I was having a conversation with my dad today about the history of Cellar Live and how the heck we've managed to get 115 titles recorded and released. It's amazing really. I started thinking about the first record we did and it suddenly dawned on me that we recently lost another member of the quartet that made ROSS TAGGART QUARTET - Thankfully. I'm speaking of the great pianist and on this particular record, organist Bob Murphy. We lost Ross over 3 years ago.
What started as a little pet project exploded into a full fledged record label. I will never forget the making of Thankfully. This band was so hot! It was their second performance at the club and I knew after the first one that this band was something special. It was made even more special for me as Ross was such a huge mentor of mine so to launch the label with this recording was really something. Every aspect of making the record was so exciting. My good friend at the time Kory Burk engineered the album. I remember meeting with designer Nicole Banda to talk about how I wanted it to look and she absolutely nailed it! Blue Note vibe through and through right from the get go. I remember heading over to Miles Hill's house with Ross and Brad Turner to mix the album and I remember sifting through all the great photography that my friend Ian Moar took. It was an exciting time.
Ross went on to record dozens more records on Cellar Live as a leader and as a sideman. Thankfully is a wonderful record and is no longer available in physical format but you can purchase a high resolution download for $9.99!