4 Friends: Playing With My Friends

photo by Rick Friesen

4 FRIENDS: PLAYING WITH MY FRIENDS
4 Friends

“4 Friends” were working together all the time, and I became a little dervish writing new four-part vocal arrangements for us.  (I’d always wanted a close-harmony vocal group!)  It became obvious we needed a new CD with our new sound, but we didn’t want to do just a studio CD.  Half the fun of 4 Friends is how much fun we’re having when we perform together.

So we brought an audience with us into the studio!  What a party!  And we got the best of both worlds: studio quality with live spontaneity.  We performed “One Power” again at the end of the session, not planning to include it on the 2nd CD … but it sounded so good we had to!

photo by Bert Abel

I had an inspired notion:  since it was to be a live recording, if any of the four of us made a mistake they knew they couldn’t live with, we would grab a little bell I put on the piano and stop the recording.  I called it “The Boo-Boo Bell.”  It made the whole show.  Everybody was grabbing that thing and the audience went crazy.  I included a bonus track on the CD with all the bells and mistakes.

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SAMPLE

photo by Rick Friesen

SONGS

1.  Playing With My Friends/Let The Good Times Roll – King/Cray/Bland

2.  A High Class Act – Wayne Moore…

3.  Mama Says (from “Flashdance”) – Pitchford/Gore

4.  Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? – Harburg/Gorney

5.  The Bette Davis Chorus (from “Freeway Dreams”) – Wayne Moore…

6.  Comedy Tonight (from “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum”) – Stephen Sondheim

7.  We Fly (from “Do I Hear A Waltz?”) – Rodgers/Sondheim

8.  Lullaby In Ragtime (from “The Five Pennies”) – Sylvia Fine

9.  Drunk With The Wine Of Life – Wayne Moore…

10. The Longest Time – Billy Joel

11. Why Can’t A Man Sing The Blues? – Charles Bloom

12. Evil Companions (from “Her First Roman”) – Ervin Drake

13. The Cell Block Tango (from “Chicago”) – Kander/Ebb

14. The “Get Happy” Medley – Arlen/Koeler/Mercer/Lee/Barbour

15. Friends Forever More (from “Money, Men & Champagne”) Elliot/Joslyn

16. One Power – Daniel Nahmod

*** BONUS TRACK ***

17. Comedy Tonight (The Boo Boo Bell Version) – Stephen Sondheim