This is my latest, though it is one from WAY back. Please read the backstory below.

Thanks to David Snyder, MarioD and Guitarhacker for their guitar solos. They are in that order as you listen.

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day (most of the early work was done Feb 2)
Tempo: 120
Key: Dmaj7
Time Sig: 4/4
1 - RealDrums-JazzFunkMovin^1-HHSdStk,HHSnr
2 - RealDrums-JazzFunkPop^1-HHSdStk,HHSnr
3 - RealDrums-FusionBusyTerryClarke^1-Sticks
4 - RT2608 Bass, Electric, ModernDiscoFunkAlex Ev 110
5 - RealPiano 1772 Piano, Electric, Rhythm JazzFunkMovin Ev
6 - RealGuitar 1770 Guitar, Electric, Rhythm JazzFunkMovinC
7 - RealStrings 1771 Guitar, Electric, Rhythm JazzFunkMovin
8 - Loop Percussion Loops Loop124bpm Shaker 16ths
9 - tambourine
10 - Intro1
11 - intro2
12 - intro3
13 - my piano
14 - lead sax
15 - dave guit solo
16 - piano solo (Jeff Lorber Real Track)
17 - mario guit solo
18 - sax solo (Eric Marienthal Real Track)
19 - herb guit solo

When I was a much younger man, in college, I had some truly great profs. One was named Roland, who passed in September of 2016. He would stay after classes as long as the students asked him to. Great guy, and an outstanding 5 instrument musician.

So in my last year of college, fall of 77, we were getting ready to do the fall recital. It was swing band, orchestra, then jazz band. I played in both swing and jazz, as did most of the horn players. Jazz band was bigger. Played a lot of Glenn MIller, Benny Goodman type charts.

Getting ready for this show, knowing it would be my last as I was graduating, I asked a bunch of the guys to hang around after class and asked if they would like to do something original. They all said yes, so I showed them a song that was loosely what is now here called Groundhog Day. We worked on this thing for about 3-4 sessions and at the end of a class I said "Roland, we have something we'd like you to hear. Can you hang around another 10 minutes?" and he said yes. So we played this song for him. When we finished he said "What was that? I never heard that." and I told him I wrote it and we would LOVE to do it. So he took out some old thing and put it in as the last song of the 8.

And here's where it got personal and sentimental. Before we did that song, he turned and told the audience "Up to now we have played all songs by dead guys." (Waited for the laughter to stop.) "We are going to do one now by a LIVING American composer." So he counted us in and we hit it. When we finished he turned and said "I'd like to ask the composer of that last song to stand please." And I stood up and got a very generous round of applause. Did my short head bow, turned to the players to give them some props, walked to the mic and said "I just had the basic idea for the melody. These guys worked hard on it with me and made it a song." And we all got a nice hand and he called it a night. He was quite influential for me and I miss him. I last saw him about 6 months before he passed when he wandered into a place I was having lunch and joined me.

Great story Eddie. Heartfelt and generous.

What an excellent and musically marvelous composition. This has great drive throughout, and the embellishments from the other forum team members has added perfect color to an already quality delivery.

Yes, really Great!

Hi Eddie.

Not quite what i expected from you but most refreshing and very smooth.
Enjoyed the guitar variety also. Great work all round.
thanks for the marvelous story.

Cheers.

Eddie & Team

Great story - really entertaining piece. Excellent arrangement and 3 very nice guitar solos.
A very enjoyable composition all round.

Peter

Hi Eddie,

It's always good to get the background story to a track and this one obviously
has lots of great memories for you.

Loved the song. Very smooth and lots going on, but always hanging together perfectly.

Some nice playing from the lads, too!

Excellent mix on this - nicely done.

Cheers, ROG.

Thanks, coach. Learning how to use some plug ins I recently acquired.

A good team effort. A nice listen.

Thanks Floyd. I had to dust off the sax and go buy reeds to play that! LOL!!!

Sounds great Eddie!

What a mix!

Way to go Mario and Herb! This was a lot of fun!!!!!

Eddie,
Not at all what I expected from the title, but even this non-jazz fan can appreciate the smooth playing here.Nice mix and cool to listen to the different guitar styles of your forum compadres.

Robert

The guys did a nice job, didn't they?? 3 different styles that all fit in very nicely.

The title was just because I did the rhythm beds on Feb 2. As the backstory said, this is from back in college. I was in college before computers, much less cell phones, so there was never a recording of it. Unless some student's parents made home video.... And in 1977, home video meant a big light tree like antlers on a moose! Man, I was 26 then!

Cool tune Eddie. Thanks for sharing the history of the song. Loved the backtrack. Super guitar work from Mario, David and Herb. Well done

Dear "eddie1261", David Snyder, "MarioD" and "Guitarhacker":

Ma-a-a-n-nn, this "Groundhog Day" SMOKES !!! Definitely pressed my 70's button. You certainly got the "Band" out of the "Box" on this one, gents. I'm jealous !!!

I'll be listening to this, again, that is, after I find out where I put my bell-bottoms, platform shoes, "disco" shirt, vest, gold chain belt, aviator sunglasses...

Groovy !!!

LOREN

Hi, Eddie !:))


This is absolutely great !
Love those wonderful chords !!!
Super collab ! Congrats
to all involved !

Cheers
Dani

I wanted to add that simply by sheer coincidence, Professor Roland's son is now the guy I hire for handyman work. He just put in a laminate floor in my living room and soon will do work on my bathroom.

Great track, great playing guys and a great recording.

Eddie, this was a fun project. Thanks for inviting me to join you in this musical adventure. I don't often get to work on things that are outside of my normal natural genre. So this proved to be a really fun project to play on.

Dani... see I told you so.


To everyone who commented, thanks for listening. A little background on my part in this conspiracy. I was asked to play something jazzy with a fairly clean tone. So I ended up actually laying 3 different tracks. I let Eddie make the final decision as to which one he wanted. The first was tasteful and clean with the kind of tone you expect to hear on jazz. I sent a second track that was more... "inspired" a bit later. Eddie said he liked that one better, so..... I took the leap, threw common sense and my dog Lilly, out the door, and switched the amp model to a layered boutique over-driven tube sound....and threw in my UD pedal for a touch more gain on the front end.....I was considering using my Boogie turned up so I could get a natural sustain that drifted into feedback but decided to stay on the POD.... the result was a clean but "Singing" distortion. Then, it was a simple matter to channel Carlos Santana and waaa laaaa.... pretty much a one shot take.


Like David said.... Whoa!!

I like how this turned out.

Good job Eddie on providing a solid musical bed to jam on.

I was happy with Herb's first take. The only down side of it was that it was SO clean and fluid that I already had 2 that were similar in texture. The second take was a little rougher, so I decided to go with that one of the 2. Then he sent me #3 and there was no hesitation to change it out one last time. That gave me 3 distinctly different layers of texture.

When this was originally performed, a Les Paul played through a Fuzz Face distortion pedal and a Bad Stone phase shifter played the lead line with the alto sax in the first verse. Then the tenor joined on the second verse. Then guitar solo, tenor solo, piano solo, alto solo, then all 4 saxes (in harmony) + guitar on the last verse. I really wish there was a copy somewhere. It was really dynamic.

I remember the guitar player being so meticulous that he went back and forth testing whether the distortion should be in front of the phase shifter or behind it. Electro Harmonix was the big player in effects pedals then and he had one of everything they made.

Hard to believe that was so many years ago. I was 26 and I was the old man in those bands!!

When we make the movie about how we made this, there has to be one of us who throws his guitar down in a fit of rage, and walks off and leaves the band, but then comes back when we play Madison Square Garden, and he is just standing there in the crowd with his Flying V, staring at us, and then we all invite him up, and he rejoins the band, and after some bro hugs, he does this scorching final solo and the crowd goes nuts.

But he has to have really long shaggy hair and a ripped T-shirt and muttonchops.

I vote that that person be Herb.

Or David St Hubbins!

Very nice Eddie! You did a great job on the mix and the performances by all involved were wonderful! Enjoyable listen! Thanks, Torrey

Hello,
really nice song. I liked the melody and the style a lot.
Super guitar work.

Sergio

Can we do our next song in D Minor? A trilogy?

You know D minor really is the saddest of all keys.

Eddie, this is great! Loved that sax! The whole arrangement - guitars plus all the little fineseful touches - beautifully and tastefully done. Cool backstory too.

Great composition, performances and back story.

I suspect this took some time for the mix...nice soundstage!

We enjoyed back to back listens...and will again.

J&B

PS Likely my (Bud) aging ears but for them a 2db upward bump for your sax solo would work.

Eddie,

I was 30 in 1977 - I a true old fart! First number of the age is "7". ha!

Loved this! Your supporting cast fit in perfectly with the backing tracks - those guitars were sweet! And yes, three different sounds but they all fit perfectly, as you said.

Sounds like a great backing track for Donna Summer in the late 70s. Very cool! A tip of the hat to all. And that was such an interesting back story!

Alan