When I met Jeff Golub

I was new on the Smooth Jazz Scene. Neither the fans, nor my peers (with a few exceptions) had heard of me, but I had the number one song in the country “Pacific Coast Highway”, it was 2005. The festival season had started and all the festival shows were booked, but I was offered a side stage gig at the San Diego Smooth Jazz Festival. These were my first gigs on the festival circuit, I still was working on finding the right band, getting my charts together. Before I was just producing tracks in the studio, no need for all that.
The show went reasonably well and when I got of stage my friends told me that Jeff Golub had been in the audience, checking out my set. I felt somewhat flattered. I was not really familiar with his music, but I had heard his name before. So I went and checked out his set later that day on one of the other stages. And I really loved his playing. He was a guitar player after my own heart. And I understood why he might have been interested in my set. Both of us have a blues and rock background, which we bring into the Smooth Jazz. I could feel every note he was playing and knew where he was coming from.
Six months later my wife and me were on the ferry to Catalina Island. It was the first time I was to play the Catalina Jazz Festival. On the boat was a area where all the established artist hang out. I still felt a little bit on the outside. I had a mild case of “feeling like the new kid who wasn’t allowed to sit at the cool kids table in the high school cafeteria”. But when Jeff saw me he came over and introduced himself. He made me feel welcome and part of the gang and I will never forget that. We talked about guitars, about our influences and the music biz. It felt good having a friend in this new world I was entering.

Since we lived on opposite sides of the continent, we did not have the chance to hang out as often as I liked. But did ask him to play a duet with me on my City Groove CD. I was excited when he agreed. The song is called “Soul 2 Soul”, because I felt a certain soul connection to Jeff.

The news of his passing shocked me this morning. My heart goes out to his family he left behind and all the fans who are going to miss him. Like myself.

Here is a little taste of the song we recorded together in 2012.
My guitar is further to the right playing the first phrase, Jeff is panned further left playing the second phrase.