Kip McAtee plays solo guitar weekly at the Red Elephant Cafe in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is also currently a member of the 'Partners In Time' band, which plays music from Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, and Armenia. He was a member of 'The Balkan Noyz Boyz' in the bay area, and toured the country with the remarkable jazz singer, Deborah Brown. Prior to that, he was a member of a long list of garage bands in the Seattle area, including 'The Fabulous Fenderskirts' and 'Mother's Milk'.
'Jolanta' is a pretty faithful rendition of the Calypso'ish tune by Earl Klugh. I heard Earl play in the early 70s in Seattle with George Benson. He played a flashy rendition of 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' in harmonics, and I've been a fan ever since.
'Waltz For Debbie' was borrowed loosely from John Knowles terrific arrangement in the 'Fingerstyle Quarterly'. The lyrics to this Bill Evans standard are very touching, and I always try to think of the words when I play the head to this tune.
'Slip Into Spring' is from 'Riverdance, The Show'. It is written in 9/8. See if you can count the nine. 'Partners In Time' plays several of Bill Whelan's tunes, which are often Irish melodies with Balkan time signatures.
'Someday My Prince Will Come' is the familiar Disney standard played in a guitar friendly, cowboy key.
'Carinoso' is a Laurindo Almeda arrangement of the famous Brazilian Choro.
'I Could Write A Book' is the Rogers and Hart standard. Since recording it, I've worked in a quote to 'Blue Moon' in the blowing section.
'Captain Caribe' is a Dave Grusin tune from Earl Klugh's 'Living Inside Your Love' album. I remember hearing Lee Ritenour play this at the 'Baked Potatoe' in LA, and it stuck with me.
'Pinkeol' is an Armenian folk song that I learned from the incomparable clarinetist, Souren Baronian.
'Summer Strut' is the Spyro Gyra hit. I was happily surprised I was able to cover this as a solo guitar piece. The coda makes a nice blowing section.
'Adios' is one of those catchy melodies that will sound instantly familiar. I heard the great solo guitarist, Jeff Linsky play this and managed to learn it. I've worked out a lot of Jeff's terrific arrangements.
'Just Friends' is the jazz standard. I like to play it because of the whole tone scale.
'Besame Mucho' is the most popular tune I play on my solo gig. It's another one of those catchy melodies that everybody seems to love.'Sukiyaki' caught my ear when I heard it on the radio this summer. The title was totally different in Japanese. I love this quote from the Wikipedia: 'the re-titling was like issuing "Moon River" in Japan under the title "Beef Stew''.'When She Loved Me' is the Randy Newman song from 'Toy Story'. Again, I always try to think of the lyrics when I play this song.'Takin' It To The Streets' is the Michael McDonald hit. I heard him on 'Austin City Limits' and thought, 'I'd love to play in that band'. Everybody's singing, and as Chicago once said, 'everybody's working'.'Tentative' is the latest in a long list of tunes I've written in the Armenian 10/8 time signiture with 'ten' in the title.
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