Fire & Rain: An Instrumental Tribute to the Music of James Taylor

After the releasing a best-selling collection of classic standards (The Very Thought Of You) for the North Star label under the North Star Jazz Ensemble name, the group wanted to explore a more contemporary direction, and added guitarist Peter Calo to create the Common Ground identity. Under that name the first project they recorded was this beautiful tribute to James Taylor. Using 14 of his best loved melodies, they created instrumental arrangements that featured Bruce's lyrical sax and Peter's amazing skills on both finger-style acoustic guitars and electric guitar. Bassist Mary Ballou, a veteran of hundreds of record dates and appearances with everyone from Peter Wolfe (Jay Geils Band) to jazz legend Gary Burton holds it together on the bottom, while keyboard player Ron Fournier fills out the tracks, plays some great solos, and wrote several arrangements. Paul Mason was executive producer on the project and played drums and percussion. Other highlights include vocal backgrounds by Devonsquare, harmonica textures by Boston's Mike Turk, and fiddle by Jake Amerding. For additional information, visit www.northstarjazz.com.