Gregg played all keyboards on the latest from top producer, guitarist Paul Brown. Throughout his extraordinary career as one of contemporary urban jazz’s premiere hit makers and producers, Paul Brown has engaged in his share of cover tunes – starting with Boney James’ versions of “Creepin’” and “Ain’t No Sunshine” and including gems like Rick Braun’s “Use Me,” Boney and Braun’s “Grazin’ in the Grass” and George Benson’s sensual spin through the jazz standard “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise.” The key to turning these into instrumental hits has been a keen ear for fresh arrangements that pay homage to the original while dazzling along a path towards a colorful new direction.
Drawing on that same spirit of originality and freshness, the two-time Grammy winning composer, producer and guitarist finds a unique way to take stock of his chart-topping success as an artist and producer of many of the genre’s greats. Cleverly titled Ones Upon a Time, his new album offers ten dynamic re-imaginings of songs he’s produced over the past few decades that have truly been the foundational fabric and through line of what has made the genre so successful. While initially engaging us with their infectious familiarity, these ten tracks offer a whole new way to experience Brown’s keen ear for sonic detail and his always engaging, deeply emotional blues-driven guitar.
Since Brown’s breakthrough with Boney in the early 90’s, it’s become more and more challenging to keep track of just how many Billboard #1 hits he’s amassed. So imagine the energy in his studio as he listened attentively and chose his favorite ten tracks out of an initial pool of 50. His initial criteria was based on which songs would adapt best to the timbre of his Gibson L5, Buzzy Feiten Stratocaster, Gibson 335 and Gibson Johnny Smith L5.
The casual listener might not detect it at first, but another huge difference is that Brown recorded most of these tracks live at Big Surprise Studio with his core ensemble of Gregg Karukas (keys), Roberto Vally (bass), Gorden Campbell (drums) and Lenny Castro (percussion). On most of his productions, he records and compiles tracks in a piecemeal fashion. So when we’re listening to these tracks, it’s like hearing them onstage with this killer band.
While Brown admits that arrangement wise, some of them “didn’t change a ton,” he believes that just having his trademark guitar sound on lead melody instead of the original instrument made the tracks unique. This approach is especially prominent on the completely horn-free spin through the romantic Kirk Whalum track “Now Til Forever,” where Brown complements his slow burning guitar with the dreamy wordless vocals of Woodward Avenue labelmates DW3; and on the easy flowing Bob James tune “Mind Games,” whose lack of sax opens the door to more prominent spotlights for Brown’s fluid guitar and Gregg Karukas’ retro keyboard magic.
On others, Brown brings in just the right amount of sax to add texture and emotional thrust. While bringing fresh grooving, old school vibes and seductive guitar magic to the Boney song “Nothin’ But Love,” the intense duality he creates with Jeff Ryan on the chorus takes the track to another level. Likewise, his moody, slow burning and laid-back take on Rick Braun’s “Notorious” features the empowering energy of Richard Elliot.
Live in Hawaii with Michael Paulo, Paul Taylor, GK and Paul Brown.