Ch’vell

Holding on to nothing (but a handful of dreams)

Lyrics were originally written as a gospel song. Around 8/9 years later, I decided to record with a Hungarian star but she fell ill and flew back home to Budapest. Eventually we found a young girl, just 15 girls old, Aloma to give a great rendition of the song. The song is written based on a girlfriend and a finished relationship. Lyrics were originally wrote for a gospel song. 8/9 years later, I decided to record the song with an Hungarian star but unfortunately she fell unwell and had to fly back home. So, a young girl, Aloma, came and saved the day!

It was some adventure!

Kitto

River of Butterflies

River of butterflies lyrics –  “a winding track, lost touch at the station, talked about going our separate choices, looked as if you took a trip into some other mind, your head is stuck in some mighty crime rivers of butterflies, keep us entwined, the train you took a world you found princes to Puget,

sound the train I took on and off Piccadilly line undergrounds, other lands a colour streak through my mind, web of love’s last escape this little butterfly a winding track lost touch at the station, talked about going our separate choices… river of butterflies

words and music by a. mcdonald and kitto © PRS/whosjack apra

Vinnie Cutro and New Horizon

paradise

Creative, fiery, inventive, virtuostic, lyrical, colourful…these are a few of the descriptive words by critics and reviewers that define Vinnie Cutro.  He has played along side all the greats including Lionel Hampton, Horace Silver, Blood Sweat & Tears, Ray Charles, Mel Torme, Buddy Rich and numerous others, and additionally holds a Master’s degree in music.  This album reflects Cutro’s smooth jazz side in a collection of very melodic, harmonically inventive and texturally exciting works that convey a multitude of moods. Cutro delivers these compositions in a way that only a virtuose could…

Enjoy!

Green Pepper Junction

ALL ABOUT US

From funk to soulful blues, jazz to trance, pop to folk, All About Us is all about the music!! What the package looks like may not reflect its contents and what the image is, is not the substance. On our latest release our singers are female, All About Us could just as easily be male performers, or none, All About is about all of us involved in any creative project that brings people together to produce great music for other people! From the beginning to the end, the process involves the writers, musicians, performers, all collaborating to produce the best possible music, the result is All About Us, which we then pass on to the rest of us, the circle is complete!

All About Us will continue in many guises well into the future. The style and vocals will alter, the people and the place will certainly change, the lyrics and the groove will most assuredly slide but the movement will always be progressive, upbeat and positive, and at any time a wonderful collaborative effort will result in the essential dynamic of… All About Us!

Green Pepper Junction

Inner mind of Green Pepper Junction Album

The inner mind of Green Pepper Junction is a history of songs and tracks spanning 36 years of the UK label – Green Pepper Junction. All originally composed in various locations (mostly outdoors) on seashores to the mountains and on one occasion a tropical botanical hothouse!

The tracks were recorded from time to time alongside various other productions and were not and have not ben influenced by the music trends of the time or the moment – Be it then or now.

There is no set theme or genre in the tracks which include R&B, Ballads, Pop, Hip-hop, Jazz, Dance and Latino, but they all have one thing in common: possessing strong melodies and structured songs and many with great ‘hook’ lines.

The arrangements generally differ greatly from today, but then this is an anthology stretching back more than three and a half decades. The tracks have been left in their original format and not remixed and though digitally re-mastered were nearly all recorded in analogue.

Most of the songs were written for specific acts at the time, but recorded by other artists in Scotland and the USA. As real musicians were used 90% of the time, the personalities and emotions shine through on many of the tracks – both in the performance musically and vocally – like ‘Tenement Boogie – Bop’ creating the feel sound and mood of the ‘Swinging 40s.’

No easy feat, it took a lot ‘on hand’ brandy, beer and stoking up the heat (an opera fire in the studio would you believe)! for everybody in the studio before it all started to come together, only to find the ‘trumpet man’ had disappeared!

An urgent pleading phone call at 2 o’clock in the morning got ‘correct man’ Tommy Hulcup out of bed and into the studio and with no previous knowledge and rehearsal laid down an amazing atmospheric trumpet solo on the track.

Then there was ‘Games Lovers Play’ which was originally written as a soul track for a well-known artiste (out of New York) – who had to pull out of the production at the very last minute, due to contractual commitments – resulting in changing the rhythm and arrangement and finding the right vocalist to ‘fit’ the song and production.

A ‘flurry’ of phone calls to associates and companies in the Uk and Europe, suggested an artiste in teh Netherlands with a great voice suitable for the track called ‘Linny’. It was Christmas eve, but a phone call to ‘Linny’ in Amsterdam 12 noon Christmas day requesting she fly to Scotland immediately to record both ‘Games Lovers Play’ along with another song in both England and Spanish (she couldn’t speak Spanish).

She didn’t know Green Pepper Junction and had no idea what she would be recording.

She somehow got on a plane to Glasgow the following day(Boxing Day) learnt and ‘laid down’ both tracks in English and Spanish. (A story ‘how’ another time) – and was on a plane back to Amsterdam in less than 48hrs from the first phone call!

This is just an example of some of the fun and adventure we had recording these and the other tracks over the many years from composing to final production and mastering. There are many other stories, personalities and ‘situations’ relating to the album. We could go on, but enough of this on to the music and the real thing.

This is the first album ever to be released on ‘Shake the Moon’ label. Its theme is a compilation of ‘across the board’ music for all ages and tastes from dance to pop, some-with a lot of fun, and some-just abou tlife.

Listen-Dance-Enjoy! Asher Halle

Linny

Games Lovers Play

Produced by Rankin & Brankin and created by Asher Halle and Green Pepper Junction.

This song was made by Asher Halle with the popular song ‘I will survive’ in mind by Gloria Gaynor. The original song was somewhat of a rock song and changed/edited many times over to produce a disco and a big hit pop song! While in cava studios in London, there was competition in choosing a singer and contacted many singers through Midem and around Europe and got a lot of feedback from all different types of people from various backgrounds.

I was stuck in between choosing singers but Ch’vell was too young, therefore as Linny sent a tape in and her voice sounded amazing and professional in which I contacted her immediately on Christmas day 1998 and spoke to her on the phone for the first time and she flew in the next day – on boxing day and booked her into a hotel in Glasgow and worked on the song as well as the backing vocals.

Although Linny had to sing all different versions of the track hit ‘Games Lovers Play’ including in Spanish and she didn’t know Spanish but sang the track exceptionally with the help of translating the song by an individual that flew in to complete the Spanish track ‘Games Lovers Play’.

It is a song about a man that gave heartache and never understood why without any warning expressed throughout the song from a womans point of view and the intro starts of:-

‘Here’s where I came in,
Hold the dawn and stay the night,
I’d give all my world to be with you
But you shut me from your life
Turned the key and locked the door
Switched off all the lights and walked away,
Games set match and play’.

All rights of the producer and owner of the work reproduced reserved. Copyright protected.