Album Notes

'Crossfire" by Dino and David

This is an album we created for our favorite regular customers, featuring some of our most-requested tunes. Soulful vocals, smooth piano and organ stylings and impassioned performances make this a great musical experience.

The album features the Hammond prominently throughout. Renowned jazz DJ Pete Fallico had this to say:

The onset of synthesizers in the mid-seventies opened up new possibilities for pianists and organ players. The good news was that these lightly constructed keyboards could be taken to the gig in the trunk of your car...and still provide a decent variety of piano and organ sounds with which to work. The bad news was that the great war-horse, Hammond B-3 organ, was pushed aside or behind the curtains... not to be heard from on the same scale until a decade later. Dino Vera and David 'Dasher' Kempton know this saga only too well as they both participated in the era of jazz organ and knew it's dynamics from start to finish. They were there!

That's why the music in this CD represents so much to so many people... It provides a myriad of memories that encompass this long lost era. Revitalizing and updating the organ room sound with samplings from the jazz, rock and pop music worlds, Dino and David have given us the era in an encapsulated format. We hear a spectrum of sounds from the sixties and seventies neatly presented in synth and drum style...with earnest vocals and fortified solos. As David has put it: 'It's like a baseball game...we're covering all the bases'.

Listen to this music with a smile on your face...it feels good, the way it should.

Pete Fallico
KUSP, Santa Cruz
KCSM, San Mateo

More detailed listening at http://www.thesoundsmith.com/xfire.htm