * -Although we've played together many times on All-Star shows, this time I'll be playing Rick's whole show as a "member of the band." It should be fun!!

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