The John Blackwell Project

[Paul Quin]

Hi Forum friends:

I thought I would bring you up to date with a new CD which will be released in January and tell you some of the tales behind its making. As many of you know I represent many drummers and other musicians and help to guide and push their careers. One of those drummers is John Blackwell. John has wanted to release a solo CD for several years and he asked me to put the project together. Now, one year later (and probably 1,000 hours of work), with the help of some friends that CD is currently in the mixing stage. The band came together after the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert. Rather than just hire session guys we entered into negotiations to form a band which has been christened The John Blackwell Project. The Project consists of four core members: John, Corey Bernhard (keys - you may have seen him on John's Master class Hudson DVD), Paul Pesco (guitar - Madonna, J-Lo, Hall & Oates, Mary J., Alicia Keyes and many others) and Will Lee (bass - everyone, and I mean everyone but most know him from Dave Letterman). The basic tracks were recorded at DrumChannel in Oxnard California and Drumchannel made a DVD of the making of the CD which will be released about the same time as the album.

There are multiple other musicians on the album including Charlie Singleton (Cameo), David Garfield, David Mann (Tower of Power), Luis Conte, Esperanza Spalding, Michael Landau and many others. One track has a drum intro played by Terry Bozzio, Curt Bisquera and Greg Bissonette. Overdubs have been recorded in New York, Tampa, Manchester, UK, and LA. So, the artwork and liner notes are being finalized, the album is in the final mix stage and then it will go to be mastered. January will be the release date!

I don't know how interested everyone is in the nitty gritty of pulling this together and what it has entailed but I would be glad to share if anyone has any questions.

I will tell you that the album is superb and diverse. It ranges from some retro funk to tight up tempo fusion with some beautiful jazz ballads thrown in. The playing is incredible and John is on fire.

Stay tuned . . . .

Paul

[GRUNTERSDAD]

I would love to buy said CD and since we are close Geographically I would ask you to see if you could get it signed by John or as many others. I would also hope it doesn't take as long to get as another project I am waiting for. Thanks for the info Paul.

[gwaco]

we heard a small snipet with john playing to it at a clinic and it was great ! sort of old school , not like everything that is out there today which can get boring ......

[LinearDrummer]

I liked some of the stuff he played with the band on his first dvd that didn't make the MD fest...

Any snippets/samples posted would be appreciated.

[Paul Quin]

we heard a small snipet with john playing to it at a clinic and it was great ! sort of old school , not like everything that is out there today which can get boring ......

That is true! The CD is however is going to be very diverse in an attempt to show the influences that John has and from where he draws his musical inspiration. So, there are two of eleven tracks that encompass that old school funk and some others that are more akin to Billy Cobham and John McLaughlin and more akin to the stuff JOhn played at the MD Festiva and was included on his first DVD. John wrote four of the songs on this CD! Four songs will have vocals and the rest will be instrumental.

As far as attaching samples and/or snippets, I am sure that can be arranged after we finish the mixing and mastering!

This has been a real labor of love and it is very exciting that it is coming to fruition. I hope you invest your time in listening when it is available.

And GD - nothing is too much trouble for you!

Paul

[Paul Quin]

Just finished listening to the latest round of mixes and I am waiting on the guys comments so we can finalize and ove to mastering. Working with folks who play so much with other people can make this part of the process logistically problematic. Will is in New York (and occasionally jetting off to play with the Fab Faux - and leaving for a brief tour of Japan in a week or so), Corey has just got back from Central America and is currently playing with different folks in and around New York, John is on tour in Japan with a Japanese artist and Paul is in LA doing sessions work. Without the internet this would be impossible.

The tunes are sounding great! some real varied stuff with a great fusion tune (written in 15/8) which features an introduction( cadence) played by Terry Bozzio, Greg Bissonnette and Curt Bisquera.

Can't wait to share!

Paul

[Paul Quin]

Okay:

so time moves on! We now have the CD mastered and the artwork is being finalized by the graphic artist. The CD will be released this month and will be entitled "4 Ever Jia."

This CD is being self released and will be available through www.cdbaby.com (http://www.cdbaby.com), amazon and iTunes. The Project website is being finalized and should go live within the next two weeks.

Which leads me to my question to my drummerworld friends. This is an album by musicians and seeks to bypass the traditional record industry inferno. To successfully market this CD we need street teams of folks to badger their radio stations, promote the CD etc. If anyone is willing to help please send me a PM: there will be signed copies of the CD for all those who help and tickets to any shows in your vicinity.

Please let me know if you would be interested in helping!

Paul

[Paul Quin]

Thanks for your responses and, for those who sent PMs sorry it has taken a while to get back to you! The CD is currently at press and will be shipped to the distributor on March 11. It will be available very shortly after that.

This project has been long, occasionally difficult, frequently stressful, but no doubt worth it. The web site wil be in up a week or so and I will let you know as soon as it is live. In the meantime you can check out the reserved space www.johnblackwellproject.com (http://www.johnblackwellproject.com)

There will be clips available soon!!!!!!

Paul

[Paul Quin]

Well!

The website is up and running. The CD is available on digital download and you can access it here: http://www.digstation.com/ArtistAlbums.aspx?artistname=JohnBlackwellProject

There are samples available to listen to on the site. The physical CD will be available via CD Baby by the end of next week and we are negotiating with some national stores to have the CD available when you go shopping!!

Thanks for your interest!

Paul

[Paul Quin]

Thanks for all of you who have checked this out! The CD is currently number 3 on the Digstation album download charts!!

More news to come soon about possible live dates and also some television appearances!

Paul

[Paul Quin]

Cd is now available on www.cdbaby.com (http://www.cdbaby.com) and also at itunes. Digital downloads will sell for $11.99 (there is more than an hour of music on the CD) but there is a glitch in the pricing at itunes. It is currently listed at $9.99 and they advise me that it might take three business days to get that changed in the system. Why is beyond me, but there you go.

I thought I would let my Drummerworld friends know that if you are interested you can pick the CD up in the next three days at a bargain price. There are also samples you can check out!

IN addition, if you would like to write a review we will link it to the web site.

Thanks again

paul

[Paul Quin]

Here is a link to an unsolicited review from a UK based internet radio site:

http://soulchoonzreviews.blogspot.com/2010/04/john-blackwell-project-4ever-jia-2010.html (http://soulchoonzreviews.blogspot.com/2010/04/john-blackwell-project-4ever-jia-2010.html)

Thanks for checking it out!

Paul

[gwaco]

hey all , been really busy lately so not much time to post , but i thought i needed to say something about the jbp c.d. .
well i picked it up since it was staring at me in the music store and gave it a few listenings while working on some projects and i've gotta say that this is a great c.d. !
its definately a funk , fussion drummers delight ! the tracks that i favored the most were tracks 2 and 7 which had an old school Cameo feel to it , loved on track 7 when the singer says " bring it blackwell " !
plus it has special appearences by Terry Bozzio and Greg Bissonette so how can you go wrong !
I do have a question for you though Paul if you don't mind answering ! i saw on track 3 that the backing vocals were provided by a Sue Quin , would that be Mrs. Mighty Quin?
anyways i feel this is a must pick-up disc for drummers , you won't be disappointed , that is unless your only objective in life is to beat the crap out of your drums :) .
must get back to work ...........
edit - after writing the above i went and looked at the link in the previos post and it pretty much sums up why a few tracks remind me of cameo .... word up !

[GRUNTERSDAD]

Hey bud. Sue Quin is Pauls sister if I'm not mistaken. Paul gave me a CD of some of her singing and I must tell you she has an absolute angels voice. I will get this CD soon.

[gwaco]

Hey bud. Sue Quin is Pauls sister if I'm not mistaken. Paul gave me a CD of some of her singing and I must tell you she has an absolute angels voice. I will get this CD soon.
we missed you at the mayer clinic ! what happened ?

[GRUNTERSDAD]

I had one of those days at work, plus I have been doing some Beta testing for some Apple Computer Software, and the guy sent me some updates to check out, and he is in England so, with the time difference I had to do some stuff ASAP. I will be there Sunday. I'm sure he was great.

[gwaco]

I had one of those days at work, plus I have been doing some Beta testing for some Apple Computer Software, and the guy sent me some updates to check out, and he is in England so, with the time difference I had to do some stuff ASAP. I will be there Sunday. I'm sure he was great. yeah it was , especially when he mistook a bottle of water for a microphone and started talking into it !!
nuff high jacking , we will probably see you sunday .

[Paul Quin]

Thanks guys. Glad you like the CD? GD is right and Sue is my sister. She has been a working session singer and writer in the UK for more than 25 years and has appeared on thousands of jingles, many. many CD's and has several gold records for her backing vocals. She has also had her songs perfomred by many well known artists. She actually sings the backing vocals on track 3 ("Jeremiah's Sleepy Night" )and the lead on track 9 ("Jada'). She also wrote the lyrics and melody for Jada.

The Cameo inspired tracks that you liked were co-written by John and by Charlie Singleton who was the guitar player in Cameo, and Charlie sings both tunes. The first one "Amazing" was written as a tribute to Cameo.

Glad you like it and thanks for posting!

Paul

[gwaco]

wow , sounds like quite the talented musical family ! and yes we do enjoy the cd . thanks for making it all work .

[nickg]

Blackwell is a freakin' monster on the kit!!!

[atlanta rules]

I have some signed drumsticks that john blackwell used on the clinic that he did! Im selling them