From the songwriting team of Barry Finnerty and Clarita Zarate comes what some have called "the world's most realistic love song"! This is one of our originals on the new BBFC recording. Featuring Arnd Geise, bass, Lutz Krajenski, keys, and a great drum solo by Jost Nickel!

I Hate My Baby (And My Baby Hates Me)

Our take of a classic Mose Allison song from the 60's!

I Don't Worry About A Thing

This is our version of a great Joe Sample/Will Jennings song which was recorded by both B.B. King and Randy Crawford.

Same Old Story

This tune by composer/pianist Joe Sample was a big instrumental hit for the Crusaders in 1971. Now with new lyrics written by the songwriting team of Barry Finnerty & Clarita Zarate, it is being released worldwide by the Italian 4-piece band Barry Finnerty SuperBad Funk Machine featuring Barry Finnerty, guitar and vocals, Paolo Sturiale, bass, Luca Colussi, drums and Francesco di Luisa on keyboards. Mixed by Sven Peks. Produced by BF.

PUT IT WHERE YOU WANT IT

An original blues. Also from the Blues For Trane CD (2010).

Blue Z

The title tune from my 2010 "BLUES FOR TRANE" CD. I feel it evokes some of the blues feeling and spiritual mood of some of Coltrane's work.

Blues For Trane

Also from "MANHATTAN SESSIONS PART 1"...This song has a story behind it. I wrote the music for it in the mid- 90's. I was trying to write something a little bit in the style of Clare Fischer, the pianist who is known for his VERY harmonically sophisticated Latin jazz compositions. But I never named it until 2001 when I got together with my (almost) wife Clarita. I decided to name it after her because she and the tune have a lot in common... they are both quite complicated and go through a lot of changes! I finally wrote the lyrics a few years ago... completing this musical portrait of a woman who, like the song, is quite a piece of work!


Clarita

Our arrangement of the Joe Sample/Will Jennings song that Barry recorded with the Crusaders on their 1982 Standing Tall album.

This Old World's Too Funky For Me

We wrote this song remembering San Francisco in the 60's and wondering if it's possible that peace and love could somehow make a comeback in the modern world... because back then, at least... the hippies tried. Some have found it reminiscent of the Beatles psychedelic peace/love period (Sgt Pepper, All You Need Is Love, Imagine, etc.) and we hope that's true!

The Hippies Tried

Also from the "Blues For Trane" CD.."Knee-Bop" is an original of mine which is based on reversed rhythm changes in C. Instead of C-A7-D-G7, it goes C-Eb7-Ab-Db7. Then after three 2-5 changes in the bridge, I threw in some of Coltrane's "Giant Steps" changes for good measure! I was originally going to call this one "Neo-Bop" because of the rather new combinations of chord changes, but it turned out to be such a knee-slapper I decided to call it "Knee-Bop" instead!

Knee-Bop

An early excerpt from my semi-autobiographical novel, "START". In 1994 New York,  an embittered, despondent, and self-medicating Barry Finnerty reminisces about his first meeting with Miles Davis. Full audio book now available at Amazon and Audible dot com.

"START" Excerpt

From my 2010 Manhattan Sessions Part 1 CD, this tune by the great Brazilian composer Guinga is one of the most beautiful things I have ever recorded. Dave Kikoski takes a magnificent piano solo on this. With Ron McClure, acoustic bass, Graham Hawthorne, drums, and Chuggy Carter, percussion. String arrangement by yours truly.

Dos Anjos

This track from the 2010 release Manhattan Sessions Part 1 features Randy Brecker on trumpet, backed by Dave Kikoski, keys, Victor Bailey, Bass, Graham Hawthorne, drums, and Chuggy Carter, percussion. This is about as smooth as my jazz gets. The melody is re-harmonized a few different ways.

MANHATTAN SESSIONS

Malibu

In New York City in the mid-1990's, internationally known guitar player Barry Finnerty found himself in a very bad place. His glory days of the 70's and 80's, when he was recording with Miles Davis, flying first class around the world with the Crusaders, making legendary records such as "Heavy Metal Bebop" with the Brecker Bros, banging beautiful groupies and partying non-stop - all of that is a distant memory.
As he reminisces about the past and laments what might have been, he has no choice but to make a living as the rock singer in a high society tuxedo band, a job with no artistic satisfaction whatsoever, which he finds highly depressing to say the least. Self-medication with booze and cocaine is continuous, and he becomes so unhinged at one point that he actually believes he can escape his predicament by getting into a relationship with Yuvana Crump (the ex-wife of the notorious New York real estate tycoon Ronald Crump) because she smiles at him while he is onstage at a tuxedo gig at the Waldorf. When that brilliant idea doesn't work out so well, he starts thinking that maybe becoming a stand-up comedian might be his way out.
The often hilarious narrative, told in the first person (from Barry's own perspective) and in the present tense (except when recalling past memories), blurs the barriers between memoir and fiction. "There's a lot of reality in it," says Barry. "although many of the names have been changed to protect the guilty. And a lot of it sounds like it really could have happened... although most of it didn't. But some of it did!"

START Podcast #1

From the audiobook "START" - In 1994 New York City, an embittered, despondent, and self-medicating Barry Finnerty reminisces about his first meeting with Miles Davis.

Start Podcast #2

This tune was featured on Teruo Nakamura's "Superfriends" CD in the 90's. Toots Thielemans plays the melody on harmonica, with Steve Gadd on drums and Marcus Miller on bass.

Country Weather

This track was featured on Teruo Nakamura's "Superfriends" CD in the 90s. Toots Thielemans plays the melody on harmonica, with Steve Gadd on drums and Marcus Miller on bass.

BOM! - The title means "Good!" in Portuguese. But this is more of an African high-life kind of groove, partially inspired by a CD I had called "Soukous Vibration". Soukous is a popular African style well known for its intricate interlocking guitar parts. I threw in a little of that on the intro. But then Randy and I play the "A" melody in harmony and then the "B" melody (which I just started whistling one day while driving my car!) in unison. Everyone in the band gets featured on this one.

Bom mp3

It's simply... The Most Sucky-Est Time Of The Year! Ain't that the truth?

The Most Sucky - Est Time Of The Year

From our 2005 "Global Warning" CD... unfortunately it seems just as true today...

It's Gonna Get Worse (Before It Gets Better)

A special sneak preview from my new (as yet unreleased) German recording. The band is called BBFC (Bad Barry Finnerty Collective) and features the great Jost Nickel on drums, the fabulous Arnd Geise on bass, and the phenomenal Lutz Krajenski on Hammond organ. And three horns! This is one of four great Mose Allison songs we recorded.

Everybody's Crying Mercy

One of my all time favorite Mose Allison songs.  BBFC (Bad Barry Finnerty Collective) features the great Jost Nickel on drums, the fabulous Arnd Geise on bass, and the phenomenal Lutz Krajenski on Hammond organ. Plus three horns! This is one of four Mose songs we recorded.

Stop This World

FOR MILES - I wrote this in the winter of 1981 in my loft on West 30th Street in New York. I was feeling bad about the way things had gone with me and Miles earlier that year and I wanted to write something special for him that I thought might patch things up between us. Unfortunately he never got to play it ... or even heard it. The melody at bar 17 is a bit reminiscent of the bridge of "Milestones". Here Randy Brecker is in the role of Miles - complete with Harmon mute - and does a beautiful job.

Featuring: Randy Brecker, trumpet 
Victor Bailey, electric bass
Dave Kikoski, piano
Graham Hawthorne, drums,
Chuggy Carter, percussion


For Miles

From the songwriting team of Barry Finnerty and Clarita Zarate, this is one of our originals on the forthcoming BBFC record! That's me singing, playing guitar and doing the horn arrangements along with Jost Nickel, drums, Arnd Geise, bass, and Lutz Krajenski on Hammond B-3!

Keeping People Stupid

Barry Finnerty is an internationally known guitarist, having played with such jazz luminaries as Miles Davis (The Man With The Horn), the Crusaders (Street Life) and the Brecker Bros. (Heavy Metal Bebop). He is also the author of two acclaimed "Serious Jazz" educational books. He now lives in Oakland, California with his wife Clarita and several dogs. "START" is his first literary work.
Synopsis:
In New York City in the mid-1990's, internationally known guitar player Barry Finnerty found himself in a very bad place. His glory days of the 70's and 80's, when he was recording with Miles Davis, flying first class around the world with the Crusaders, making legendary records such as "Heavy Metal Bebop" with the Brecker Bros, banging beautiful groupies and partying non-stop - all of that is a distant memory.
As he reminisces about the past and laments what might have been, he has no choice but to make a living as the rock singer in a high society tuxedo band, a job with no artistic satisfaction whatsoever, which he finds highly depressing to say the least. Self-medication with booze and cocaine is continuous, and he becomes so unhinged at one point that he actually believes he can escape his predicament by getting into a relationship with Yuvana Crump (the ex-wife of the notorious New York real estate tycoon Ronald Crump) because she smiles at him while he is onstage at a tuxedo gig at the Waldorf. When that brilliant idea doesn't work out so well, he starts thinking that maybe becoming a stand-up comedian might be his way out.
The often hilarious narrative, told in the first person (from Barry's own perspective) and in the present tense (except when recalling past memories), blurs the barriers between memoir and fiction. "There's a lot of reality in it," says Barry. "although many of the names have been changed to protect the guilty. And a lot of it sounds like it really could have happened... although most of it didn't. But some of it did!"

Barry Finnerty

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