All my life I was bounced back and forth between Jazz and Pop:
The first song I played on the guitar was "When The Saints", then I spent years
with Beatles etc.. A few later my father brought a Jazz sampler from N.Y.
and I was fascinated by Charlie Parker and all these guys.
In the same period I checked Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple,
my band at the time played like this.
After that I was lucky to be able to play with Scope,
a bunch of real good Jazz musicians; but this was in the beginning of the Fusion era,
so we combined anyhow influences of Jazz, Funk and Rock!
My next milestone was to play in the professional ORF Big Band,
a Jazz band, so I could play from Be Bop to Bossa!
BUT: we also had to do these TV shows and recordings with lots of Pop.
The same in the following period, when I did lots of studio work and commercials.
My own projects (combos under my name, Ostinato, Enfant Terrible..)
were mainly Jazz or Fusion, but then again for example in working
with Mr. Lionel Lodge (who wrote half of the lyrics for this album by the way)
I got into a Rock direction again!
This all led logically into me being on stage with the great Gloria Gaynor,
playing big stages with my funky guitar and also doing the (basically European)
musical direction and arranging for her. Here and at several other situations,
like playing musicals or miscellaneous concerts, I got to know a lot of great singers.
So I had the inspiration to put my own ideas and compositions
into a real poppy FUNK & DISCO project with all these soloists.
What you’re having in your hands now - and hopefully getting into your ears -
is the result of gathering this material over the last years!
I hope you enjoy the songs, they try to make your day a bit better!
Rens Newland
