Se (2003)
Label: Independent
Artist: Haale
Featuring: Haale (Vox/Setar), Chris Buono (Guitar), Bill Foster (Bass), Keith Carlock (Drums)
For more information: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haale
When I was ready to step out as a sideman one of the first gigs I was recommended to was a spot in Haale Gafori’s band back when she was exclusively singing in English. Dave Fiuczynski had played on her CD, Wide Eyed Seamstress, and threw me in the fire when it came time to do gigs to support it. The kicker was Keith Carlock was the drummer – about a year before Keith settled in with Steely Dan and his tours with Sting and John Mayer and so much more (go get it, Carlock!).
After encouraging Haale to shift gears and consider doing more Persian tunes in the set after a startling reaction at a gig in the village we eventually found ourselves in Lou Scalise’s Swamp Music studio on Crosby Street (NYC). In one day we recorded three tunes live. That session ended up becoming an EP called Se that was voted Best Unsigned CD of 2003 by Global Rhythm Magazine as well as landing Haale as one of the top up and coming artists of that year. Not bad for a day’s work of live takes.
Fun fact: During a lunch break Keith and I stepped out to hit a nearby pizza place. In mid-chew he turned to me and randomly said, “I got the gig.” Having no idea what he was talking about I had no choice but to ask with whom. Keith was already well known and in-demand so it was a crap shoot for me to assume anything. When he said Steely Dan I nearly choked. I was unaware Donald Fagen was regularly sitting in with Wayne Krantz at The 55 Bar where he held court weekly on Thursday nights with Keith and Tim Lefebvre. I was elated and bummed at the same time. I knew my time being in a band with Keith was coming to an end. It was a great run and we’ve crossed paths since, most notably on my TrueFire In The Jam: NYC Funk project.
Asemooneh Aabee
‘Asemooneh Aabee’ was showed to us by Haale sitting on the floor with an acoustic. At this time I was real into Bill Frisell’s compressed clean tone and that’s what I was going for here. I lined up my Retrospec Squeeze Box into a Line 6 DL-4 (they had just come out and was all the rage) and plugged right into my ’65 Pro Reverb and just played.
Baz Hava
This is straight up delay pads or “clouds” throughout over a C drone laid down by Bill. Lots of laser gun shots, cryptic harmonic screams and compounding feedback to make a glorious wash of blissful noise. This sounded like a sonic tsunami played live with Keith and Bill’s combined monstrous tones.
Morgue Sahar
The instrument you hear at the start of every tune is called a Setar. It was this petite Persian instrument Haale handled well and put the finishing touch on this amalgamation we created. One that people were really digging in the village and beyond. Haale was gaining ground and people’s attention. So much so after Keith flew the nest for Steely Dan we had players like Rodney Holmes, Shahzad Ismaily, DK Dyson and Swiss Chris come through while I was there.
On this final tune of the EP I went with another delay cloud approach, but this time with a technique I was developing called “post-processing”. I wanted the elongated feedbacks to be processed by various effects such as tremolo as you hear with this one. That trem was a phat-sounding Guyatone Flip Series VT-X Vontage Tremolo. This was my first trem. Many have followed since, but none sounded as warm as this one.