Hi Folks, all good your way. We had a wonderful show with Bill Cantos last weekend. Bill played and sang beautifully and some of his stories and perceptions had us busting up. One humorous highlight was his crooning the Yellow Pages from the phone book set over the chords to Misty. You had to be there but it was brilliant! I hope we get him to come back to play again. He’s the best!

I’m writing to you as I listen to a collection of Sergio Mendes recordings and I’m a taking an adventure back to the living room of my childhood home. Mais Que Nada filled the air when I was starting out and when Sergio’s two female singers sang their version of The Look of Love I discovered the creative hit of putting new spins on old hits. Sergio not only added the samba groove to these tunes but also messed with the meter of the songs and the harmonic structure—out came a fresh new mix with the feel of Brasil up front and center.

Over the years I’ve learned many of Sergio’s arrangements and in the middle ‘80’s I even played a few gigs with his group. He’s a good cat and we had some fun in Mexico City spreading the good news of music amidst a city gone loco. We’re still alive…

For this week we’re gathering our band Pass The Drum and immersing ourselves in a set of Brasil ’66 tunes finally landing at Dizzy’s on Friday night. It’ll be an evening of The Music of Sergio Mendes and included in the set list are some of his classic hits (The Fool on the Hill, Pais Tropical, One Note Samba) and some of his newer tunes from the Brasileiro recording (Barabare, Kalimba, Indiado). It’s gonna be some fun and I hope to see you there…

that’s it for now, Peter