Jazzin' It Up
Well-known Silver City bluesman Ed Teja shows a different side of himself with a new jazz CD.
Silver City singer-songwriter Ed Teja has pulled a musical hat trick of sorts: a new album, a new record label and a new musical genre--all in one. His new album, "Soft Dreaming Blues," is actually a collection of jazz originals by the well-known local bluesman, who performs regularly around town and has played at the Silver City Blues Festival and both the Glenwoodstock and Tucson Folk Festivals.
With all this folk-and-blues success under his belt, and an established local following, why is Teja taking a new turn in the road--journeying into jazz? It's not entirely something new for him, it turns out.
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"Oh, I've played jazz off and on for years," he says, then adds with a laugh, "Well, just like everybody else!"
Teja recounts the days even before he picked up his blues guitar--playing trumpet, actually, in swing bands. This was mostly in Florida, he says, back in his college days. Like most young guys with talent, some wild oats to sow and more than just a passing interest in making music, he took it on the road and played wherever and whenever he could. A long career in journalism kept him moving around the world (see Desert Exposure, December 2003), always toting along his guitar, of course.
Teja found his musical stride--and a popular following--with folk and blues, performing locally with The Gypsy Feet Band and The Low Bid Quartet.
But after years of singing and being known for the blues, his transition "back" into jazz was natural, he says, in part because jazz itself is so much a part of other forms of music. "My music is rooted in jazz," Teja explains. "Earl Beecher heard the heavy jazz influence in some cuts I'd sent him and said, 'Hey, why don't you do a jazz CD?' and it just went from there."
Beecher, owner of Outstanding Records in Huntington Beach, Calif., and a long-time jazz fan, suggested fusing the jazz guitar lines he heard in Teja's instrumentals with a smooth vocal style in the song "Soft Dreaming Blues," the title cut on Teja's new CD. Though it's Teja's first CD with Outstanding Records and on the Morrythm label, the disk is Teja's third; he'd previously released an album with Jim Luke of Austin, Texas, plus a solo record, both self-produced.
Teja says he recorded the album at his professional studio in his Silver City home. He gives a quick tour of the equipment-packed room, with its microphones and gadgets, headphones and array of sleek boxes with panels of knobs and buttons. The intensive process took him about six months, he says.
"I'm used to working with other musicians, so this was new," he says. "Just me in the studio, whenever I could make the time."
On the album, he plays guitar and keyboard synthesizer.
"It's mellow, smooth jazz, and I wanted it to be of a piece," Teja says. "I wanted it to have that 'listenable' quality. There are just two instrumentals on the album, and a lot of vocals. I wanted the words to really come through." Most of the songs on "Soft Dreaming Blues" were written for the album, Teja says, with a couple of others being older songs of his "that hadn't found homes."
Lyrics are important to Teja, as they are to most singer-songwriter types. He worked with several songwriting friends--Frank Milan of Silver City, Javaid Qazi of San Jose, Calif., and Canadian Derek Stephen McPhail--to create the original tunes on the album.
Coming off the CD project, Teja says he's been "doing a lot of songwriting since." He wrote and recorded a "Techno" music piece for a friend's book-promotional video. And he's picked up some new work stemming out of exposure from the new CD.
"I'm recording a piece for this woman in Australia now," he says.
His music recently has been used on Discovery Health Channel and on two DVDs produced by independent filmmakers, as well as on the radio program "Churchill Square Home" in Brighton, England.
Teja's local following will be happy to hear that their favorite bluesman will continue to perform with the Gypsy Feet and Low Bid bands around town in the upcoming months, dishing up the blues originals and covers they've come to expect. But don't be surprised to hear a touch of jazz creeping into the mix.
"We're incorporating some of my new stuff into the Gypsy Feet repertoire, in particular," he says. "It's fun. And it brings a nice change of pace."
--Donna Clayton Lawder
Ed Teja's new CD, "Soft Dreaming Blues" ($11.99, 13 smooth jazz pieces, including two instrumentals), is available from the record company's Web site, www.outstandingmusic.com/product_p/496.htm. Local music enthusiasts can obtain an autographed copy directly from Ed or buy a copy at Alotta Gelato. He next performs live locally at the Pinos Altos Oktoberfest, Oct. 6, and at Bad Ass Bakery, on Bullard St., Silver City, on Oct. 20 and 27.
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