"Working with Kitaro was a complete immersion in the Japanese culture. I received a phone call from a friend named Randy Hale, a roadie I met in Jeff Lorber’s Band. He asked me if I wanted to fly to LA and audition for a gig with a Japanese artist named Kitaro. I asked him what kind of music it was and he had a difficult time describing it. He said it had something to do with harmonic convergence or something. He told me that I would be paid whether I got the tour or not so flew to L.A. and passed the audition, then began rehearsals the next day.
This was one of the best bands of musicians I had ever worked with. I became friends with Casey Scheuerell and Steven Kindler right away. Two weeks behind schedule, there was a lot of pressure and a serious language barrier to deal with. Kitaro’s music required everything to be perfect. Rehearsals were sometimes fourteen hours long."
Jimi
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We played to sold-out houses throughout the US, Japan, Europe and Canada. The band when I joined consisted of: Casey Scheuerell (who had worked with Geno Vanelli, Santana) on drums and percussion, Steve Kindler, (who had played with, Jeff Beck, Jan Hammer and The Mahavishnu Orchestra) played violin, Steven Bach was the musical director and keyboardist and was the reason I made it through the first week of rehersals. Kenny Park (Elvis Presley) on Percussion and Brian Becvar (Bobby Caldwell, Roberta Flack, Laura Branigan) on keyboards. Jerry Goodman played violin with us briefly and had worked with the “Flock” and ” The Mahavishnu Orchestra” as well. Jerry and I would hang out after rehearsals and sometimes Jerry would tell stories about working with guitar master John McLaughlin.
Jimi
Jimi appeared with Kitaro’s band on four world tours and appears in a PBS cultural documentary. Jimi stopped touring to spend time with his family and write music again”. Jimi’s friend Casey Scheuerell play’s on Jimi’s albums and is now a permanent member of Jimi’s band. |
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