BIll CANTOS
vocalist/keyboardist/songwriter/arranger/producer/you get the idea
THE NEW ALBUM. HEAR IT NOW.
Spotify/iTunes/Amazon Music
YouTube
DON'T MISS Bill as the special guest with host Mark Ruffin on
SIRIUS XM REAL JAZZ (ch. 67)
for two hours of conversation
and in-studio performance!
Broadcast at the following times:
Fri 10/20 12 pm PST (3 pm EST)
9 pm PST (midnight EST)
Mon 10/23 9 am PST (noon EST)
Tues 10/24 4 pm PST (7 pm EST)
Hussain Jiffry (bass), Bill, Real Jazz program director Mark Ruffin, and John Ferraro (drums)
STORY BEHIND THE SONG:
BULL IN A CHINA SHOP
music by Burt Bacharach
lyric by Mari Falcone and Bill Cantos
(from the new album)
BURT & THE BUCKET LIST: I had the great fun and privilege of touring with Burt from 2011 until his last show at the end of 2019; but I'd always wondered if there'd be a way for Mari and I to collaborate with him on a song. Working on this album, the opportunity presented itself in the form of a crazy fun little instrumental from one of his solo albums called "Bond Street".
LYRIC INSPIRATION: Me. I am the bull in a china shop. If there is something to run into or drop or break, I will find it. Mari is "Sensibility", a song about elegant, unique cool. I'm this guy. I love how it turned out - Mar even found a way to work the words 'Bond Street' in there....
IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A REALLY SHORT SONG: We slowed it down slightly to give it a whole new vibe, based on a fingersnap & perc loop...cut it with Eric Astor at The Hideaway studio - myself, Kevin Axt on bass and Grant Geissman on guitar (plus Michael Shapiro on additional percussion recorded later). Burt's version is all of two minutes long but as we recorded it, the end tag kept going...and going...and going. It became this wonderful dialogue between the three of us that was so good we couldn't bear to fade it out. I took it home and overdubbed 8-10 bgv tracks on it. Schnee mixed it to perfection.
DID HE LIKE IT?: You can't release an existing instrumental with lyrics until you get the composer's approval - so we finished it and sent it off to Burt. I remember exactly where I was standing when we got the call - that gravelly voice saying "yeah, man, I love it!...." I'm so glad he got to hear it in its finished form, and I'm thrilled to share it with you.....enjoy!