Album Notes

Michael Alan Butler has seen a lot of life from the business end of blues bars around the Pacific Northwest. So much so that his doctor advised him to give it up or die. So he took a day job and turned his musical attention to the classic songs he grew up hearing Sinatra and Ella sing. But while you can take the man out of the smoky dive, you can't take the smoky dive out of the man's voice. In that voice one can hear all the pain and joy of a life lived hard and honestly.

MAB is featured with the Garry Hagberg/Tom Bergeron Quartet on their second outing (following their debut CD Jobim Now). These classic songs are dusted off and refurbished with grooves befitting a quartet whose collective interests include jazz of all persuasions, blues and R&B, Afro-Cuban/Afro-Brazilian music, and beyond.

Cameo appearances by two veterans and two brilliant young artists help make this a set of tracks that will cause you to forget these songs were written half a century ago. Or maybe it will remind you what a golden age of songwriting that era really was.

PERSONNEL

Tom Bergeron - saxophones
Garry Hagberg - guitars
Mark Schneider - bass
Alan Tarpinian - drums

Featuring
Michael Alan Butler - vocals

Special Guests
Sherry Alves - backup vocals
Keller Coker - trombone
Alex Hargreaves - violin
Christopher Woitach - guitar