Jams with Justin Valente

An instrumental version of the blues classic Sky is Crying, made famous by Stevie Ray Vaughn.  My first work with Justin, who has been an inspiration and is truly a world class blues guitar player.  Fun to post today on Justin's birthday.   Check out @justin-valente to hear more of his special blues 

Guitars and Bass:  Justin Valente (@Justin-Valente)
Organ:  Jamie Rhind
Drums:  Blues Drums Vol.1 from the Loop Loft

Sky is Crying - with Justin Valente / guitar and bass

Bringing a soulful sound to SoundCloud with this one.  Lifetime recording artist, soul vocalist, saxophone and harmonica player Johnny Pugh sits in with blues guitarist extraordinaire Justin Valente and me on an emotional Ray Charles type slow jam.  What a wonderful surprise to hear Johnny's beautiful harp lines, which fit perfectly with Justin's raw electric blues energy.  Real proud of this one, as it captures the heart and spirit of why we all love SoundCloud.   Check out Johnny and Justin's music here - you will love their playing.  Thanks for listening.

BUY JAMIE'S MUSIC

Soul Brothers - with Justin Valente guitar and Johnny Pugh blues harp and horns

A swinging shuffle with the outstanding Justin Valente on electric guitar.  Justin developed this 12 bar blues after listening to one of his favorite bands, Gov't Mule.  If you are into serious blues and electric guitar, you gotta check out more of New Jersey's own Justin Valente.  He's all over SoundCloud and loves to create and share new music almost every day.  Gotta love his complete understanding of how to play some serious blues - Gov't Mule style here!  Thanks as always for taking the time to listen and to comment.  Means a lot.

https://soundcloud.com/justin-valente

guitar and bass: Justin Valente
organ: Jamie Rhind (@jamie-rhind)
drums: Terrence Higgins Greasy Grooves from Loop Loft (@thelooploft)


Mule's Blues - with Justin Valente / guitar

Johnny Pugh Vocals & alto sax, Justin Valente Guitar, Christian Pearl piano, Jamie Rhind organ, Craig Rhind Bass & Enrico Garcia Drums

FOOL FOR THE BRIGHT LIGHT LIGHTS (Collaboration)Johnny Pugh , Justin Valente, Jamie Rhind & others

Justin https://soundcloud.com/justin-valente and I wanted to throw out a guitar/organ jam to thank Tom Adams https://soundcloud.com/tytlblues for his incredible support of the Blues here on SoundCloud.  Inspirational and a mentor he has been to so many around the world.  So many countries.  Yesterday Tom surprised us all with a Soundcloud farewell jam and so we thought it would be best to get right back to him to let him know we digged his efforts for us all here.  On Payday,  Justin just takes this one home for Tom, as only Justin can.  He's picking up the organ and drum groove and spinning it around silly.  Heavy blues rock sound from New Jersey!!  Gotta love it.  Sweet sweet electricity.  We're missing you already here Tom.  You know it.  The stage is always open.....Let's hear some Soundcloud love for Tom and Justin.  And thanks as always for your listening, comments and shares!


https://soundcloud.com/tytlblues
https://soundcloud.com/justin-valente



Payday - Tribute to Tom Adams - with Justin Valente / guitar

Had been way too long since I had asked Justin Valente https://soundcloud.com/justin-valente to join me, but when I created this funky Mr. Hip he was the perfect choice to join the fun.  Justin is simply one of the finest blues and blues rock guitarists I have ever known, and has an extensive collection of great tracks here on SoundCloud and a very large international following.  We've recorded about 20 tunes together the past couple years here, and are real excited to share this one with you.

Justin takes the first solo, and brings a screaming sound, perfect rhythm to meet and match the funky rhodes and groove, and creates so much excitement with his solo.    I follow with a heavy synth solo, to finish.  We were looking to draw on the sound that Tommy Bolin and Jan Hammer achieved on Billy Cobham's important jazz rock Spectrum album.

Thanks as always for your most generous time listening, for your comments and for your shares.  

Mr. Hip - with Justin Valente / guitar

Thought I'd ask the great Justin Valente https://soundcloud.com/justin-valente, my favorite blues rock guitarist on SoundCloud, to join me on this modal blues rock original. I'm such a huge fan of fine guitarists, and ever since I heard Justin's sound here I quickly fell in love with what he is doing.  Was going to create space to join him on the soloing, but in the end wanted to share his full playing.  Justin's laid back blues orientation works so well with this groove, which was written for him in mind.  Reminds me of the opportunities so many of us have had in rehearsal and recording rooms, in basements and (I guess) in garages to stretch out.  The name stands for Justin and Jamie...we both love a great jam.  And if you love the blues and blues rock, be sure to jump onto Justin's page and follow him.  Always a great tune coming your way.  We have now done over 25 tunes together here and each one is a thrill.  Thanks Justin!

And for those interested, I have just released Barcelona and I Believe, 2 CDs of my own music and a few jazz standards. SoundCloud's Dan van den Berg and Al Schulman wrote the liner notes for them. Here's a link if you are interested in checking them out - itunes.apple.com/us/album/barcelona/id1071251143

Thanks so much for your generous time listening, for your comments and for your shares.

J & J Jam - with Justin Valente / guitar

1971 was an important time in music, where electricity was changing the landscape and Rock, Funk, Soul and Jazz were all merging into psychedelic grooves.  Marshal stacks were often taller than the players, the players were higher than the Marshal stacks, Strats and Les Pauls were the axes of choice, Hammond B3 Organs and Fender Rhodes keyboards could compete for volume with the guitars, and the hair was even longer than the jams.   Woodstock was a recent memory, Jimi Hendrix had just passed but had moved into the funk and soul inspired Band of Gypsies period, Sly & The Family Stone was heating it up with heavy funk and soul inspired grooves, and Miles Davis had just released the seminal Bitches Brew fusion double album that literally changed music.  This was where it was at, with each of these musicians and bands being influenced by each other.  Great stuff that produced legendary sessions and recordings and pushed music forward with power, energy, groove and volume.  

1971 commemorates this time and mindset, and recreates the feel with friends from around the world who continuously exhibit this spirit, energy and hair in their playing:

Alpha Roots - djembe  Stuttgart, Germany  https://soundcloud.com/alpha-roots
Rikard From - Hammond B3 organ  Umea, Sweden  https://soundcloud.com/rikard-from
Stephen "Pinner" Lipinski - guitar  New Jersey, USA  https://soundcloud.com/pinner
Scott Nelson - guitar  Pennsylvania, USA  https://soundcloud.com/scott-nelson-364333064
Marco Oversteegen - guitar  Almere, Netherlands  https://soundcloud.com/marco-oversteegen
Justin Valente  - guitar  New Jersey, USA  https://soundcloud.com/justin-valente
Jorg Calaminus - Dusseldorf, Germany - mastering

A couple of words on each of the players:  ALPHA ROOTS - Alphio was the perfect choice to add his soulful African djembe percussion voice.  One of the most prolific and inclusive musicians here on SoundCloud, always speaking with a positive voice.  Check out his often reggae and dub inspired recordings.  RICKARD FROM - my favorite B3 player here on SoundCloud.  We haven't recorded before but wanted his beautiful sound and also wanted these other heavy cats to be introduced to his Jimmy Smith type playing.  STEPHEN "PINNER" LIPINSKI - one of the hottest jazz fusion guitarists on SoundCloud, bringing more modern Scofieldesque jazz lines and harmonies to 1971.  SCOTT NELSON - another burning jazz and fusion guitarist, Scott sound combines elements of the contemporary guitar masters - Scofield, Metheny and Martino - to create his extraordinary playing.  MARCO OVERSTEEGEN - no one on SC has a closer overall sound to Hendrix, and we needed Marco's fabulous rhythm playing and soloing to anchor this 1971 mood.  JUSTIN VALENTE - Justin's my favorite blues rock guitarist, and just had to be a part of this summit, bringing us that heavy electric sound of Jimi, The Allman Bros, Freddie King and Stevie Ray Vaughn.  

So here's 1971.  Again.

Thanks to these great players for joining me and contributing so much to 1971, and also to all the listener, for your generous time, your comments and your shares.  And a special thanks to Jorg Calaminus for taking the initiative to master the sound for us to give you this real fine mix.
  

1971 - Alpha Roots, Rikard From, Scott Nelson, Marco Oversteegen, Pinner, Justin Valente, Jamie

We've got Justin Valente throwing down the Golden State Blues.  Justin and I share a love for blues and basketball, and when the Golden State Warriors had the finest season in NBA history it was almost a lock for their second championship in a row.  But Lebron's Cavs beat them in the finals and our blues tune was started.  Just this last week, however, Kevin Durant joined Golden State, turning around their Blues into smiles.  Now the entire NBA is running scared.

Justin nails his soloing here, and has created a swinging rhythm guitar track too.  We've done about 28 tunes here on SoundCloud...and if you aren't following his outstanding guitar playing, here's a link to do so...https://soundcloud.com/justin-valente 

Thanks for all your generous time listening, for your comments and for your shares.

Golden State Blues - with Justin Valente / guitar

This is a tune of Jamie's that we did last year.  I always liked it but hated the harsh noisy sound of the guitar track I gave him.  So I stumbled on this and spent some time trying to fix the guitar sound - I think it's a little better anyway lol.

Johnny & Jamie sound great on this as they always do - thanks to Jamie for letting me play around with it :)

Soul Brothers (featuring Jamie Rhind - keys & Johnny Pugh - harp)

Sometimes that workload just gets a little heavy.  This is one of those times.

Joining us here is SoundCloud's finest blues rocker Justin Valente and slap bassist extraordinaire Mirko Borach.  Check out their deep galleries with other fine musicians:

Justin Valente:  https://soundcloud.com/justin-valente
Mirko Borach:  https://soundcloud.com/stringburner

Thanks as always for your generous time listening, for your comments and for your shares.

Heavy Workload - with Justin Valente / guitar and Mirko "Stringburner" Borach / bass

Here is a blues jam with Jamie on keyboards and me on guitar & bass.  Drums are loops from the loop loft.  This track unintentionally sounded like a Jerry Garcia Band blues to me, so I attempted to play it in that style but abandoned that because I don't do well trying to emulate anyone else lol :)  

Thanks as always to Jamie who just kills on this - hope you enjoy :)

Blues for Jerry (featuring Jamie Rhind)

This is a cover of Little Milton's "That's What Love Will Make You Do" with Jamie on keyboards and me on guitar and bass.  We did this as an instrumental and the track is based on the Jerry Garcia Band version.  

Thanks as always to Jamie :)  We hope you enjoy!

That's What Love Will Make You Do (featuring Jamie Rhind)

Haven't been playing or posting much lately, but reposting this because I played with the mix today for fun.

Named because it felt like eternity for me to finish this track because my DAW kept crashing :) This is a little blues jam that started as one thing and ended up as another. It is me on guitars and bass, Jamie on keyboards, and drum loops from Beta Monkey.

Thanks to Jamie as always for being so flexible and easy to work with. He adds a lot to this track and sounds great. We hope you enjoy :)

Eternity Blues (featuring Jamie Rhind)

It is with great sadness that Justin Valente and I are releasing a version of the classic Statesboro Blues just a couple of days following the passing of Gregg Allman, the leader, soulful vocalist and Hammond Organ player of the Allman Bros. Band.  Gregg was legendary, and such an important musical force with the merging of Blues, Rock, Soul, Country and Jazz, keeping the Allman Brothers band together and touring for over 40 years.  Statesboro Blues is one of their most famous recordings, released in 1971 on their seminal At Filmore East live album.  The Allman Bros. have been such an important influence on Justin's great playing, and so he's the perfect guitarist to join me to bring you this classic blues.  Check out Justin's beautiful blues and blues rock playing and recordings at https://soundcloud.com/justin-valente and at https://soundcloud.com/jamie-rhind/sets/jamming-with-justin-valente-1 for our 32 tunes we have recorded together so far.  RIP Gregg.
Thanks as always for your generous time listening, for your comments and for your shares

Statesboro Blues - a tribute to Gregg Allman - with Justin Valente / guitar

This is a little track I put together to jam with on New Year's Eve and finished last night with the help of Jamie on keyboards.  I am playing my PRS with a Qtron and MojoHand Sacred Cow thru a Quilter amp.  

Thanks as always to Jamie - this is the first track we have done in a while and felt good to get back into it!  Happy New Year :)

NYE Jam featuring Jamie Rhind

This is a cover of Jerry Garcia's 'Sugaree' - which is a cool old bluesy tune.  Jamie (@jamie-rhind) is on keyboards, Mirko (@stringburner) is on bass and I am on guitar.  

Thanks to both Jamie & Mirko as always for the collaboration - I always have fun putting these together.

Sugaree featuring Jamie Rhind & Mirko Borach

This is a cover of the old blues tune - Next Time You See Me, covered by many including my beloved Grateful Dead :)  Jamie is on keys, and me on guitars.  I put the rest of the backing track together with various loops.  I am playing my PRS thru a makeshift rig but hopefully it gets the job done.  Thanks as always to Jamie!

Next Time You See Me (featuring Jamie Rhind)

This track is Jamie & I jamming to Fire on the Mountain by the Grateful Dead.  A simple but catchy tune with a cool bassline, which gave me a chance to use my octave pedal and qtron :) 

Jamie is playing organ and piano here and I am on guitars and bass.  
Thanks to Jamie for pitching in on this tune - always a pleasure!

Fire on the Mountain (featuring Jamie Rhind)

Justin Valente's an exceptional blues rock guitarist and when he asked me to lay down a little Hammond behind him I had to jump.  Check out what Justin does, to the emotion and heart he pours into each note and bend.  I've always been so impressed how Justin navigates the blues form, bringing high energy to bars 11 and 12, driving the music forward with soul and energy.

Follow his extensive recordings here:  https://soundcloud.com/justin-valente

And for a collection of the 35+ recordings we have done together:  https://soundcloud.com/jamie-rhind/sets/jamming-with-justin-valente-1

Thanks as always for your generous time listening, for your comments and for your shares

Motherearth - Justin Valente and Jamie Rhind

Jazz/Fusion keyboard player, composer and producer.  Marketing, advertising, publishing and sales career.  Originally from Chicago, where I developed a strong appreciation for the blues and classical, and moved to New York, where jazz and the fine arts are so deep.  Key musical influences include Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Zawinul and Weather Report, Chick Corea and Return to Forever, John McLaughlin and the Mahivishnu Orchestra, Stanley Clarke, Scott Henderson and Tribal Tech, Jeff Beck and Jan Hammer, Mike Stern, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Emily Remler, McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Jimmy Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, Larry Young, Buddy Guy, Santana and Earth Wind & Fire.   Former classical clarinet and piano player.  Unless noted, my music on SoundCloud was composed, recorded and performed using only keyboards.  An avid photographer.  Many covers here are my shots.  To see my photography look for Herbiejazz on Instagram or search for Herbiejazz on Google.  And a big thumbs up to SoundCloud and the SoundCloud community, and so many friends who have joined me to create.  Thank you all.