(left photo by S. Hardy/right photo by S.Alt, 2013, The Hague)
Bruno Speight plays guitar on Saxify, Open Up, You And Me, Throwback, Tudo Bem, Sugar Sweet and wrote the music of "You And Me".
The problem is, that I cannot find anything written about this master of the guitar. Fortunately we have Discogs. Where to start? In the 90's, I discovered Maceo Parker and friends of mine from Munich took me to a concert. We had Maceo Parker's "Live On Planet Groove" on repeat. In 1995, after just seeing the band at North Jazz Festival I met Bruno at the afterparty at Bel Air in The Hague, the place where musicians and fans would join and attend the jam session, lead by George Benson.
Next time Maceo came to Europe, my friends and I met the whole band, including drummer Jamal Thomas and Maceo Parker, Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley. Here's "Shake everything you got" from that movie "My first name is Maceo":
We kept in touch over the years and in 2008 I invited Bruno and Fred as guests for my 2009 album "On Track". Here's a smoking solo by Bruno...
Before joining Maceo in around 1993 or 94, he had played with Bobby Byrd. Before that, he was the guitar player of The S.O.S. Band. When I started to buy vinyl albums 10 years ago, I really got into The S.O.S. Band. The more I listened, the more I realised that I knew the music, childhood memories of teenagers dancing to it on parties.. but didn't know who it was! They had such big hits!
Look, not only Bruno (with a white cap) but also Jamal Thomas on drums :-) Bruno Speight is one of the most funky jazzy guitar players on this planet and I am very, very happy that he plays on Saxify.Bewaren
So the first time we played the music from Royalty For Real wasn't in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, but in Bengaluru and Mumbai, all the way in India in 2023!Here you'll see me play Au Privave, Classy Cats and Royalty For Real, together with Timothy Banchet (piano), Marius Beets (bass) and Sven Rozier (drums).Au Privave is a well-known blues by Charlie Parker which I often like to start with, almost like a soundcheck tune. Although most of the time a soundcheck is done I found out it's a good idea to play a tune everybody of the band knows very well so we all can get used to the sound of the stage, the presence of the audience and it also gives the sound engineer the chance to adjust microphones last minute. During the soundcheck, the sound of the room is significantly different because of the lack of audience. All that flesh and clothes work a little bit like a totally empty room versus a room with furniture and carpets, if you know what I mean :-)Acoustics are so interesting and full of surprises.. Anyways.. hope you like it! - (left photo by S. Hardy/right photo by S.Alt, 2013, The Hague) Bruno Speight plays guitar on Saxify, Open Up, You And Me, Throwback, Tudo Bem, Sugar Sweet and wrote the music of You And Me.The problem is, that I cannot find anything written about this master of the guitar.Fortunately we have Discogs. Where to start? In the 90's, I discovered Maceo Parker and friends of mine from Munich took me to a concert. We had Maceo Parker's Live On Planet Groove on repeat. In 1995, after just seeing the band at North Jazz Festival I met Bruno at the afterparty at Bel Air in The Hague, the place where musicians and fans would join and attend the jam session, lead by George Benson. Next time Maceo came to Europe, my friends and I met the whole band, including drummer Jamal Thomas and Maceo Parker, Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley. Here's Shake everything you got from that movie My first name is Maceo:We kept in touch over the years and in 2008 I invited Bruno and Fred as guests for my 2009 album On Track. Here's a smoking solo by Bruno...Before joining Maceo in around 1993 or 94, he had played with Bobby Byrd. Before that, he was the guitar player of The S.O.S. Band. When I started to buy vinyl albums 10 years ago, I really got into The S.O.S. Band. The more I listened, the more I realised that I knew the music, childhood memories of teenagers dancing to it on parties.. but didn't know who it was! They had such big hits!Look, not only Bruno (with a white cap) but also Jamal Thomas on drums :-)Bruno Speight is one of the most funky jazzy guitar players on this planet and I am very, very happy that he plays on Saxify.Bewaren
