Here we are, it is now 2025, and my first album as a leader, "TIGHTROPE" was recorded some 47 years ago. At KHAN'S KORNER 2 I have shared all of the lead sheets for the original music from that album, except the one cover tune which became the most well-known and popular song from the album, perhaps all of my albums. "TIGHTROPE" was produced by none other than the great Bob James. That song was and is, "Darlin' Darlin' Baby(Sweet Tender Love)" which was written by the incredible Philadelphia duo, Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff and it appeared on the 1976 album by The O'Jays titled: "MESSAGE IN THE MUSIC." It featured the magnificent lead voice of Eddie Levert all soaring over a superb arrangement by: Bobby Martin. Generally speaking, my interpretation of this wonderful song is almost always #1 on the list of my "songs" @ iTunes/Apple Music, and it is rarely, if ever, replaced at the top spot. The same is true @ Spotify. This does NOT mean that it achieves sales numbers like Sinatra, Elvis or Swift, but it is status that I just can't shake, no matter how hard I try to ignore it. So, how did I come to record this song? Well, there is a story here, and it is filled with lots of life lessons and music lessons as well.
    Firstly, how on earth, did I ever become fortunate enough to be recording my first album for Columbia Records, the giant of the industry at that time? It was because of the good graces of both the aforementioned Bob James and renowned drummer/producer, Bobby Colomby. I met Bob James through Bobby Colomby in 1976 while recording the James-produced album "MORE THAN EVER" for the legendary Jazz-Rock band, Blood, Sweat & Tears. Back in 1975, Bobby Colomby had flown me in for an on-the-spot live recording, "IN CONCERT" with that same band which was never released until years later, and only in Canada. It was during those 1976 studio recording sessions for B, S & T that Bobby was working on Bob, behind the scenes, to sign me as an artist to Columbia, because Bobby Colomby had loved the songs that I was co-writing as part of the Brecker Bros. Band. And that is how it happened. When Bob phoned me with the offer, I was thrilled and stunned beyond belief, and I thought and believed that I was ready to take on this huge responsibility when, in truth, I would only find out as the process went along that I really wasn't all that ready at all - so many huge lessons to be learned!
    As we were recording "TIGHTROPE," we had already recorded 5 songs, 4 originals of mine, and "The Big Ones" by Randy Brecker. I had one original tune left, and it ended-up never being recorded for this album. As a very small footnote, that song ended-up being recorded on "THE BLUE MAN" album one year later, and it was titled, "Some Down Time." We had taken a little break in recording and Bob James, then the new head of Jazz A&R at Columbia Records, called me in to his office for a little meeting about the album. It was a conversation that I had dreaded, because I desperately did not want to have to follow the trend at that time of doing a nice cover instrumental version of a recently popular song from Pop, Rock or R&B. These interpretations were very, very popular, especially with the ever-changing landscape of Jazz radio. I desperately wanted to stand or fall based upon my own music and/or my own musical choices. But, that was not to be. Bob, in his most gentle and thoughtful way, told me how very much he liked what we had recorded so far, and felt that it might get a good or solid response from radio but that there really wasn't something, one song, that radio could grab onto and run with. Just what I had feared. He did give me a chance to choose the tunes - but I certainly didn't think like that! I had no songs from Pop, Rock or R&B from that time in mind that I would have ever recorded. However, with the next recording session coming up that next day.....
        Right at that precise moment, I had to have a night meeting with Erika, who was my son Heath's mother, probably about money or some other horrible and very unpleasant thing - and we met at this Chelsea bar on 6th Ave. We had never been married, and after Heath was born, we tried to live together, with a kind of hippie hand-shake agreement that all of the expenses for Heath would always be 50-50% from that point forward. Much to my surprise, not, it was never that way - never ever! I did all of the heavy financial lifting. Even when I had extricated myself from living with her, I lived in fear that she could do something awful and cause me even more stress. I dreaded hearing from her more than you can imagine, but when you share a child, it is a necessity to communicate. I was young, very immature and inexperienced in the way of things. Anyway, as I recall - as we were sitting there, in that stupid bar - me in a state of terrible uncomfortableness, anxious to get it over with, the jukebox kept playing The O'Jays version of "Darlin' Darlin' Baby" - I must have heard it 10 times, and suddenly, I realized that, "Man, this is a great song - I think that I could play this with feeling and love, and not feel too badly about it!!!"

    That next morning, the morning of the session - yes, the morning of the session, I phoned Bob at around 7 A.M., and asked him if he knew that O'Jays tune - he said "No!" But, in those days, The Philly Sound was also part of Columbia Records - so a top executive like Bob was sent EVERYTHING that they released, ALL of the LPs. So, he told me that he would look for the album "MESSAGE IN THE MUSIC." It wasn't more than 10-minutes later that he called me back, and told me that he LOVED the tune, and that he would bring in an arrangement, and we would do it - and that he had another tune that he thought that I should record as well. And that is how this all happened.
    Now, for the first time, I am sharing with all of you Bob James' original photocopied lead sheets for his arrangement of The O'Jays "Darlin' Darlin' Baby"! You should know that what you are seeing is exactly what we were handed that day by Bob. He had a nice pad of music paper that was 8.5" x 11" not the usual full music-size paper. Bob James is one of the greatest musicians I have ever had the privilege of working with and/or for in my musical life. He can do everything and way beyond just being a great pianist and producer. He can write magnificent arrangements for brass, woodwinds, strings - you name it, he can do it. When I saw that he had written a fully-realized arrangement on just two sheets of music paper, I was stunned by how something so good could have been done so quickly and prepared without an error. Because it had all happened so quickly, I really had not had the time to think about just how I would want to approach the melody - the all important melody. And so, with those assembled in the big room at Mediasound Studios on W. 57th St. including: Jeff Mironov (El. Guitar - Right Side); Don Grolnick (Fender Rhodes); Bob James (Oberheim Polyphonic Synth); Will Lee (El. Bass); Steve Gadd (Drums) and Ralph MacDonald (Perc.), I decided that I would play steel-string acoustic guitar on the basic track, which is heard on the left side of the mix. David Sanborn (Alto Sax) was added later at an overdub session, but he was always the player that we had in mind to state the beautiful Letter [B] melody.

    If you know the recording, or even if you are now listening to it for the first time while following along with Bob's lead sheet, you would hear that, out in front of Bob's first bars of the arrangement, you now hear 4 bars of Jeff Mironov and I playing muted 16th-note syncopated figures on electric and acoustic guitars. I would imagine that Jeff and I were trying this out and Bob, upon hearing it in the headphones might have said: "Let's put 4 bars of that out in front." And that's what we did. When something like this happens during a recording session or even a rehearsal, the leader, Bob, will say something like this: "O.K. boys, get out your pencils and notate this.....!" Which reminds me of the very famous Igor Stravinsky story or legend that, when speaking to some students in a music school composition class, he asked those attending the following philosophical, almost rhetorical question, that being: "What is the most important part of the pencil?" After fielding an answer or two, he stopped everyone's thought process and simply said this: "The eraser!" Meaning that one is always going to make changes and adjustments, right up until the red light goes on and the count-off begins! The actual lead sheet that you are seeing was probably an 'extra' or clean copy minus the chicken scratches of the various players present.
    The written Intro [I] is fascinating, because it's a 3-bar phrase and yet everyone makes it feel so natural. The full performance, filled with magical shifts in dynamics and expressiveness is simply product of the experience and musicality of Don, Bob, Jeff, Will, Steve and Ralph. As it stands, it is a fantastic and very moving performance. As they always could do, these great players were just so fantastic. As the piece developed, suddenly I knew what would feel right to me for the melody and so, on an overdub I used my Boss Octave(OC-2) pedal for all of the melodic material with all of the soloing being played with a Vox Cry-Baby Wah. Both felt very expressive for this song, which I had grown to love so much - all in just a few days. When David Sanborn first enters at Letter [B], it is just pure Sanborn magic. Of course, Bob and I had played The O'Jays version for everyone before we began, and did the same for Dave. But Dave, as he always did, just owned that melody and played it, each time that it appeared, as if he had written it himself. In 1977, David Sanborn was just beginning his own solo career as an artist and hadn't risen to the level of recognizability that he would eventually reach. We will never really know for sure, but it wouldn't surprise if it was his presence that vaulted my interpretation of this great song to its own lofty and most unexpected heights. I don't believe that it was ever a goal for Dave to become the most influential and imitated alto saxophonist of his generation, but that is exactly what he was to become. I don't know why, but some of those whom he influenced actually ended-up with careers where they outsold David Sanborn. This never made any sense to me.

    The Solo Section, letter [C], plays down just as Bob had conceived it, and this is where I introduced the sound of Cry-Baby Wah which, at the time, felt like the perfect effect to convey just how I wanted to represent myself within this love song and Bob's amazing arrangement. In hindsight, I'm really glad that I played these phrases in such a restrained manner, allowing the space to make them that much more expressive. What happens when we emerge from the solo was something that we, as a group, obviously had to discuss and arrive at a solution. We decided that when we return to [I], this time we play would the 3-bar phrase 2x lightly with the muted guitars reappearing. Then, we do play the Intro going directly to the 2nd Ending and on ahead into [A] before moving right along to its 2nd Ending and the reappearance of David Sanborn's super-expressive reading of the [B] melody.
    Once again, with some discussion between Bob and all of the players, for the [Outro], which could have been labeled as [C2], we decided to take the 1st 2 bars of [A] and continue to play them until Bob gave us a visual cue to move on to playing the 1st 2 bars of [C]. We vamped on them until the track would eventually fade. Pay attention to how very musical the melodic movement of the top voices in all of these chord changes. These are the kinds of spontaneous things that can happen when a great familiarity exists between the players and the arranger. But, such results can be produced when an arranger has complete control and is capable of coming up with solutions on-the-fly when the players are looking for guidance. It just depends upon the situation and the players. If I have one complaint about the mix, it happens at 5:49 when Bob's brassy Oberheim punctuations enter and continue all the way. Volume-wise, to these ears, those punctuations have always been a bit over-the-top. But, these things happen and there is almost never the budget to go back and try to fix them.

    If I might, I would love to say a few words about the art of accompaniment as embodied here by: Don Grolnick (Fender Rhodes), Jeff Mironov (El. Guitar - Right Side), Will Lee (El. Bass) and Steve Gadd (Drums). Yes, of course, these are four legendary players, but the grace, subtlety and dynamic shadings that they offered and presented on "Darlin', Darlin' Baby" are really something to be appreciated by one and all. When I hear this performance and reflect back, I feel so lucky to have been there that day, and to have been a part of this. It should never be lost on anyone that they were initially reading down a chart that they had never seen before, for a song they might not have known at all - and yet, with just a couple of run-throughs, they were ready to go and to create something of lasting beauty for a song that ended-up resonating with a LOT more people, listeners, than I ever could have imagined. For that aspect alone, Bob James was right 1,000 times over! For me, it needs to be said that, in 1996, we lost our beloved Don Grolnick way too soon at the age of 49 and, he is deeply missed by those who knew him as a friend, and those who were fortunate enough to have worked alongside him - missed every single day, of every year. I have to point out one incredible little personal touch that Don added to this performance that occurs each time that Letter [B] is played, and if you follow along at Pg. 2 of Bob's lead sheet, you will see that in bar 4, as the chord changes from C/D to D7(9), Don plays his own take on a Richard Tee-ism by playing these descending minor triads up the octave on beat 1, Bm-Bbm-Am [w/ Root on Top] and then, they are repeated down an octave, but syncopated, starting on the last 16th-note of beat 2. What can I say? It's just SOoooo great, and makes me smile warmly each time that moment goes by - all 3x that [B] appears. You can't miss it! We love you, Don!!!
    In praise of our beloved percussionist Ralph MacDonald, to those listening along with the performance while following Bob's lead sheets, Ralph's percussive contributions to this tune are very minimalist and heard on the left side of the mix. He only plays a small hand-held cowbell whose sound I would associate most closely with the cha-cha bell on the timbal. He enters at Letter [A] and plays quarter-notes up until Bar 7 where he changes to playing on beats 2 & 4 of the section. He lays out completely at [B]. The genius of Ralph's approach to percussion was that, as a songwriter himself, he always heard structure and shaped his contributions to fit how he conceived of the song with percussion - very much how a good producer might think and work - but most producers have no idea what to do with percussion, and so they leave it in the hands of the player. Ralph's magnificent career was based upon this approach. During the [Outro], he returns to the quarter-notes on the cowbell, but every 2 bars, he adds to his pattern by playing, on beat 4, a dotted 8th-note and a 16th-note. It's very subtle, adding something but not taking anything away from this fantastic rhythm section. Sadly, Ralph left us in 2011. Rest in peace Ralph, I salute you and thank you yet again.

    As I am sitting here and writing this in January of 2025, though i have been able to accomplish some things that I never could have imagined for myself, in many other aspects, I was not able to come close enough to my particular musical dreams. However, if you had told me that I would be sitting here now with some 35 albums to my name as either the leader or a co-leader, the last one being in 2019, I would have signed on for that immediately. As I have already stated in this written piece, without question, from humble beginnings, I owe everything to the graciousness, courage and vision of both Bob James and Bobby Colomby. Without their support, none of this would have happened. I remain so grateful to both of them, you can't imagine. In essence, as 1977 arrived, I was trying to single-handedly keep the Brecker Bros. Band sound and feel alive, keeping that family of players together if I could - but just a bit more guitar-centric. I thought that "we" were playing the greatest music ever. Yes, I believed that then - I'm not speaking about my tunes so much - but mostly Randy Brecker's music - and the sound of the three horns together. David Sanborn had left the band, and I had left as well - so having Randy, Mike and Dave playing together on my first recording and subsequently the two that were to follow meant the world to me. But, as I reflect, my tunes were really not very good - I don't feel too good about any of them. Maybe "Tightrope" is not too bad - but a couple of the others are really a bit silly sounding to me.
    The brutal irony of it all is that "Darlin', Darlin' Baby" became an actual "HIT" record for me, an R&B instrumental hit that got played everywhere. So, there I was, becoming "famous" for everything that I never wanted to be known for. It was all so strange to me. Can you imagine that? At one point, I was to play a concert, opening for Maynard Ferguson @ Avery Fisher Hall. In my band that night was: Michael Brecker, Don Grolnick, Will Lee and Steve Gadd! Everyone from Columbia Records was going to be there - and those closest to me at the label begged me to play "Darlin', Darlin' Baby" - but I refused to do it. That decision was NOT good for my relationship with the label. But, at that moment, I didn't care, I was going to play the music that I felt closest to!
    I don't know that I would change my mind about that decision, but I don't feel good about the fact that I disappointed a lot of people who had worked so very hard for me. In my quiet moments, right to today, I still wrestle with it. No matter, I am just so grateful to Bob James for everything that he did for me, and everything that he tried to do for me. I know that he had my best interests at heart. I owe him so much, because he gave me an opportunity when no one else was willing to do that. He is a great, GREAT musician and a wonderful person!!!

    Sometimes you can tell a lot about the soul of a man by listening to his selflessness as an accompanist. Long ago, I heard Bob, on Fender Rhodes, alongside Chet Baker's beautifully poignant vocal rendition of the Rodgers & Hart ballad that originally appeared in the 1930 Broadway musical, "SIMPLE SIMON" and was deeply touched by it all. The song, "She Was Too Good To Me" appears on Chet's 1974 CTI album of the same name. Here they are in the presence of Ron Carter (Ac. Bass); Steve Gadd (Drums); George Marge (Oboe); Romeo Penque (Clarinet) and Hubert Laws (Flute/Alto Flute) in the setting of a superb Don Sebesky arrangement that blends elements of both Jazz and Classical. Just listen to Bob's touch and his sense of space throughout, but especially during Chet's trumpet solo. It's all so very moving within a ballad whose lyrics will just break your heart - if you remember those moments in your life when you could have been better with someone who cared so much about you.

    When, in March of 2015, BGO Records(UK) reissued my first three albums as a leader "TIGHTROPE"(1977) "THE BLUE MAN"(1978), and "ARROWS"(1979), it was one of those rare events during my life in the music business where this kind of good fortune seemed to be smiling down upon me. Over the course of the years that have now passed since those recordings, I rarely, if ever, listen to them, but having been allowed to be a modest participant in the reissue process, I did have to spend some time listening to these mixes and masters in hopes of trying to bring the new audio treatments into the new century. It is never easy to do this, but, generally speaking, who would know the subtleties of the original recordings and mixes better than the artist? In my opinion, NO ONE! And thanks to both Andy Gray and Mike Gott, I was allowed to work with mastering engineer, Andrew Thompson, via long distance file-sharing and e-mails, I was able to improve upon some of the mixes from the past by warming them up a bit - nothing too radical, but, in the end, helpful. I wish that I actually knew or understood what the motivating factor was for BGO Records to have decided that they were going to package my three Columbia albums together on 2 CDs for a reissue. I just know that I am very grateful that it happened. As I have written in several pages at this website, when one does not own their recordings, the artist has no rights, where being informed of any plans the label might have are concerned. Fans tend to think that we, as artists, have something to say about all this, but, we do not!!! So, for all I know, this could have been the last chance that fans of this music to have and own these recordings and these performances on an actual CD. I have done everything possible to try to make the audio sound as good as it can, and to have the look of the package be relatively consistent with what fans have come to expect from me - meaning cover art by Jean-Michel Folon and a design by Janet Perr. I am hoping that everyone will be pleased with what they see and hear. One example of a most generous "bonus" from BGO Records was that they gave this reissue a 24-page CD booklet that includes 12 pages of liner notes! No one was more surprised about that than me!!!