Long Weekend (Smooth Jazz/Inspirational, GPO)

[John Hawksley]

Hi folks,

In honour of our long weekend here (4 days - wooo!) I've just finished the new piece "Long Weekend", which should be at the top of the list here:

http://www.hawksley.net/music/

Or use this direct link:

John Hawksley - Long Weekend (R2)

The piece is smooth jazz, GPO brass, woodwind and strings all used in this one, and quite prominently. I've been listening to David Benoit, Acoustic Alchemy and The Rippingtons a lot lately and you can probably tell :-)

I'm simply blown away - as usual - by this group, so helpful and friendly and the standard is so high.

Anyway - hope you enjoy it. Play it really loud and set your day up right :-)

All the best everyone,
-John

EDIT - Can't Play This File
I had issues playing this file on iPhone and in iTunes; I've re-encoded it and now it appears to be fine. The new file is "(R2)", and I've updated the link above. Sorry folks - teach me to try to optimize the mastering process.

[Rhap2]

John:

Great to see you and your music back.

Long Weekend is chock full of great rhythmic figures and uplifting
modulation. Excellent use of your Garritan samples and such very
innovative writing.

Keep it coming, John.

Jack

[serenitymusician]

John,

Great piece of music, John! I thoroughly enjoyed it! I can see the influence from these great artists. David Benoit is especially one of my favorite musicians. I can imagine traveling down a country road listening to this piece on a sunny, warm day with the windows wide open! Thanks for sharing!

Gary A.

[Larry G. Alexander]

Nice one, 'awksley!

Cool, drivin' rhythm track and the melodic lines aren't chopped liver.

Thanks for your fine contributions to this forum.

My Best,

[Kinvint]

Awesome production values, as always, John!

I love hearing your contemporary stuff as well as the more orchestral. I remember hearing your Star Wars rendition a few years ago, when i first bought GPO. I was blown away with not only the quality of GPO (and the amazing price tag!) but also by your mastery of the library and sequencing.

Thanks for sharing this to help us enjoy the long weekend!

Listening to it made me go to the fridge and open a beer!

CHEERS!

Paul

[John Hawksley]

Hi All!

Thanks everyone for having a listen!

@Jack Thanks; there is something of a truck-driver's gear change in there, but I don't think it's too jarring, at least I didn't do a Celine/Whitney thing of "stop the song, up the key, start the song" I set off on this piece with a few directions in mind: it should be up-tempo, it should feature GPO as opposed to using it in a supporting role, it shouldn't shy away from synth sounds (there are to Wavestation patches and an A-90 patch). I think the rest of the piece is just influenced by my listening to lots smooth jazz recently.

@Gary Thanks you too; the weather conspired with me this weekend - sunshine streamed in, my day job was forgotten, music could be written

@Larry, By the beard of Larry Alexander! Thanks man; it's quite simple the driving going; the trick is not to get it bogged down too much. What with the synths, two (or three) orchestral layers, doubled pianos, you can easily get to five or six layers, then it comes down to balancing and mixing everything so it's not one gloopy mass of music

@Paul, Oh yes I remember that! I re-did it when the aggressive patches came out. Was really an exercise in transcription by ear, but I learned a lot about how Mr Williams handled brass from that too. Gary really raised the bar with GPO; I love using it in these pop pieces too - it sits really nicely and is so easy to integrate, unbelievable. I'm still such a big fan. After the mastering was done, I had a few beers too

Thanks again everyone,
-John

[FLWrd]

Great tune, uplifting as Open Road (which has made my favorites list). Very lively arrangement, and it drives itself so nicely. And I love the way you treat the fretless bass...

[DPDAN]

that was nice John
Dan

[swinkler]

Very nice and very uplifting. Great job and thank you for sharing.

Steve Winkler

[Cass Hansen]

Boy! That was a super treat John. Rendering was terrific...each instrument stands out just right with beautiful clarity.

I just simply enjoyed hearing the piece. Very uplifting, polished and fun to listen to.

I especially enjoyed the percussion track throughout. I often find myself getting bored with the static mono-drone of a lot of "smooth Jazz" percussion lines. This was very varied (cute choice of words) and kept my interest.

Great job! I hope your fingers have recovered from any piano lid smashings that might have occured of late! lol

My best,
Cass