Featured Artist

Bob Lewis - trombone & founding member
Karen Greene - tenor sax
Nick Longo - alto sax
Mike Haid - drums
Herb Avery - bass (who also plays keyboard and has done so on most of the recordings)
Dave Ellington - organ
Ken Gregory - trumpet/guitar

Solid State creates an atmosphere that takes you back to the era of original jazz while intermingling modern day twists of funk, soft rock, blues and swing throughout their music. With Bob Lewis on trombone, Karen Greene on tenor sax, Nick Longo on alto sax, Mike Haid on drums, Herb Avery on bass and keyboard, Dave Ellington on organ, and Ken Gregory on trumpet and guitar, you just can’t help but move to the rhythm they create in their all original compositions.

In an interview with Ken Gregory, he shares how Solid State came together. “Bob Lewis and I began the group around 1979 - thirty years ago… Bob and I met at Six Flags in 1969 and discovered our mutual love for original jazz. He used to come over to my house where I was starting to put together my studio, and we would call a few guys over and rehearse and record our songs. It basically grew from there, and has become a coalition of willing participants. Over the years there have been at least four different players of each instrument except for Bob and I.”

The origination of the name, Solid State, is based on the solidity of sound created by the band. Ken shares that “It seemed that no matter who was playing with us, we always had a great time and it was a very solid group of friends and colleagues. There have never ever been any personality hassles and everyone loves doing it, money or not (usually not). I'm actually quite proud of the camaraderie amongst musicians in Atlanta and have always found lots of willing players who love to experiment with original music. And the term Solid State is a well-known term in electronics that most people have heard, so I figured it might be a good name that already had some recognition.”

In order to develop such a solid sound and camaraderie amongst the band members, it all begins with a passion for music. Ken tells about the time when his passion for music became evident. “In fourth grade when I was nine years old our public school gave us all a musical aptitude test. Apparently I scored high enough so that they offered me free music lessons. I started on clarinet, which was a beast. They sent me home with just a mouthpiece, which I squawked away on for the first week, sounding like a strangled goose. The neighbors were horrified, and I felt about the same. The next week they gave a clarinet, and it wasn't much better.

I struggled for six months, even taking lessons from great clarinetist Frank Carter, who taught private lessons but hated it. I can't blame him - I was hideous, as most beginners are. Forty years later we became good friends, hung out and played gigs together. My best friend in fourth grade played trumpet, so I switched to that and advanced quickly through the ranks as it was a much more natural instrument for me.

The next year I joined a community concert band called the Highlander Band run by genius Evelyn Sisk, and started to enjoy playing music. I still play with a couple of guys who were in that band in 1960. But it wasn't really until after high school when I got a job at Six Flags and started to find out how chords and chord progressions work that I became completely fascinated with it. There were several guys there that had already been playing professionally for a few years and really knew what was going on with ‘music theory’, a misnomer because it's really just a system of naming notes using numbers, not a theory at all.”
 
From the time he began playing in the fourth grade to playing professionally, Ken shares his story of how music became his life, passion, and profession. “At the time I started working at Six Flags when I was seventeen, I had already done many ‘regular’ jobs - gas station attendant, grocery store clerk, auto mechanic, etc. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized I could do music for a living! I was astounded that I could follow my passion, do what I really loved to do, and possibly even survive. I got an apartment with three other guys that worked there, had a car and was living the dream at age seventeen, even though we made only $80 a week. I decided to commit my art and work life to music. I took up guitar, bass and keyboards and work towards learning everything I could about every style of music that was appealing or at least acceptable to me.”
 
Ken shares some of his stories of when he started out playing in the night club venues and why he later transitioned to more private events and concerts. “The night club life was a hell of a ride. Many good times were had over the decade that I lived it. Gigs were everywhere for hard working players - every motel, hotel, strip joint and honkey tonk had a full-time band. The problem was that you were always ‘two weeks away from nothing’, as any club owner could fire you with two weeks notice, and some dishonorable ones did so with no notice, especially if their girlfriend got mad at you.

One night we were working in a sleazy bar on the Southside of Atlanta near all the truck stops, and we were doing the old Ray Price country classic ‘For The Good Times’, a sad ballad about love gone bad. When you do a song a thousand times, as we do over the years, eventually you start messing around with the lyrics out of boredom and make them silly. The crowd always gets a kick out of it and everyone has fun with it.

This particular night the son of the club owner was sitting in on drums. He wasn't a good drummer but we put up with it because he was a nice guy and the club owner and customers loved it. The club owner had just divorced his wife Fran that we all knew and loved, and married Sandy the club whore, a hideous rude bimbo that tried to control the world with her fake breasts and giant blonde beehive hair.

The line of the song goes ‘I'll get along - you'll find another’ and instead the guitar player sang ‘I'll get along - you'll find your mother’ - a standard silly line for that song. Everyone laughed and we continued on for the night. But when we came in to work the next night all our gear was off the stage and another band was playing. I went up to Charlie the club owner to ask him what was up and he said that we were just playing the same old songs and they wanted some new stuff. Hmm…

As it turned out, I didn't notice it at the time, but WC the guitar player said Sandy the Ho went ballistic when she heard him sing the line about ‘your mother’. She thought it was a slam against her and insisted to her new idiot husband we be fired immediately, and so he did. We were now all four out of work, and we had just quit another steady gig to work there (on my recommendation) and now had no job at all because of Sandy the Ho!

Typical of the club business - so no, I don't miss it for those reasons. And since every club owner I've EVER worked for has done something just as ridiculous as that, I do not miss the club business. It's not the crowd - the people/audience have never been the problem. They're almost always really nice and appreciative, but club owners are like politicians and religious business people - they always find the most rotten part of themselves and live that out.

We all have a million gig war stories and we often talk about writing a book about them. Maybe this is the beginning of that!

Solid State is my greatest musical joy - everyone in the band just loves playing our music, and it is SO FAR removed from the scene I've just described, it's almost like a Holy Grail. It's our relief from the regular music business of dealing with record company people, club owners, mothers of brides, meeting planners, wedding coordinators, booking agents, etc.

We're like a musical family - everyone enjoys each other so much personally and musically, and contributes wholeheartedly to the creative process. Each time we play a song it has an entirely new personality, and we follow each other around like a pack of huskies behind whoever has the lead at the moment. It's really the way music is supposed to work, at least in my view.”

With all original music, some members of Solid State compose their own songs while everyone is involved in the collaboration with other songs as the music moves them. Ken shares the experience of creating music with Solid State “It's great to do a combination of both. Usually a song is basically written by one person, and we all arrange it together and decide the best way to play it by committee. Everyone has an equal vote with their individual input, and each player brings the depth of his or her experience to the song. All suggestions and input are welcome and appreciated.”

The songs that Ken writes are all influenced by his experiences. Ken shares that “All of my songs have a story or an experience associated with them. For instance, ‘After It's Over’ was written about a huge disagreement that my daughter Sara and I had that lasted a year, and how wonderful and blissful it was going to be when we got back together. ‘Bed of Coles’ was written during a nice weekend my wife Patty Cole Gregory and I spent in our barn, sort of a mini-vacation in the backyard. ‘Mesa Verde’ was written after a trip out West when we visited the site of the Anasazi Indian cliff-dwelling of that name. ‘Monte Verde’ was written after visiting Costa Rica and touring the cloud forest there of that name. ‘Delusion’ was written out of disappointment with one of the members moving to another state and leaving the band.”

Currently, Solid State has two CDs available - 'Natural Process' and 'Solid State'. Ken states that the release of their third CD, ‘On The Edge’ is coming soon. “‘On The Edge’…is nearing completion - I just need a few sax parts from Karen and then mix and master. Karen's super-busy running three businesses and doing all our promo as well - she's an airplane pilot, audio engineer, studio owner, website builder, business consultant, jazz musician, and one of the funniest people on the face of the earth. Check out her website at karengreenesax.com.”

Keep on rockin’, Solid State!