When Ken Johnston first started writing songs in his early twenties, the music came easily as he had played guitar for a few years and had recently started improvising on the piano. What did not come as easily at first were the lyrics. Luckily for him, he had a new friend at the time, Patti Bruckmann, who was an excellent writer and had agreed to let him put music to some of her poems. Two of these early songs, Life In Dreams, and The Outsider were recorded for kjband’s first album, All I Want.
One day, many years later, Ken got to thinking that there were other very good Johnston/Bruckmann songs that were worthy of recording. So that was when this album was conceived, which has become kjband’s 13th album, called J/B.
The songs – Life In Dreams and The Outsider – were re-recorded adding horn charts, and the best 8 other Johnston/Bruckmann songs were tapped to comprise this album.
The horn charts were written by Chris Rinaman from Shiny Nickel Music who has written charts for kjband and played trombone over the years. These charts are particularly melodic and creative.
The album features well-regarded New Jersey trumpet player Tony Perruso who has played with Southside Johnny and Bon Jovi.
This album marks the debut of an excellent new saxophone player for kjband, Frank Elmo. The rest of the top notch musicians from the last kjband record returned – Peter McCulloch on vocals, Chris Delis on guitar, Gary Georgett on keyboards, Ken Adessa on drums/percussion, Marco Vitali on violin, Ian Stewart on bass, and of course Ken Johnston on piano.
Recording of the album started in 2023 and was completed in the autumn of 2024. It was mastered by two-time Grammy nominated mastering artist Kim Rosen of Knack Mastering. It is available to stream on Spotify, Itunes, YouTube and other streaming services.
