This recording consist of two sessions that we did in Rudy’s bus.  The raw audio tracks were remixed & mastered at RNS.

On “One,One,One” you’ll hear Rudy yell “One, One, One”.  Quite a coincidence, I’ll grant you, but what he’s talking about is that all players should stay on the ONE chord, or the tonic chord of the key that we’re playing in and STAY THERE.  This was ingenious, because it forced the player to improvise to find something interesting to play in a very constrained space.  Drove players that sat in with us, crazy.  

Another controversial technique or perhaps philosophy was the power of the Single Note.  Here the player is constrained as well, but one note can create dissonance, or change the underlying chord completely. You can hear this in action on the song “Winner Can Jam”, where I exposed Stan & Rudy for the first time to a very difficult song of mine.  You can hear Rudy’s accordion’s single note scale (6:12), wind up through the chords like stepping stones.  The listener is forced to engage, simultaneously rooting for correct passage, and ready to cringe at a slip into the water. 

Missing notes can be very powerful, especially in a rhythm section (drums/bass/perc).  Missing drum beats grab the listeners attention, and they are forced to fill in the missing beats with their minds.  Missing bass notes, or bass notes at unexpected places has the same effect and is what makes reggae music so exciting to listen to.  Listen to Kozy Korner Kafe (2:23) where the bass drops out for an entire measure.  Your sub-conscience immediately says “where’d the bass go” and it focuses on when is it coming back?  When it returns your brains pleasure center is rewarded.  That’s my theory anyway and I’m sticking to it.