Instrumental Invasion, 5/18/22 May 19, 2022
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The May 18 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the third consecutive show recorded over three days. Two segments were recorded on March 28, three on the 29th, and one on the 30th. Pickups were recorded from March 29 to 31, and on April 2 and 22.
The playlist was created on March 27 with annotations and the script draft on the 28th.
I first played “Five6Oh83” by Steve Cole on July 1, 2020. I noted that 56083 was the ZIP Code for Sanborn, Minnesota, but missed the connection to David Sanborn. Instead, I wondered if Steve lived there and advised against looking into that. I played “Slam” by David so I could play Steve’s tribute later. It’s also why I included “Slings and Arrows” by Michael Brecker after playing “Starburst” by Spyro Gyra, which he ended with his solo. “Slam” and “Starburst” were chock-full of alumni of Paul Shaffer and The World’s Most Dangerous Band. If I wasn’t short on time in the first segment, I would have noted when they were in the band and who replaced them.
I swapped out the second instance of Ted David‘s segment open liner with a liner by Travis Demers.
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 5/11/22 May 12, 2022
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The May 11 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over three days: the first hour on March 21, the first segment of the second hour on the 22nd, and the last two on the 23rd. Pickups were recorded on April 22 and May 2, the latter of which incorporated a new liner by WCWP/LIU Post alumnus Travis Demers.
The playlist was created on March 20 with annotations and the talk break script draft on the 21st.
For the second time in three weeks, speed compression was involved. The last talk break was sped up to 98% (except for the pickup) to keep the segment as close to 18 minutes as possible. This was after removing extemporaneous tidbits, which I also had to do for the last talk break of the first hour.
One tidbit I removed was about the music video for “Mornin’” by Al Jarreau, billed only as Jarreau:
In the show’s last talk break, while back-selling “Shandling” by Ken Navarro, I referenced “This is the Theme to Garry’s Show,” the theme song for It’s Garry Shandling’s Show:
My talk-up for the short “Funky Song (SC-55)” by Anders Enger Jensen ended in rhyme: “This is Anders Enger Jensen with ‘Funky Song.’ It isn’t very long.” That was a reference to this moment on Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza:
I swapped out the 1984 and earlier segment for an extra 2017 to present, something I haven’t done since December 29, as four new albums came my way before working on this show.
Guitarist Wayne Bruce’s appearance on “95 North” by Kim Waters allowed me to make up for my oversight last June 23. Coincidentally, tomorrow’s blog post has photos taken on I-95 north in New York and Connecticut. Kim had the Maryland portion of the interstate highway in mind for “95 North.”
I didn’t mention on-air that May 11 marked 28 years since my first “radio show” with my cousin Chris. He held a Talkboy cassette voice recorder and I held a Panasonic microcassette voice recorder. 11 years after that – May 11, 2005 – The Mike Chimeri Show returned to WebRadio WCWP, six days after ending the original The Instrumental Invasion on WGBB. He’ll be introducing me at the 2020-21 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony exactly one month from last night, on June 11.
Click here to download the May 11, 2022, aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 5/4/22 May 5, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Comedy, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, TV, Video.add a comment

The May 4 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded from March 14 to 16, two segments per day. Pickups were recorded on March 19 and 21, and April 22.
The playlist was created on March 13 and annotated on the 14th. The talk break script was drafted before the first two segments were recorded, and before and after recording the third segment on the 15th.
My line in the intro was in reference to this:
On February 1, the Late Show with David Letterman YouTube channel was revived as a David Letterman archive channel (billed as “Letterman”). The channel is primarily made up segments from all three of Dave’s shows – The David Letterman Show (“the morning show”), Late Night, and the Late Show – and remembrances by surviving staff – including directors Hal Gurnee and Jerry Foley, and writers Merrill Markoe and Gammill and Pross. Despite Dave’s left-wing political bent, explicitly expressed over his last decade on the air, I have a fondness for him and his shows. I was fortunate enough to attend a Late Show taping with my dad Bill in December 2004, and to have met Hello Deli proprietor (and hidden camera subject) Rupert Jee four years earlier, as seen on this blog’s People I’ve Met page:

5/17 UPDATE: Since my Netflix account has been paused for over a year, and due to the potential politics of a given episode, I forgot that Dave continues to have an interview series on the platform called My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
But enough about all things Letterman. I didn’t mention it on the air, but four of the songs in the first hour are the latest in a line of songs played on the show that were excerpted in local forecasts on The Weather Channel in their day:
- “James and Wes” by Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery
- “Let’s Just Say Goodbye” by David Sanborn
- “Florida Suite: Sunset (USA)” by Mannheim Steamroller
- “True Companion” by The Rippingtons
There was so much information I did share that I didn’t use many alumni liners, but no speed compression was required for talk breaks. For the first time since January 12 (only acknowledged in the playlist), I swapped the Ted David and Bruce Leonard liners for the start of the last two segments.
Not only did the show have plenty of organ, but also many James Taylor alumni, leading up to Chuck Loeb‘s cover of “Mean Old Man.”
Coming in and out of “Dees Blues” by the Roger Kellaway Trio, I subtly referenced a suggestive meme.
“Run Your Race,” Ken Navarro‘s tribute to Eddie Van Halen, was first played on October 6, recorded before learning it was a tribute (in this livestream).
“Gotta Get Up” by Adam Hawley was on the smooth jazz radio charts at the time of recording.
Here is the video for the Bob James Trio’s cover of “Rocket Man“:
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
8:18 AM UPDATE: Whoops, I guess last week’s show wasn’t the last with the “no relation to” bit. I accidentally left one in at the top of hour 2.
Instrumental Invasion, 4/27/22 April 28, 2022
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The April 27 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded on March 8 (two segments) and 9 (four segments). A pickup was recorded on the 11th.
The playlist was created on March 5 and annotated on the 7th. The talk break script was drafted on the 8th, but I recorded the first segment after scripting its talk breaks.
The second and third talk breaks of the first segment were speed compressed, one more talk break than last February 3. I didn’t want to withhold anymore tidbits that I removed and wasn’t up to rerecording the breaks faster. I moved some of those tidbits to the first talk break of the second segment. The third and fourth segments had the opposite problem, which meant padding with extra liners and not having songs start underneath the talk-up.
The adamantium claws reference (with sound effect) after “Get Out Claws” by Oli SIlk was a nod to Wolverine from the X-Men.
This is the last show with the “no relation to” running gag. I employed it in some upcoming shows, but edited out all instances.
Here’s the Bob James Trio performance of “Feel Like Making Love/Night Crawler” that was extracted for use in Feel Like Making LIVE!:
If you want to see Scott Wilkie‘s “live” band perform “Fruit Sandwich,” you’ll have to buy the DVD.
As for last night’s show, click to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 4/20/22 April 21, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Comedy, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, Travel, TV, Video.add a comment

The April 20 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded on March 1 (four segments) and 2 (two segments), the latter occurring before my guest reading stint. Pickups were recorded on the 4th, 8th, and 24th.
The playlist was created on February 26, but not annotated until the 28th, after which the talk break script was drafted.
I forgot to plug the video of “Angela” by the Bob James Trio that was recorded as they recorded:
The session was recorded as video and the Dolby Atmos audio from it was extracted for MQA-CD players. The version of “Angela” you heard on the show was ripped from the CD with regular audio, which is good enough for me.
Coincidentally, the day I started recording this show, Ken Levine (“la-vyne”) wrote a remembrance of Taxi, the series for which Bob wrote the theme. Ken and his writing partner David Isaacs went on to work with some of the Taxi staff – such as the Charles Brothers and Jim Burrows – on Cheers and its spin-off Frasier.
The Shilts anecdote after playing “All Grown Up” referred to his May 2012 show at Houndstooth Pub. Last night was the first time I mentioned the prank.
A few days before the show aired, I finally learned how to properly say Maynard Ferguson‘s first name: “may-nard,” not “-nerd” like for football players Brad and Don. Unfortunately, it was too late to correct the mistake, but rest assured it won’t happen again.
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 4/13/22 April 14, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, New Age, Personal, Radio.add a comment

The April 13 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded one hour per day on February 19 and 20, with pickups recorded before and after the second hour sessions. It was the first show recorded entirely at home with the Kaotica Eyeball shield.
The playlist was created on February 17 with annotations starting that day and continuing into the 18th. The talk break script was drafted on the 19th, before and after my friends’ daughter’s first birthday party.
I may have played six covers on a show prior to this week, but I didn’t notice until this time. My favorite has to be Maynard Ferguson‘s cover of “Eli’s Comin’” (from M.F. Horn) that led off the show, though I don’t like the beginning and end.
“Valley in the Clouds” and “Jamaican Nights” were staples of The Weather Channel’s local forecasts in their day, but I wasn’t aware of the latter song until it played on CD 101.9 in November 1998. I played it in the premiere of the original The Instrumental Invasion on WGBB on July 13, 2004.
The last song of the show, “Summer Smiles” by Ken Navarro, was first heard last August 25, but this time, I said Tyler Mire‘s last name correctly: “meer.”
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
11:40 AM UPDATE: From time to time, I miss things when making annotations and they don’t end up in the script. I missed that David Charles played percussion on “360” by Chuck Loeb, leading me to incorrectly call it a trio song. I didn’t notice the percussion – chimes, in particular – until just now while listening to the unscoped aircheck. To compensate, I’ll play it again in an upcoming show. Listen for it in June.
Instrumental Invasion, 4/6/22 April 7, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Baseball, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, Radio, Sports, Technology, Travel, TV, Video, Weather.add a comment

The April 6 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over three days in mid-February: the first hour on the 14th (Valentine’s Day), one second hour segment on the 15th, and the last two on the 16th when a pickup was also recorded.
The playlist was created on February 12 and annotated on the 13th. The talk break script was drafted before recording on the 14th.
A few days before work on this show began, I finally took the plunge and bought the Kaotica Eyeball microphone isolation shield. Since my remote location has minimal room echo, the Eyeball is for home recordings. It only took two days to ship from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Here’s how it looks from my chair:

It’s as big as my head, a challenge for Zoom meetings and for reading text on the right side of my monitor, but it works! Room echo was practically gone from any talk breaks I recorded at home. You will have to lower the pot (potentiometer) on your mixer. The Eyeball isolates background audio so well that more of the mic is picked up.
Thank you to actor and impressionist Jim Meskimen (son of Marion Ross) for recommending the Kaotica Eyeball in one of Mark Evanier‘s 2020 voice-over panel livestreams (cued to the relevant portion) and then jogging my memory about it in an Instagram post a few days before my purchase.
This wasn’t the first show with talk breaks recorded through the Eyeball, due to pickups I recorded for March 16.
After acquiring new music releases in the weeks leading up to this show, and the Friday after, I re-instituted two 2017 to present segments for the second hour. I included “Feet First” by Rick Braun unaware that it was the first single off his eponymous album. I did know that “Sun Princess” by the Jeff Lorber Fusion and “Out to Lunch” by Oli Silk were on the smooth jazz radio charts. So, I worked them in. Due to time constraints in the last segment, I couldn’t remind listeners about the accelerando at the end of the Bob James Trio arrangement of “Westchester Lady.” That same arrangement was part of their Blue Note set in November 2018, a month after Feel Like Making LIVE! was recorded. I said of the Blue Note performance:
This song had a call and response between the trio and ended with an accelerando that led me to polka dance [in my seat].
“The Big Windy Cat” by Nick Colionne was played 52 weeks after the previous cut from No Limits, “Headin’ Wes Before Dawn.” “Rippin’ n Runnin'” by Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, from That’s How We Roll, was played exactly six months after “Howdiz Songo?” We also went exactly six months between tracks from the Jeff Lorber Fusion’s Space-Time – “Louisiana” and “Sun Princess” – and between the last track to date from the previous Bob James Trio album, Espresso, and the first off Feel Like Making LIVE! The Espresso track was “Mister Magic,” which was also recorded for the new album.
Little did I know my inclusion of “Swingin’ for the Fence” by Nelson Rangell, and addressing personnel as “heavy hitters,” would coincide with the delayed start to the 2022 Major League Baseball Season, and appear in a show preceded by the baseball edition of The Rock Show. And it slipped my mind that an unusually late blizzard affected the New York metro area 40 years ago: April 6, 1982. You can watch WABC-TV‘s Eyewitness News coverage of that storm here.
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 3/30/22 March 31, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Game Shows, History, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, TV, Video.add a comment

The March 30 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP marked two years since my Wednesday night premiere. The show was recorded one hour per day on February 5 and 6 with a pickup on the 7th.
The playlist was created on February 3 and annotated on the 4th. The script was drafted on the morning of the 5th.
As on the first anniversary show last year, the first hour format was 1984 and earlier, with songs released between 1963 and 1980, and the second hour format was 1985 to ’95, with songs running the gamut.
The talk breaks for the first two segments were wordy enough that I resorted to short liners and had to hurry the third talk break of the second segment, removing tidbits about Wes Montgomery‘s Goin’ Out of My Head album. The other four segments required padding with extra liners, starting songs after a talk break, or fading them up (not out) early.
“Feels So Good” by Chuck Mangione finally aired in its entirety after getting cut off by automation in the first show.
“Give It One” by Maynard Ferguson led off the show, as I had bought a compilation CD of Maynard’s three M.F. Horn studio albums days before recording. I’ve been aware of the song since I downloaded an MP3 in the mid 2000s upon learning it was used as the theme to the 1974 pilot episodes of Wheel of Fortune. I incorrectly thought it was made for the show. The first part of the song reminds me an interchange on I-95 in Miami because I was looking at a photo of it while listening. When my travels took me past what’s known as the Midtown Interchange in March 2019, I took a photo of my own:

Thanks to a video slideshow I made for my family of the trip, including my cousin’s wedding, the new photo also makes me think of “Gods of Brazil” by Alison Brown. And speaking of Brazil, I was glad to talk about Iguazu Falls after playing the misspelled “Iguassu Falls” by Jeff Lorber.
Getting back to “Give It One,” trumpeter Eric Miyashiro, once part of Maynard’s big band, posted a great arrangement on YouTube back in October, featuring a solo by fellow Maynard alum Wayne Bergeron, then by him. Enjoy:
5/12 UPDATE: I learned in thanks to this interview with Eric that Maynard’s name was pronounced as it looks, not “may-nerd.”
As for the second anniversary edition of Instrumental Invasion, click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 3/23/22 March 24, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.add a comment

The March 23 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded one hour per day on January 29 and 30.
The playlist was created on January 27. The first hour was annotated the same day – mostly by literally cutting (with scissors) and pasting (with tape) from the January 26 playlist – and the second hour on the 28th. I saved the PDF in grayscale again this week because the blue shade varied from the newly-written annotations to the ones on the printout. The talk break script was drafted before recording on the 29th, with digital copying and pasting from the January 26 script where necessary.
Much of the first hour was a do-over from January 26. About 40 minutes of that show’s first hour went unaired because the stream went out. The outage encompassed part of the first and third segments and all of the second. Rather than replay songs individually over subsequent shows, I made the unprecedented move of putting every unaired song in one show. I hope I never have to do this again.
Aside from the seven reused songs from January 26, “Bado Boy!” by Brian Bromberg was first heard last July 14. By this time, I knew the song’s origin: the titular Bado Boy is a male cat Brian rescued from Barbados. The last talk break, including the anecdote, was tough because there was too much information and too little time. Luckily, “Bado Boy!” had a long intro, allowing me to start the segment with the song, lower the levels for the Bruce Leonard liner and my talk-up, then bring the levels back up. On the other end of the spectrum, I had to pad out the first segment of hour two with an extra liner. Given a choice, I prefer having to pad segments out with liners than hurry my talk breaks, speed compress talk breaks, play shorter liners, or fade a song out early.
This was the second week in a row with two 2007-16 segments rather than two 2017 to present.
I realized this morning that Ken Navarro was playing real bass on “Running Toward the Sun.” It sounded too good to be synth bass; or as Ken calls it, “key bass.” I’ll be playing another song from Ken’s one-man band period (2014-16) on April 20, and I redid the back-sell of that song. Be sure to listen for that.
As for last night’s show, click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Audiobooking 7 March 26, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Animation, Audio, Audiobooks, Baseball, Books, Comedy, Commentary, Drama, Film, Football, Health, History, Internet, Media, Music, News, Personal, Politics, Radio, Rock, Sports, TV, Video, War, Wrestling.2 comments
Another year of audiobook listening is in the books. I’m still an Audible member and use each month’s credit on a new book, but throughout my membership, there will come a time where I pay $35.88 to buy three extra credits. I listened while exercising, running (or walking) errands, doing household tasks, and at bedtime.
I even listened to one book on YouTube rather than Audible. Find out which one as I list the audiobooks I listened to since last year’s Audiobooking post:
As I crafted this post, adding one book at a time, I had no idea how many books I had listened to: 34, plus three that I returned! That far exceeds the amount of books in earlier posts.
Until next year’s “Audiobooking” post, happy listening.