Cool Rocking Jazz With Filipiak

Cool Rocking Jazz With Filipiak

Bruce Von Stiers

Guitarist Carl Filipiak has performed and recorded with some of jazz's top names. He's been written up in Guitar World, Jazz Times and several other publications. Turner Broadcasting and NBC Sports have used Carl's music in their programming.

Not only has he been successful as a solo artist, Carl has garnered praise with his band Carl Filipiak and the Jimi Jazz Band. With this band, Carl recently released a new album. The title of the album is What Now.

What Now has eight songs and a play time of fifty-one minutes. It was produced by Steve Wright and Frank Young and recorded at the Wrightway Studios. The album has six original songs and new arrangements of already established music.

Besides Carl on electric and acoustic guitars, there is Matthew Everhart on bass. Frank Young plays the drums and does percussion. And Paul Hannah is on the saxophone. Brian Simms helps out on the B3 organ on a couple of songs.

High Moon is the first song. It begins a bit like something George Thorogood would do. Then it moves into a slick guitar based jazz groove.

The title track, What Now, is a head bopping, toe tapping piece with cool guitar and a nice drum backbeat. There is also some very good sax in the song as well.

Songs by The Beatles have often been covered. Carl and the guys put their own mark on the great The Beatles song, Strawberry Fields Forever. Most of the song stays pretty true to the original composition with just a slight different arrangement. But at the end of the song, as it fades out, there is a secondary bit that has some strong rock guitar and drum in it. This makes for a very interesting and entertaining interpretation of the song.

My Time To Die can best be described as a dark and moody rock ballad.

Things liven back up with the cool groove piece, The Hard Way.

Mischeno is the first song on the album to feature the B3. It is a moderately paced jazz piece with some nice guitar, sax and organ.

Dr. Mino is a cool piece with a funk, fusion tone to it.

The final song on the album is Sunny. This Bobby Hebb song has kind of become a standard for jazz instrumentalists. The group does a fine job with their rendition of the song.

What Now is a pretty cool album. It has elements of standard jazz mixed in with rock and jam.

What Now can be found at most major music retailers.

Carl's official web site is https://www.carlfilipiak.com/ You can hear the album online there as well as watch some videos from Carl and the band.

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