Pete’s Pandemic Playlist

My newest record is out on March 1st and is available for streaming and purchase in all the usual places. This is an album of songs that have gone through my head at various times throughout this pandemic. It was recorded at home, primarily during lockdown on solo guitar. While most of these songs have an obvious connection to covid, a few of them might benefit from some explanation.

The phrase “a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down” was taken from songwriter Robert Sherman’s son, Jeffrey, who used it to describe his experience taking the polio vaccine. “The Nearness of You” is the one song on the record on which I’m joined by another musician, my colleague from Riverside City College, saxophonist, Charlie Richard. We played our parts remotely from our own home studios. A line from“Somewhere” hopefully envisions getting to a place with “open air”. Here’s to all of us getting to that place soon.

Steele in Love

This album is a collaboration with 91 year old vocalist Ken Steele. On most of the tracks Peter and Ken are accompanied by virtuoso bassist Baba Elefante.

Ken is a classic crooner. He started singing professionally in Winnipeg in the 1940s. Soon he was performing with a 50 piece orchestra on a weekly, coast to coast, Canadian radio show. He moved to Toronto and performed regularly on numerous Canadian Broadcasting Company radio and television programs and in nightclubs around the city.  

As musical tastes changed to rock and roll, Ken began writing for TV and radio and eventually moved to L.A. He worked on a number of sitcoms and even won an Emmy for his writing for Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop.                                         

In 2002, Ken moved to Palm Springs and began singing professionally again.  We have played a number of gigs together and decided to make this record. It’s available for download at the sites below, and is streaming on all the usual sites.

Christmas with your Jewish Boyfriend

My holiday album, Christmas with Your Jewish Boyfriend: Christmas Music by Jewish Songwriters came out in November 2019. The album’s title track is an original song. 

In addition, I have a multi-media program/lecture-recital that I have presented at UC Riverside’s Jewish Studies lecture series two years in a row and at synagogues in Los Angeles and Riverside.  It’s an informative and entertaining history of the Jewish songwriters who wrote Christmas songs interspersed with my jazz guitar interpretations of those songs.

Swing State

Original, instrumental jazz that shows the influence of Curtis's classical guitar background as well as the echoes of Astor Piazzolla, Joe Pass, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder and Thelonious Monk.