The Cool J’s Story
In August of 2021 I contacted Jack Moore to run an idea by him. I had written an instrumental featuring the Hammond organ (used in all popular recordings in the 60s & 70s). I told him I wanted to do an all instrument album and would he want to be a part of it. He thought it was a fantastic idea and was all in. I called Justyn Davidson (Jack’s bass player of 30 yrs.) and asked him if he would be interested. He was also thrilled at the concept and whole heartedly agreed. My next call was to Jim Casey, whom I had utilized his guitar work on the last 4 recording projects I had done. I again, explained the concept and he said he would love to do it. We set a date to record in October. That’s all I needed to get inspired to write some songs and write I did.
By the time of the recording date, I had 22 song ideas. These ideas would come to me at the strangest times (sometimes I’d wake up at 4 in the morning). I would run out to the recording studio and lay down the rough ideas. I sent these ideas to the J’s (Jack, Justyn & Jim). Come October 3rd, Jack and Justyn flew in and we setup for the recording. Jim arrived the next day and we started the project. The musical chemistry was instant and we would work on a song for about an hour and then record it. That’s how the entire session ran. By Thursday night (the last day), we had recorded 15 songs. In the next month I would have Jim come in and add some more guitar parts after I had completed all the organ parts. The next few months were all about mixing the project and then sent to the Mastering engineer, Andy Rogulich, who added a much welcomed additional ear to the final steps of the project.
On to the Graphics: Mike Penn has done all of my graphic needs (Logos & album covers) for the past 4 years. I told him the concept of 3 Blue jays with sunglasses & maybe berets & beards. Steve-O was to have a big fedora covering his eyes. Mike came up with the PERFECT cover.
