Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Curtis McLaw



1992 the first album of your cooperation with Jay Heye (Blue Knights - Blue Night). How was this project developed?

I first met Jay Heye 1992. He played piano in smoky clubs at night. Some of his titles already had the spirit of  "Blue Knights ". I told him about the success in USA, at that time California Groove had landed at number 6 of the Billboard-Charts. I had an idea, that  I couldn't realize with "Dancing Fantasy". The project should be more groove-oriented and a guitar or a piano should be put in as main-instrument. Since until then Jay Heye is the absolutely most groovy pianist that I have heard, he fited into my ideas wonderfully. He is a solid component of "Blue Knights" from the beginning. Without Jay Heye, I probably would still be on the search. We reached with the second album "Red Night", number 15 in the USA Billboard-Charts. The most played song is still  „Soft Silk“ with the amazing guitar by Bill Joseph Flynn. It is also unbelievable how many stations are still playing this song. I had already suspected that during the production.