We just added three new songs from the CD titled “Chasing My Dream” by Ted Piercefield. The songs are titled “Just For You, Don’t Say Goodbye, and Those Eyes. Ted was one of the original members of Chase.
Here is some bio info on Ted from his web site:
I was born in Northern Kentucky, and started taking piano lessons at age 10. I studied the keys for a couple of years and then got my first trumpet. It was a used King Super 20, with a Bach 10 1/2 C mouthpiece. After a year or so, and many Maynard Ferguson records later, I got a brand new Conn Constellation 38b. I’ve played this horn my entire career. Many times I was offered different horns, but I didn’t think it necessary to change.
I studied the trumpet with Donald Reinhardt, in Philadelphia, Roger Platt, at the University of Cincinnati, and with my High School band director, Roger Schueler. He was also my jazz band director in college. He is responsible for keeping me focused on my trumpet playing. Others in college wanted to teach music. I always just wanted to play!
After college, I moved to Miami, Florida and took a gig at The Newport Hotel in the lounge. Later, that same band would take a gig in Las Vegas at the Thunderbird Hotel. The show there was written by Bill Chase. This is when we first became friends. (He wrote MANY double G’s into that music.) We became good friends and several months later, he approached me with the “Chase” idea. I would sing, write and play split-lead trumpet in the group. It was a very exciting prospect!
I, of course, having respect for Bill, and after hearing his ideas, decided to quit the band I was with (Fire and Ice), and started rehearsal with Chase. Almost all of us played other gigs, to pay the bills, at the same time we were rehearsing with Chase. I personally, worked at the Stardust Hotel in the Ray Anthony Band. After a few weeks, “Chase” got a job playing at a club in Vegas from 3am til 8am. On a couple of occasions, Johnny Carson and Doc came in to hear us. Months later,we played on The Tonight Show. Chase_on_Tonight_Show.mp3. We needed to tighten up the material before doing a demo tape in L.A. for Epic Records. This meant working two jobs a day for many of us. It was lots of playing, but really strengthened the “chops”. (See “The Chase Years” for many more details about that era).
Moving forward in time… the second LP, “Ennea” was released. It didn’t do as well commercially, as the first LP, so the group decided to take a few months off. I had a friend in Miami that had a good gig with a local chain of night clubs and he integrated myself, Dennis Johnson and Gary Smith to form a new group called “X”. We played night clubs for about a year, doing some recording of our original songs at the same time. “Love” was a song I wrote while with that group…Short_Clip_Love.mp3
Bill called me in Miami and said he was ready to start the “Pure Music” LP. The whole “X” group, including the guitar player and organist went to Chicago to start rehearsal for the new record. After only a couple of rehearsals, we realized that the music that Bill had in mind was just not moving in a “commercial” direction. (We all felt that this was why the Ennea LP didn’t do so well in sales).
After serious thought, we told Bill that we were wanting to do our “own” music. That was the break-up of the original band.
After a year or so of playing gigs and writing some original material, we recorded a few songs, “on a shoestring budget” at a Miami studio. We tried to get a recording contract, but it didn’t work out. So, eventually we broke up, and went our separate ways.
After Bill’s death, some of the members of the original group, did a tribute album called “Watch Closely Now”. There were some fine performances on that record, but it wasn’t promoted properly, and slowly just “went away”.
Many years passed, and I did this and that, but always continuing to write music. “Chasing My Dream”, is the product of years of thought, and a couple of years in the making.
Music can be recorded in so many ways today. Luckily, I had several wonderful people who helped me with some of the horn and solo work. I will discuss them in the “About the CD” section of this website. Without the help of so many people, I would have never been able to make this music. For those people, I am eternally grateful.
For more on Ted go to his website at http://www.tedpiercefield.com/
