My George Harrison story

... a real account...

I guess that most people of my generation have a Beatles story to tell. Growing up in Brazil, I was introduced to their music by my older cousin Lyo, who somehow got hold of their records and turned me on to their sound. I was 13 when Sargent Pepper came out, and I enjoyed it a lot. Later on, as I was into listening carefully to records, I was amazed at how the Beatles recordings sounded. Always something interesting, and each repeated listening session brought something new to my ears.

In the 1970s, as a biology student in Canada I had a vivid dream that I was playing music and I saw the face of George Harrison smiling at me as I played.

As my musical palette got wider and I started to play music professionally, the Beatles became just another band, and my interest in them waned.

Fast forward to 1995, when I was playing with Airto Moreira and Flora Purim in the band Fourth World, along with Giovanni Hidalgo on percussion, José Neto on guitar and Gary Brown on bass. My first gigs with them were in London at Ronnie Scott’s. We spent the whole month of January playing 2 sets a night, 6 nights a week. It was a great time to play music to a very appreciative audience night after night. On one of those nights a musician I really appreciated came to hear us: it was Jim Capaldi, one of the founding members of the band Traffic. It turns out that Jim’s wife, Aninha, was from Rio, and we had met back in the early 70s, when one of my best friends dated her sister. Once we recognized each other, it was the beginning of a friendship that continues to this day.

Jim and Aninha Capaldi continued to come hear us at Ronnie’s, and one day they brought Steve Winwood. I am a big fan of Traffic, and it was a thrill to hang out with these musical heroes of mine.

We had been recording our sets at the club, and Airto decided to use Final Celebration, one of the tracks to mix and put it out as a single. Here it is:

The track needed some overdubs, so the label booked a session at Abbey Road Studios so we could finish the work. I went by myself and spent about an hour adding some keyboard pads to the track in a small recording room. After I was done, I decided to wander around that iconic place, where so many amazing performances were recorded. To my surprise, the place was deserted and I could actually go into the big studios and check it out. It was an unbelievable experience. I had seen photos and videos of recordings by some of my favorite bands done right there where I was.