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An all instrumental jazz/rock/fusion project with a strong emphasis on songs, featuring current members of the band Chicago: Keith Howland on guitar and Tris Imboden on drums. Play Fallin' in a Hole Play Mr. Ceiling Fan Play Samples of the entire album Songs on this album are: 1. Don't Wake The Baby 2. Theme From A Love Dream 3. Cement Mixer 4. Your Old Thingy 5. Fallin' In A Hole 6. Philly Blue 7. Friday The 13th 8. Sharp Funk 5 9. Inching Towards...? 10. Mr. Ceiling Fan 
Purchase this CD from CDBaby.com | | All instrumental heavy jazz fusion featuring members of the band Chicago. Play Cement Mixer Play Theme from a Love Dream Play Samples of the entire album Songs on this album are: 1. Don't Wake The Baby 2. Theme From A Love Dream 3. Your Old Thingy 4. Cement Mixer 5. Philly Blue 6. Fallin' In A Hole 7. Sharp Funk 5 8. The Last One 9. Friday The 13th 10. Mr Ceiling Fan 11. Inching Towards...?
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Two guitarists from the storied band Chicago get together with friends for a rock/fusion guitarfest with tuneful melodies, jazz sensibilities, and cool grooves. Play Tenacious Boogie Play Cup O' Tea Play Samples of the entire album Songs on this album are: 1. Tenacious Boogie 2. The Last One 3. Hank Spank 4. Pay The Man 5. Cup O' Tea 6. Swingset Assembly 7. Bowl Of Surprises 8. Laug Jam 9. Snonga
Purchase this CD from CDBaby.com | | Two guitarists from two eras of the legendary band Chicago recorded "live" in an all instrumental guitarfest. Play The Last One Play Bowl of Surprises Play Samples of the entire album Songs on this album are: 1. Snonga 2. Tenacious Boogie 3. The Last One 4. Sharp Funk 5 5. Hank Spank 6. Pay The Man 7. Cup O' Tea 8. Your Old Thingy 9. Bowl Of Surprises 10. Laug Jam 11. Swingset Assembly
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 Keith Howland has worked with Tris Imboden for years in Chicago and thus formed The Howland-Imboden Project but Tris has been a part of rock history for many years and has played live and in the studio with: Chicago Kenny Loggins Al Jarreau David Foster David Sanborn Michael McDonald The Doobie Brothers Richard Marx Anita Baker Michael Paulo Dave Mason Bob James Dotty West Chaka Kahn Freddy Ravel Firefall Kalapana Cecilio & Kapono Los Lobotomys David Garfield Cock Robin Clare Fischer Holly Near Honk Iain Mathews Cecilia Noel & the Wild Clams James Newton Howard Russ Tittleman Tom Dowd Phil Ramone Humberto Gatica Glyn Johns Bruce Bottnick Maurice White Bruce Fairburn Burt Bacarach Dean Parks Lee DeCarlo Roy Bitten Kyle Lenning Delaney Bramlett Jay Graydon Steve Vai Bob James Steve Lukather Peter Wolf Jeremy Smith George Duke Stanley Clarke Visit Tris Imdoden's web site Visit Keith Howland's web site Visit Chicago's web site  Visit Matt Laug's web site Visit Lance Morrison's web site Visit Chris Pinnick's web site Notes from Keith Howland on each CD:
Hopefully you will enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it!
Then one day in the fall of 2003 I received a call from a friend inquiring if the Project would be interested in playing a benefit concert in LA for a worthy cause. Well, we accepted the offer and decided to take the opportunity to play the benefit but to also book a gig the following night at the world famous jazz club "The Baked Potato" in North Hollywood. I've seen many amazing musicians in that little windowless club that seats about 75 people including Larry Carlton, Steve Lukather, Michael Landau, Allan Holdsworth, Greg Mathieson and the late great Jeff Porcaro just to name a few. We knew that bassist Lance Morrison was a lock for the 3rd member of the live band but we needed someone who could come in and really cover lots of musical bases and also elevate the improvisation side to a level worthy of The Baked Potato name. Well, we found him in keyboardist Steve Weingart who most know from his work with the amazing Dave Weckl Band. Now that the band was in place, we scheduled a rehearsal for the day of the benefit and each of us started working on the material on our own time. Leading up to the shows, I waffled on whether to bring along some recording gear to document the performances but decided in the end to go forward with the plan. Well, the rehearsal was decent, the benefit was better, but the Potato gig really had some magic moments. The band was still having to pay attention to arrangements as well as just remembering melodies and changes but everyone was listening to each other and the improvisation and interaction was inspiring. After listening to the recordings of that night, you could really hear the excitement and fun that we were all having as well as the sound of that tiny magical room. At that point I started to ask myself whether we should go ahead and release our first gig (well second I guess) as a live album or if we should do more shows and see if we could do better. Could we perform some of the Xs and Os of the tunes better? Sure we could. Could we recapture the magic of our first gig at the Baked Potato? Probably not. So with that, I present to you The Howland/Imboden Project "Live At The Baked Potato" and hope that you can feel the energy of that night in the recording. I know I sure can!
Chris was (is) an exciting, energetic and musical player with frightening chops. My guitar technician Hank Steiger who has been with the band for over 30 years has maintained a friendship with Chris and speaks with him frequently. When Chris' name came up in conversation one day I said "Tell Chris he's a Bad Dude!". Hank relayed the message and returned saying "Chris says he likes your playing too...". Still having never spoken with Chris, I told Hank to tell him that "we should make a record together". The messenger returned with "Chris says, OK let's make a record". I decided to move forward, calling my good friends and monster musicians Lance Morrison (bass, Don Henley, Rod Stewart) and Matt Laug (drums, Alanis Morrisette, Slash) to see if they were interested in recording an instrumental art project. Both were in, phone calls were made, a date was set and my first meeting with Chris was the day he pulled up in front of my house, guitar in hand and we wrote and recorded what is now called "Snonga". You can hear us sort of feeling our way on that track, never having played together and not knowing what to expect from each other. The solos were live during tracking and there is a friendly competition evident there. Each song on the record was recorded exactly the same way, with someone (or nobody) bringing in a seed of an idea and the four of us hashing it out until we were all satisfied with the results. Usually in about 2-3 hours we would have written, arranged and tracked a tune in it's entirety only to return to it to overdub the occasional melody line. Finally, once we felt we had a record with great tunes, performances and diversity, we brought in Jeff Babko to weave some of his keyboard magic on 3 tunes. Jeff truly is amazing, integrating himself into the song as if he had been there for the tracking session. As a final touch and a different flavor, my good friend and drummer with Chicago Tris Imboden came over and added some soulful "Blues Harp" to the rocker "Laug Jam". I now have a new good friend in Chris Pinnick, lots of guitar licks to steal and an album that I'm very proud of. Now that you know the story and the spirit behind the recording of "Howland, Laug, Morrison, & Pinnick", I hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed playing!
It was great to work with Chris as I have always admired his fiery playing style and diverse abilities. Well, fast forward to November of 2003 when I had booked a gig with my other band "The Howland/Imboden Project" at the world famous jazz club "The Baked Potato". While on the phone with Justin Randi who books the club, I asked if there were any dates coming up that the HLMP band could use as our debut live performance. Well, it just so happened that the night following the Howland/Imboden Project was open so I snapped it up. Any opportunity to not have to tear down your equipment is a good enough excuse to take a gig for me! As we began discussing the live show, one issue that came up in conversation was what to do about recreating the brilliant keyboard work done by Jeff Babko on the record. Jeff unfortunately for us and fortunately for him is the keyboardist in the house band for the Jimmy Kimmel show which airs live at about 9PM Pacific time. As it turns out, while he couldn't make the first set, he was cool with coming down for the second set so we were set. (Can I say "set" again please?) The gig arrived and our first set was good, not great, but good. We had one rehearsal a week prior and were kind of finding our way as we went along. We took a break, I had a beer, and Babko showed up at which time the dynamic changed dramatically. What you hear on the live CD is the entire second set book ended by Snonga and Swingset Assembly from the first set. It's as it happened and it was pretty happening! Pinnick has always been a guy who I've found to have that extra gear when it comes to live playing and Jeff Babko was just superb. Lance and Matt really played their posteriors off and supported the soloists beautifully. I observed, recorded, applauded, and oh yeah, I played guitar as well, I almost forgot. There's a great energy happening on this CD and I hope you will feel it too! | ||||||||||||||||