December 10, 1998. A date that will live in Lounge Art Finnish fan lore as the night Dave Carpenter, Bob Sheppard and Peter Erskine brought their American swing ethos to the frozen jazz hinterland otherwise known as the newly-opened Doo-Bop Club in Vaasa, Finland. I remember two things about that gig: that it was fun, and that it was cold. It was also captured by the YLE radio station and preserved on DA-88 tapes. Discovering these in the usual unmarked cardboard box in storage, I had their contents transferred to .wav files by the archival experts at Warner Brothers in Burbank (this involved some “baking” of the tape material) and then setting engineer Aaron Walk loose to remix it to his heart’s content.
We have an album! 7 tunes from the First Set, and 7 tunes from the Second Set. Featuring the late / great Dave Carpenter on acoustic and 6-string electric bass. His simultaneous walking and chordal comping is out of this world, as is his soloing on these recordings. Bob Sheppard swings, and I manage to get a few good licks in now and then. Of special note are the w tunes on the First Set where I’m playing the Club Jordan cocktail kit. Holy Cow.
90 second previews appear below. 7 tunes for $2.50 … you can’t beat that deal with a stick.
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