Well, it has been a very productive winter... yes, I know a lot of you have been writing and saying that I have not been playing out with mygroup much but here a some pretty good excuses .... and don't worry... that will change ... booking some gigs for the summer and fall as we speak!!
I am finishing up a book "Funk/R&B Guitar: Creative Solos, Grooves and Sounds" for Hal/Leonard Berklee Press. Look out for its arrival in bookstores in the fall.
On the "interesting interaction" topic: I had lunch with Christopher Guest when he came to do a residency at Berklee. He is most notable, in music circles, for his role of Nigel in "Spinal Tap" fame, but his career as a director/actor spans from "Saturday Night Live" to a "Mighty Wind" and "Best in Show" and "Waiting for Guffman" and "The Princess Bride". Great musician and a nice guy with a british sense of humor. He was presented with an honorary doctorate at a performance with students and faculty that evening.
And as far as THE FUNK goes.... drumroll.... I had the incredible honor of performing with legendary trombonist Fred Wesley (of James Brown and Parliament/Funkadelic, Maceo Parker fame). Kinda cool to be playing "Pass the Peas" and to be thinking..wow..this sounds like the same trombone player on the original recording...and then realize that it is ?:)
Something for you to look forward to?... Releasing a DVD later this year of a show recorded live at Bose Theatre. Featuring some very special guests and musicians..great quality (slammin!) audio video footage of my group in rare form! Keep an eye out for the release date!
More soon ... thanks for all of the support through the year!! THB celebrates it's 10th anniversary this year!!!!!
April 2006
Well this picture is good for a much more than a thousand words!!!!... I got to spend time with the master of the jazz chromatic harmonica, Toots Thielemans, after a show here in Boston recently.
One of those impromptu magical evenings... Toots really opened up and shared some great stories from the old days working with jazz giants such as Quincy Jones... after which he gave me a harmonica lesson, offering some of his incredible technique insights!!! Truly an honor to spend quality time with such a wonderfully talented legend and such a nice person... in attendance also was the legendary chromatic harmonica player Mike Turk... who is actually seated on the other side of Toots but did not quite make it into this picture!! Ok I'm gonna practice every thing he told me!!!!.... including Giant Steps in all keys..... every day!!!! Whew!!!!
(photo: Kovel)
January 2006
!!!!BREAKING NEWS!!!! ...The new Thaddeus Hogarth CD, "Live at Bose" has just received the 2006 Independent Music Award under the album categaory for R&B/Blues!!!!!! This is my second time getting an Indie Music Award ... once in 2001 under the song category for R&B/Blues and now again 2006 for album/cd! ... Celebrity judges for the Independent Music Awards this year are Norah Jones, Melissa Etheridge, Joe Perry, Bill Wyman, George Clinton, Jonatha Brooke, Chris Thile, Terence Blanchard, Paquito D'Rivera, Sara Lee, Hubert Sumlin, and Andrew W.K.. Click here
Here are a few more details for folks interested:
About The Independent Music Awards:
Unlike any other music industry contest or competition, The Independent Music Awards delivers real career opportunities for Indie artists, labels and releases.
Co-sponsored by Border's Books & Music, winners of this year's program are promoted to more than 7 million music fans and industry professionals via print, radio and online promotions.
Winner and Finalists will be featured in the 2006 edition of The Musician's Atlas, read by music press, talent buyers, label executives, promoters and other industry decision makers. Winning tracks will be available for purchase as digital downloads on the IMA online jukeboxes. The jukeboxes also include clickable links to artist websites. More than 6 million Borders Books and Music customers, music fans and industry pros will be directed to the IMA jukeboxes via targeted promotions throughout the year.
Winners are promoted in print, broadcast and online media campaigns. Their CDs will be available for sale at BordersStores.com. 10,000 copies of the IMA Winners CD will be distributed to music fans and industry movers and shakers at music conferences, festivals and other events throughout the year. The IMA CD compilation will be promoted to college radio stations throughout North America by leading radio promotion company, The Planetary Group.
Well!!! ....This is a great honor, given the thousands of entries from all over the world. Thanks to the fans for support again through another year!!!!
November 2005
'Well, the cd release show at Ryles in Cambridge, Mass, was a huge success so thanks to all fans and folks who came by...full house sold out!!! The sound was great thanks to the new technology from Bose and the entire gang from the Live Music Technology division was present including Chief Engineer Ken Jacob who graciously did the intros for the band! I got to meet Meshell Ndegeocello during her residency at Berklee ... what great talent!!! One of my colleagues at Berklee, the legendary David Fiuczynski, guitar wizard/innovator and bandleader hosted her appearance at the Berklee Performance Center with a hand picked all star student ensemble. It does not get any funkier that this!!!!!
Well folks, would like to thank all of the fans for support as we turn another page to a brand new release, " Live at Bose". Through the years I have had many claim that the energy of the live shows is not represented on the studio cd recordings ... well.. Here we are with a live CD that truly captures us in the moment! This CD was recorded live at the Bose Corporation headquarters in Framingham, Massachusetts. We used state-of-the-art performance technology developed by Bose. For technical info on how this was done check out the "Bose" button.
The bottom line is that due to the technology we were able to play a show that allowed us to interact dynamically since the audio, monitoring, and acoustics were at a premium! The rest was as simple as just capturing this moment...I hope you all enjoy this new CD ... Keep your eyes peeled for press and reviews on this disc during the summer and fall. Keep checking the schedule for upcoming shows also ...
My relationship with Bose continues to grow! ... In addition to being a Product Specialist for the new Personalized Amplification System, I am also producing a pretty heavy concert series at the Bose Headquarters in Framingham, Massachusetts .... The series starts in the fall, Sept 22nd and runs every 3 weeks or so until Thursday December 8th ... the shows feature some of the big names in Berklee faculty talent!! To find out more and see the line-up and schedule ... click here
In the meantime I played a few really cool gigs as a sideman with a couple of top notch talents:
Kenwood Dennard: world class drummer ... he has played with everyone from Sting to Miles and George Benson ... you have got to check this cat out his bio is as heavy as his playing!!! Great conversations about philosophy, Buddism, etc ... a really groovy cat.
Tony "Thunder Smith : Currently touring with Lou Reed ... played with Jan Hammer, John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana .... one of the most powerful and creative drummers you will ever hear ... certainly his show was one of the best I have ever played ... seriously groovy with plenty of room for improv ... kinda like a late Miles Davis concert!!!
Robin McKelle : Easily one of my favorite singers and soon to be yours! Check her out ... she is currently working on a new CD and has performed and toured with many big names and even recently with the Boston Pops. Every note she sings is a lesson in and of itself!! I am honored to work with someone so talented and yet soooo cooolll!!!!!
I also had the great pleasure of working with a beautiful and talented singer/songwriter from Liverpool, Jules Ellison. A 3 song demo turned into a full length CD co-production. Check out the MUSIC button to hear some tracks or purchase the CD. It was a great experience and the CD speaks for itself! It is already starting to get great reviews. (I am especially proud of my guitar work on this!! :) Jules and her band had a big CD release party at the Center For the Arts in Natick, MA and is now booking shows for the fall. Look out for her in the circuit!
I recently had the honor of meeting Paul Rusesabagina and his wife Tatiana at a ceremony here in Massachusetts. Paul is the real life inspiration for the movie "Hotel Rwanda" which was a very moving account of the Rwandan genocide and Paul's role in saving hundreds of lives.
He was on his way to the Oscars (Oscar nominee, Don Cheadle played him in the movie) and stopped off in Massachusetts to receive the "Courage of Conscience Award" at the Peace Abby. There were only about 50 of us in attendance ... It was a pretty heavy experience ... I think we could all learn a lot from this man. Things like making the right decisions at the right time even though it may involve risk, personal sacrifice and redefining the reality you have come to know ... for those of you who have not yet seen the movie ... make it first on your list to see next. It will stay with you for a long time ...
Certainly one of the high points in my life was meeting all of the cats in the Yellow Jackets, Russell Ferrante, Jimmy Haslip, Bob Mintzer and Marcus Baylor. Russell and Marcus did a residency at Berklee where I teach. I met the rest of the guys at a concert shortly after. Great music, great band and really nice folks to hang with. Robben Ford, one of my main guitar influences, actually got these guys together 28 years ago to record his first solo album, "The Inside Story" ... the vibe was so strong that they stayed together even when Robben moved onto other things ... the rest is history! Next Spring Jimmy Haslip and Bob Mintzer are coming to Berklee for a residency so I will definitely get to check these cats out again!!!!
Picked up a GHS endorsement recently in addition to Hohner harmonica) who has me on their website as one of their featured artists. I am still using Groove Tube. Solo 45 amplifiers. I dig the traditional tone...
Keep an eye out for some shows I will be doing with the Boston Horns Big Band (some former colleagues from the HEAVY METAL HORNS)... I will be doing some gigs with them over the summer .. pretty cool big band arrangements for JIMI HENDRIX tunes. I think this will be a real fun thing to see..I get to be Jimi Hendrix and play my guitar in the context of a jazzy big band ... quite frankly, sounds like a beautiful thing to me ... best of both worlds!!
More news coming soon ... I am involved with producing a couple of cool things, a concert series as well as a video series ... check back here and as soon as they get under way, I will update!!! Also (whisper) you may see my ugly mug in a couple of commercials pretty soon ...... ok the acting thing was always kind of a passion of mine ..... I mean ... just for fun, yknow .....