Between the years 1984-1986 Bill King recorded three sides, Ice, Avenue B and City of Dreams for his own label – Night Passage Music. Tracks from these Night Passage years have now been re-issued on this release.
King enlisted some of the finest Jazz musicians in Canada to launch the project; saxophonist Pat LaBarbera, bassist Dave Young, percussionists Dick Smith and Marty Morell along with up and coming vocal star, Liberty Silver. Amongst the numerous King original’s a few gems were added to showcase Silver’s vocal strengths – Stanley Turrentine’s, ‘Sugar', 'Loverman', Miles Davis’ 'Four' and the Billie Holiday classic, 'God Bless the Child'.
Back then "Avenue B" was nominated for a Juno in the Best Jazz category and "City of Dreams" caught the ears of People Magazine and was featured as a top new recording and shining light of independent work.
“I just wanted to learn the business and didn’t want to wait on anyone. I wanted to record when I wanted too, pick the musicians I wanted, write my songs and stock stores when needed. I went to pressing plants, I hired the best photographer and graphic artist Deborah Samuel and just let everyone do their thing. I’m still doing the same some 34 years later." - Bill King
Track list:
- Eyes of Morning ***
- Sugar ***
- Angelina ***
- God Bless the Child ***
- City of Dreams ***
- Loverman ***
- Summerheat ***
- Four ***
- Dark Eyes **
- Avenue B **
- Save the Children **
- Festival of Life *
- Portrait of Duke *
- Jennifer's Dream *
* Ice (1984)
** Avenue "B" (1984)
*** City of Dreams (1985)
Credits:
- Bill King Keyboards/Producer - Composer 1,3,5,7,9,10,11,12,13,14
- Liberty Silver – vocals
- Pat Labarbera – saxes
- Dave Young – acoustic bass
- Reggie Evans – drums
- Dick Smith – percussion
- Everton ‘Pablo’ Paul drums and percussion Summerheat
- Anthony Holmes – Summerheat - bass
- Wayne McGhie – Summerheat - guitar
- David Myles – Summerheat – guitar
- Atlanta String Section - Summerheat
- Rene Gely – guitar – Dark Eyes - 9
- Joe LaBarbera tracks 9, 10, & 11 – drums
- Marty Morell – percussion – 9, 10, 11
- Kevan McKenize – drums 12, 13, 14
- Rick Homme – bass – 12, 13, 14
Recorded at Grant Avenue Studio Hamilton Ontario.
Engineered by Greg Roberts