“When my co-writer, Bev Klingsick, and I designed the brief for this project, being a ‘70s R&B West Coast style record album, we decided to create a vocal song album (Vol 1), as well as an instrumental album (Vol 2) featuring jazz fusion style electric guitar performances.

For the vocal album we went to ‘Gina Kronstadt’, a well-respected Los Angeles session and live performing pop jazz vocalist to feature as vocalist on Vol 1. And for the electric guitar instrumental album, Vol 2, this was straight up my alley as guitarist to savour in this style, and I could hardly wait to sink my teeth into this West Coast R&B jazz fusion project.

My guitar influences as a young boy through my teenage years were Tony Mottola (my guitar hero), Eddie Lang, Freddie Green (rhythm), Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Howard Roberts, and Barney Kessel – then when I was 15 years of age I met and studied under Attila Zoller during the Milliken University ‘National Stage Band (summer jazz) Camp’ (Decatur Illinios /1970), where I made ‘head band’ as guitarist, under the baton of John LaPorta. Pat Metheny (renowned guitarist) was also a student during this summer jazz camp where we sat next to each other every day with our guitars learning from Attila. I was awarded a scholarship to attend this summer jazz camp from my music teachers in Erie, Pennsylvania (USA), Mary Margaret Shaffer & Don Shaffer, to whom I am forever grateful.

On both these albums, Vol 1 & Vol 2, I used a 1937 Gibson L-12 f-hole guitar with a DeArmond floating pick up. They were both my fathers instruments that I inherited after he passed in 2002. Dad was a well-accomplished rhythm guitar player who was revered in the music community. I used a variety of tube amps and effects on these projects – all dating back to the late ’70s in origin.

These albums are both my favorite projects for 101 Music, and I hope you find great places for these tracks in your visual and audio productions.

Crank up the volume and enjoy the ride back in time”!

Art Phillips (January 2024) – owner / director 101 Music Pty Ltd®

“Back on December 6, 2022, Art sent me a couple of instrumental tracks, one of which was to be the title track of a project we’d co-write together called ‘Feels So Good’. (Yes, Art Phillips is always a man with a plan!)

Since Art & I have worked together for many years, we definitely speak the same musical language and were both excited to do an old school-R&B album! R&B has evolved over the decades, remaining one of the most influential genres of music; and by the 1970s the term ‘rhythm and blues’ grew to include soul and funk. It was fun for me to reference many of these older tracks to help capture the vibe we were going for; while at the same time, come up with phrases and attitudes that are completely fresh and totally current in today’s world.

Upon receiving the track, I let myself simply listen and ‘marinate’ in it for a few days, literally soaking up the feelings I got from it and letting my imagination tell me a story. Based on these things, I made a running list of about 50+ words that interpreted these feelings and storyline; and I started matching these words to the music’s rhythm. I then went to the keyboard, playing and singing to myself a melody that worked with both the instrumentation and the lyrics. Finally, I did a rough vocal against the melodies which I sent back to Art. As Art knows, I’m a fanatic about a song’s prosody, e.g. patterns of stress and intonation in a language; and I’m an absolute stickler about every single word being the most perfect word possible. It’s really quite the thrill when everything works together and, as they say: ‘When you know, you know!’.

I sincerely hope the listeners will enjoy these ‘feel-good’ songs, both lyrically and melodically, as much as we have enjoyed writing them.

Sit back and let the groove move you”!

Bev Klingsick (January 2024)