In September of 1993, a day before vocalist Weba Garrettson was supposed to rehearse for the first time with drummer Danny Frankel and bassist Ralph Gorodetsky for a gig at the Independent Music Seminar in San Diego, California, a great misfortune struck. Steve Stewart, Garretson's guitarist and songwriting partner of 12 years called to say he needed a break from music and was moving to Santa Barbara for an indefinite period of time.
Steve Stewart, Garretson's guitarist and songwriting partner of 12 years called to say he needed a break from music and was moving to Santa Barbara for an indefinite period of time. Devastated, Garretson almost proclaimed her music career over. But her husband, producer and recording engineer Mark Wheaton insisted that she do the rehearsal anyway. After all, since Frankel was already playing with Gorodetsky and guitarist Joe Baiza in a band called The Mecolodiacs at the same festival that weekend, it made sense to make a go of it as a trio.
And make a go they did. When Garretson walked into rehearsal and explained that the band had no guitar player, instead of giving up, the three musicians came up with their own versions of Stewart's songs.
Naturally, Weba started sitting in with the Mecolodiacs every Monday at the band's weekly gig at The Mint in Los Angeles. She would often perform one of her spoken word songs such as ?Ventilator Blues,? the bizarre story of Garretson's crazy encounter with a Korean Church lady who had ranted, "You're a lesbian! You take it up the butt!" in a fit of road rage. Weba's wild narrative was a great launching point for a free jazz improvisation that would be resolved in the blues chorus.
Then Ralph and Weba began writing songs together. In 1996 with the addition of Griffin, the band recorded their songs at Catasonic Studios, Wheaton and Garretson's home-based recording studio. After the recording was finished however, things began to slowly unravel. Seduced by all the toys in the studio, Gorodetsky and Garretson wanted to overdub other instruments and craft a pop record. Meanwhile, Baiza steadfastly wanted to remain true to the sparse and spontaneous nature of the basic tracks.
Soon however, Baiza, Gorodetsky and Griffin had to leave on an extended trip to Germany for several months to record and tour as The Mecolodiacs. During that infamous trip, Baiza was attacked in Berlin by street hoodlums who broke his left hand with a baseball bat.
Around the same time, Garretson was commissioned to put together a musical act for the Bertolt Brecht Centennial and ended up creating the Eastside Sinfonietta which kept her busy for five years resulting in much acclaim and a 2002 album on True Classical CDs.
So, Puttanesca remained on the backburner until a year ago, when Wheaton started working on the mixes again in his spare time. Nine years of non-stop recording at Catasonic had sharpened his ears and he now had a better idea of what to do with the Puttanesca tracks. Garretson had also let go of the idea of overdubs and simply wanted to hear the instruments as they sounded in the room during the recording.
But in February of 2006, Garretson sent the Puttanesca mixes to the other band members and they were all very enthusiastic. The album was released that year on Garretson and Wheaton's Catasonic label.
Puttanesca is Joe Baiza - guitar (Saccharine Trust, Universal Congress Of, The Mecolodiacs, Joe Baiza's Congress Of), Weba Garrestson ? vocals (Eastside Sinfonietta, Bill Viola); Wayne Griffin ? Drums; Ralph Gorodetsky ? Bass