GUITAR ONE PRESENTS: STUDIO CITY
Professional Session Recording for Guitarists

Professional guitarist Carl Verheyen chronicles his career as one of L.A.'s top-call session players in this complete collection of his Studio City columns from Guitar magazine. He draws on his vast experience to advise guitarists how to: exercise studio etiquette and act professionally · acquire, assemble and set up gear for sessions · use the tricks of the trade to become a studio hero · get repeat call-backs · and much more. This is the handbook for recording guitarists who want a career as a professional studio player!

Inventory #HL 2500195
Book $9.95 (US).

Tim May

Like his friend, the late Tommy Tedesco, Tim May is one of those top-flight recording session cats whose career is measured not in years but in decades, and whose discography is so long that you can really only show the highlights. A veteran of the LA recording scene since the early '70s, May's guitar work has shown up on tunes by everyone from Jerry Lee Lewis to Stan Getz and everything in between.

Coming from a musical family in Cleveland, he was encouraged to pursue a musical career. At age 15 he took a clinic with the legendary Howard Roberts, who took him under his wing, inviting him to watch a recording session and giving him sage career advice. One piece of advice he got from Roberts was to move to LA at exactly the age of 20 - which he later did. In the meantime he kept playing and at the age of 16 he met and jammed with George Benson for several hours in his hotel room.

Moving to LA in 1974, May joined a big band which led to further connections in the music business, and by about 1977 he was getting so much session work that he no longer had time for live gigs. He met Tedesco while doing movie work for Warner Bros., and Tedesco gave his career a huge boost: "The influence of his attitude and his smarts was really really the best education you could get," May recalled. "You know from hanging with him, all the stuff that rubs 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 and studio work."

By the early '80s May was playing on some of the biggest records of the decade. He seems to have had a knack for showing up on the first breaththrough albums of future stars and mega-stars, such as Lionel Ritchie, the Pointer Sisters, Juice Newton, and Whitney Houston, as well as established ones like Herb Albert, Kenny Rogers, Liza Minelli, Diana Ross, Linda Ronstadt, Donna Summer, Leon Redbone, and on and on. He's also played some classic rock hits - like Blondie's "Call Me" - and great movie scenes, such as Back to the Future: that's Tim playing when Marty McFly blows out the walls with Doc Brown's mega-amp, as well the famous "Johnny B. Goode" lead at the high school dance.

May released his first solo CD in 1998, entitled One Piece of the Big Picture, featuring other LA session veterans, and since then he's returned to the clubs to play live jazz. His second CD, Live Jazz Guitar, is nearing completion (check out a cut from it in Tim's lesson). In the LA area you can check him out live with the Tim May Trio featuring session wizards Abe Laboriel on bass and Bob Zimmitti on drums.

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