Tim May, One Piece Of The Big Picture by Darin Scott See the Tim May Discography or go to the Official Tim May web site at www.timmayguitar.com Tim May performing at the tribute to Johnny Smith Concert at the NAMM show January 2000 in Los Angeles "Tim is one of the greatest studio guitarists of all time, & he's a great person & friend." - Mitch Holder - (Mitch is a studio guitar great who has worked with Lee Ritenour, Ella Fitzgerald, Stephen Bishop, Tommy Tedseco, Barry Manilow, John Klemmer, Carol Kaye & many others) For three decades Tim May has been one of LA's top studio guitarists, being a first call player for records, movies, TV, & jingles. Working with the likes of George Benson, Blondie, Amy Grant, Celine Dione, Lionel Richie, Bobby Caldwell, Babyface, Toni Braxton, Eddie Arkin, The Carpenters, Herb Alpert, Tommy Tedesco, Olivia Newton John, James Horner, David Foster, Mitch Holder, & many others. And in the process of doing all this work he has added his pristine chops, extreme musical sensibilities, and great attitude to every musical situation that he has found himself in. Just recently Tim has released his first solo record (One Piece Of The Big Picture). The all instrumental recording is on the Miramar label, and besides featuring Tim's great guitar work & songs the disc also features the great musicianship of Abe Laboriel, Chuck Berghoffer, Mike Lang, Harvey Mason, Bob Zimmitti, Ernie Watts, & Warren Luening. In the past couple of years Tim has brought me along on a couple of sessions. One was at Eddie Arkins home studio in the mountains of Malibu for some overdubs for the hit TV show "Melrose Place", and the other one was at Capital Studio's in Hollywood with a full orchestra for the hit animated motion picture "Doug's First Movie" For both of the sessions I was in complete awe as I saw Tim do his magic, with such ease & professionalism, it was truly inspirational, I'll never forget it thanks Tim. On a lighter side if you think that studio work is all serious business, at the Capital session Tim did his best to change that stereotype by bringing in his fart machine & in the process getting the great studio drummer Ralph Humphrey into some serious trouble. I'll let you fill in the blanks on what happened. So I hope you enjoy reading the Tim May interview as much as I did doing it. Tuneup Interview With Tim May January 2001 T.U: After many years of of you just concentrating your career on being the top session guitarist that you are, what prompted you to go out and record your first solo record? And what gave you the the desire to go out and start playing in the jazz clubs again? Tim: Well I started out playing jazz, that is my favorite type of music. Then I got so involved in the studio thing, and since about 1978 my recording schedule has been so busy, that it never gave me the time to put together the live thing. Especially in the eighties, when I was working around the clock. There was just no time I was doing three sessions a day. I think what really did it for me was when ADATS and digital studio's started to come around, when it was affordable to have a home studio. So I had a little studio space in my house, and I got some ADATS, and started to collect some more recording stuff, and having a lot of fun, and I recorded a couple of tunes. So one day I was demoing this speaker system in my home studio to a producer friend of mine Dave Kronemeyer, and he said what are we listening to here. I said just some stuff I was fooling around with. He liked the stuff and he said "Why don't you put a couple of more tracks down, & I think I can get you a record deal,"and he did. So I did the record & the whole thing evolved from that. As far as the live thing I started to play out with Mitch Holder at the club Papashan's in Encino last December. It was just so much fun. I just had way more fun then I thought I would, it was just a gas. I'm gonna do more live playing especially since I have this record to support, a band & more of a focus to play out. T.U: If I name some of the tunes from "One Piece Of The Big Picture," could you elaborate on them? Tim: Sure I'd love to. T.U: How about the opening cut "Hear The Children?" Tim: That was something I wrote in the early nineties. I put it on tape with sequencers, and it sort of evolved and became part of the the repetoire. T.U: How about the latin flavored tune "Calabossa?" Tim: I wrote that at home starting with a little germ of an idea of some kind, and the arrangement worked out great with Warren Luening playing the flugelhorn thing. It just started out as a simple chord progression in my studio, and I just put it together section by section. T.U: How about the title cut? Tim: "One Piece Of The Big Picture," that was a piece written during some down time at a session. As you know sometimes at sessions there are other things going on, so you just sit there with a guitar in your hands, and as inconspicuous as possible you can play a little bit. So I came up with One Piece's opening guitar part at a session & filed it away for future use. T.U: How about the last cut of the disc "Midi Life Crisis?" Tim: I wrote that a long time ago, I guess in the late eighties, after I first got the midi program stuff together. That's how the name of the tune come about. T.U: Another cool thing about the record is the fine selection of players that that accompany you on this disc. (Abe Laboriel, Harvey Mason, Chuck Berghoffer, Mike Lang, Bob Zimmitti, Ernie Watts, & Warren Luening) Of all the fine sidemen that you have worked with over the years. How did you settle with this group of players? Tim: I've worked with all these guys on the record for a long time, and I picked them specifically because of their playing. I mean Harvey Mason what I love about his playing , is that no matter what he plays, he has a spark to his playing, a real fire and a energy, and I love that. I needed that type of thing in the drum chair. Bassist Abe Laboriel plays so great , and the main reason I picked him was because of his feel & his understanding of time. He does a lot of subtle sixteenth note pushes & stuff like that. Abe just handles that in such a way that you don't know that it's a pushy kind of jerky thing, it just grooves. He has great pitch & time & inventiveness, and he's such a wonderful guy to have on a session, because he's so positive all the time. Anybody who ever ran a session knows that you want to have supportive people, because of the obvious reasons. It just makes it more fun & a lot easier. Keyboardist Mike Lang I picked because he is such a great improviser, and for his great jazz abilities. Bassist Chuck Berghoffer is such a great...great player, besides the fact that I love him, he's just a great guy & a great inspiration. Great sound, great time. Drummer Bob Zimmitti I picked because of his great time & percussion abilities. His time just sits. I picked saxophonist Ernie Watts & trumpeter, flugelhornist Warren Luening, because of their great soloing abilities. This isn't a Pro-Tools record, we just played & did it. I also picked these guys because of their ability to learn things fast. Which was great, because I didn't have a giant budget for the record. I just love the way these guys played on my record. T.U: When you first move to Los Angeles in your your early twenties, under Howard Robert's recommendation. How long did it take you to make a living as a studio guitarist? Tim: I moved to LA in the February of 1974. The first gig I had was with Louis Bellson's Big Band, which was great for a number of reasons. For one it was a big band, which means I immediately met twenty guys in the business, which gave me a lot of connections, and work right away. At this time I was also doing a lot casuals, club work, & jazz gigs. Then I eventually started to do some studio work starting out filling in for more of the established players. At this time there was a ton of work for guitarists. Then it built to the point in 1977-78 that I got so busy with sessions, that I was only taking recording work. So it took about three or four years. Tommy Tedesco called me the rags to riches guy, because it happened so fast. But to me it felt like forever. But I guess in retrospect it was pretty good. It was just a lucky time in the business. Larry Carlton was just getting out & not taking a lot of dates. So that just left open a lot of work, it was just a fortunate time. T.U: Do you remember your first big time recording session? Tim: The first recording session I did was like an hour or two jingle with a small group. I arrived an hour early with like eighteen guitars & I only used two Ha- Ha, then early on I did some big pictures with Tommy Tedesco being the other guitarist on the date at Warner Bros. The way Tommy was, he was just so cool. That was the first time it felt like the big time. It was a big stage, a big orchestra, & a big picture. Just coming from Cleveland, it was very exciting. Hollywood & Vine & everything. TU: How big of a help was Tommy Tedseco in getting your career going? Tim: Tommy's help was unmeasurable. First of all if you got any kind of endorsement from Tedseco it was a great thing., he was so well respected. Also the influence of his attitude & his smarts was really really the best education you could get. You know from hanging with him, all the stuff that rubbs off. He was a big influence in getting me started, and as an example. Plus he was always open to discussing anything about his playing & studio work. He wasn't secretive about any of the shit. He was always totally open about all his little tricks. T.U: Would like talk about some of the great artists that you have worked with in your career? Tim: Sure I'd love to. T.U: George Benson. Tim: First of all I first met George while I was still in high school, when he was playing at a club in Cleveland, and I just went out to see him every night, and then on the Saturday of that week I got to hang with George all day at his hotel room, playing guitar with him on his bed. What a tremendous gift, what an experience. Then I ended up working with George on his big hit "The Greatest Love Of All" that Michael Masser produced at Capital. It was a really cool session. T.U: Producer, songwriter, & keyboardist David Foster. Tim: I've known David for years, and I have done a lot of work with him. He is always very professional & he's always very good. He always has impeccable taste. If there is a 10:00 downbeat for David Foster, you better be ready to go at 10:00. You better be ready to record. He just wants to go at a competent, professional fast pace. He's always first class. I always enjoy working with him. He's a total pro & a good cat. He always makes you comfortable and feel good. Which is a must for any business. With Foster you know it's always going to be right. T.U: You played the guitar on the Blondie hit "Call Me". Tim: That was a Giorgio Moroder production, we did that over at Westlake Studio's, and I remember going in & my recording rig was all set up. And I introduced myself to Giorgio & we talked a bit. Then he said "Here We Go" & he put the chart for "Call Me" in front of me. The guitar parts were all overdubs so I did them right in the booth. So he said he wanted some power chords & stuff like that in the first part of the song. So he counted it off, then I played. Then he stopped the tape & said in this section I want you to to do some rhythm chunks, and here we go. Then we punched in that section. And we proceeded to do the whole song that way. I never heard the whole thing until I heard it on the radio. it was pretty cool. Giorgio knew exactly what he wanted. T.U: You also played guitar on the Herb Alpert hit "Rise." Tim: That was done at A&M Studio's in Hollywood, with Chris Pinnick & myself on guitar, Chris is a great player & a great guy, he was the guitarist in the band Chicago at the time, also on the session was Abe Laboriel on bass, Steve Scaeffer on drums, & Mike Lang on piano. That was a cool session, and that was the only tune we worked on that evening, so we had the time to work with it, try different things & experiment. Herb was always artsy craftsy that way.I remember that Herb had the air conditioning really cranked up that night & Abe was freezing to death. T.U: You also recently worked with Celine Dione. Tim: That was a David Foster production for a Christmas record. The song was "Ave Maria", it was really neat. It was just nylon string guitar & orchestra. It was a great opportunity to play nylon string guitar with a large orchestra. Something that is not easily put together. One of the perks of the business. Celine wasn't at the session. Bill Ross did the charts. T.U: You also recently worked with Babyface. Tim: He has a wonderful studio in Hollywood, I did some overdubs for Toni Braxton whom Babyface was producing. I wasn't sure if I should call him Babyface or Mr. Face. Ha-Ha.He was a real gentleman, a real pro. He made me feel real comfortable. Whomever you work with, whenever you get that commaraderie thing going that is always the best thing. T.U: You wrote & performed the score for the film "Neon Signs" could you elaborate on that experience? Tim: That was a small film, and it was great opportunity to do the scoring thing. It was a guitar heavy score. A Ry Cooderish kind of thing & it turned out real well. T.U: What kind of guitars & amps do you use? Tim: For the solo record the electric guitar is the Guild Artist Award, I've had it since 1982. Also for the record I used a Egnater pre-amp, a Rivera power amp, a Benson power amp, and a Martin D-18 steel string acoustic for the rhythm part of "Calabossa"& I used a Yamaha nylon string. For my studio set-up I use a John Carruthers custom made strat type of guitar, an old Tele, a 70's Les Paul Custom, a Gibson ES-335, a Guild 12 string, the Martin D-18, and the Yamaha nylon string. I also take along about twenty other string instruments like mandolins, banjo's etc.. For amplification & effects I use the Egnater pre-amp, the Rivera power amp, an Eventide processor, DBX Limiter, & a couple of Roland processors. The main thing nowadays is the tone from the tube pre-amp not so much the effects. T.U: Who are your biggest guitar influences? Tim: I would say Howard Roberts, Johnny Smith, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Joe Pass, & Jimi Hendrix. Also a lot of non-guitar influences like my dad Tony May who was a great bassist, & Miles Davis, Chick Corea, & Oscar Petersen. T.U: You studied with Howard Roberts, Johnny Smith, & Dr. William Fowler. What did you get from each of these legendary music educators? Tim: Al three of them have have such organized minds about their music. Bill Fowler had an uncanny way of clarifying whatever it was simple or complex. His clarity of thought was pretty enlightening. And Johnny & Howard had such insights to the mechanics of the guitar, and the correct way of how to do things technically on the instrument. Plus it was so inspiring just to hear them play. T.U: What are your plans for the future? Tim: Working the new record, it's doing real well, I plan to continue doing sessions, and I'm starting to work on my second solo record. I also plan on doing some more live playing & some guitar clinics.