Cory Weeds - LYDIALIEBMAN.COM

Hip to Be Square — Plays Huey Lewis & The News (Boop Bop Bing Bash!)
Release date: October 16, 2026
Label: Cellar Music Group

Hip to Be Square — Plays Huey Lewis & The News (Boop Bop Bing Bash!) is the forthcoming new album by saxophonist, producer and Cellar Music Group founder Cory Weeds. The 13-track release features Weeds on tenor saxophone alongside Hammond B3 organist Chris Hazelton, guitarist David Rourke and drummer Rudy Petschauer. Its opening six tracks recast songs by Huey Lewis & The News through Hazelton’s organ-quartet arrangements; the seven-track Boop Bop Bing Bash! program follows with originals and selections from the soul-jazz repertoire.

The project began in 2013, when Hazelton invited Weeds to the Midwest for several performances and workshops. The pair drove four hours from Kansas City to St. Louis in Hazelton’s father’s van, where one disc had become lodged in the CD player: Huey Lewis & The News’ Greatest Hits. As the songs repeated across the drive, Weeds began hearing how their melodies, rhythms and blues foundations could translate to a Hammond organ quartet.

“There was something in this music that would work in a classic organ-quartet setting,” Weeds recalls. “Reworking popular songs into jazz isn’t exactly a new idea — organist and friend Mike LeDonne has done this brilliantly with tunes by Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire and The Spinners. Still, I’m pretty sure Huey Lewis & The News wouldn’t appear on any jazz musician’s short list for source material. But I heard something, and so did Chris Hazelton.”

Hazelton began sketching the music, though the project went dormant several times. Another encounter revived it in 2024, when Weeds and Hazelton were touring as members of the James Hunter Six while opening for Bonnie Raitt. During a stop at a Portland, Oregon, record store, an employee bumped into Weeds. He turned around and saw the employee carrying 25 copies of Huey Lewis & The News’ 1983 album Sports.

“That was it,” Weeds says. “The universe had spoken.”

Weeds and Hazelton assembled Rourke and Petschauer and booked a 13-day, 12-show tour. The quartet arrived at its first engagement in Austin, Texas, without having played together as a unit or rehearsed the material. They developed Hazelton’s book across the tour before recording at Afterlife Studios in Vancouver on November 17 and 18, 2025.

Produced by Weeds and Hazelton, the album was recorded by John Raham and mixed by Chris Gestrin. It will be available digitally in 24-bit/96kHz resolution with a booklet, in a deluxe six-panel CD package and as a 180-gram black-vinyl double LP limited to 500 copies. Kevin Gray mastered and cut the vinyl at Cohearent Audio, with pressing by Fidelity Records Pressing.

Hazelton created the six Huey Lewis treatments, while Rourke and Petschauer brought extensive ensemble experience, including Petschauer’s extended tenure with Brother Jack McDuff.

With Cellar Music Group receiving support from FACTOR Canada, Weeds and Hazelton expanded the Huey Lewis material with originals and pieces from the organ-jazz repertoire. Those additions formed the seven-track Boop Bop Bing Bash! portion, moving through boogaloo, swing, bossa and blues while drawing on the quartet’s writing and a broader soul-jazz lineage.

Weeds previously explored popular repertoire with Mike LeDonne on 2017’s Let’s Groove: The Music of Earth, Wind & Fire.

The album also coincides with Cellar Music Group’s 25th anniversary. Since Weeds founded the label in connection with his Vancouver jazz club in 2001, its catalogue has grown to more than 400 releases and earned its first Grammy Award in 2023.

Hazelton recasts the familiar melodies through the feel, swing and blues language of classic soul jazz.

“There are certain songs that instantly transport you somewhere, and for me, ‘I Want a New Drug’ is one of those songs,” Weeds says. “The groove, the swagger, the humor, the unmistakable energy — it already had the DNA of great soul jazz hidden inside it. Instead of trying to recreate the original, we wanted to reimagine it through the lens of organ jazz and hard bop.”

“What surprised me most is how naturally the song transformed,” he continues. “Strip away the ’80s production and you uncover a well-written composition with a deep groove and room for improvisation. The result feels both nostalgic and brand new at the same time — like Huey Lewis wandered into a late-night jazz club.”

“There Arno Answers,” written by Weeds and Hazelton, opens the album’s second program. “It’s a title with a double meaning,” Weeds explains. “Arno is someone in my life who has helped guide me through some very deep waters over the years, but the tune also reflects a period where I found myself carrying more questions than answers.”

“Musically, I wanted to channel that tension into something earthy and direct — a serious organ-boogaloo groove with attitude,” he continues. “Greasy, funky, simple and catchy.”

Rourke’s “Meezy’s Back in Town” suggests a lost 1970s or ’80s sitcom theme. Harold Ousley’s “The People’s Choice” shifts the feel again. As Weeds puts it, “Every organ record needs at least one greasy bossa.”

“Up in Gavin’s Flat” carries a direct connection to Vancouver jazz history. Weeds discovered the composition while searching through a rare 1973 album by Brute Force featuring saxophonist Gavin Walker, a longtime presence in the city’s jazz community.

“Anyone from Vancouver knows that name,” Weeds says. “Gavin lived the entire history of Vancouver jazz — as a player, presenter, interviewer and sometimes simply an audience member. This recording is our homage to him.”

Weeds encountered Billy Gardner’s “Boop Bop Bing Bash!” on George Braith’s Soulstream and responded to its name before hearing the performance. “Before I even heard it, my marketing brain kicked in — that had to be the album title,” he says. “Luckily, the tune itself was right up my alley, so we recorded it.”

Vancouver multi-instrumentalist John Lee contributes the easy-swinging “At Long Last,” followed by Jimmy Owens’ “Get the Money Bluze,” which closes the album with what Weeds calls “just pure fun.”

Weeds credits Hazelton with transforming the initial concept into a complete book, Rourke with bringing open ears and “subtle comedic genius,” and Petschauer with the deep groove shaped by his years with McDuff. “This project may have started as my idea, but it came to life through Chris Hazelton,” Weeds says. “He ran with the concept, delivered on every level and elevated the music beyond what I imagined.”

More than a decade after the drive from Kansas City to St. Louis, the album remains a source of deep satisfaction for Weeds. “It came together in an unexpected way, exceeded every expectation and brought me a lot of joy,” he says. “I hope it does the same for you when you listen.”

Home Cookin
Release date: November 10, 2023
Label: Cellar Music Group

Home Cookin’ celebrates saxophonist Cory Weeds and his Little Big Band. Weeds’ eleven-piece ensemble features a ‘who’s who’ of all-star Vancouver-based players who beautifully interpret arrangements by renowned jazz artists and arrangers Bill Coon and Jill Townsend as well as two breath-taking original compositions. Weeds’ singular tenor saxophone sound is complemented by pianist Chris Gestrin, bassist John Lee, drummer Jesse Cahill, lead alto saxophonist Steve Kaldestad, tenor saxophonist James Danderer, baritone saxophonist Dave Say, trombonists Brian Harding and Jim Hopson, and trumpeters Brad Turner and Chris Davis.

Cory Weeds’ first Little Big Band release, 2018’s Explosion, showcased some of the bandleader’s favorite musicians from New York City. Home Cookin’ strikes a more personal tone by featuring Weeds’ favorite musicians in his home city of Vancouver. A natural progression from his first Little Big Band release - Home Cookin’ tells a story of the great city of Vancouver and of Weeds’ journey from there and back again.

The story behind the recording of Home Cookin is one that underscores the sheer tenacity of the bandleader. In March of 2023, Weeds booked several evenings for the Little Big Band at Frankie’s Jazz Club in Vancouver. The weekend would culminate with the recording of this album at The Warehouse Studios. Weeds recalls: “I put a lot of thought into Home Cookin’ and what would set me and the band up for success. A rehearsal, two nights performing the music live… and then into the studio. It was perfect! What could possibly go wrong?”

Unfortunately, fate had a different plan for that weekend as it began with the bandleader’s saxophone being stolen. The instrument held immense sentimental value for Weeds, and this paired with the fact that the bandleader had fallen ill earlier in the week, seemed almost insurmountable. “To say I was devastated would be an understatement however, as the old saying goes, “the show must go on.” I jumped into action with the help of saxophonists James Danderfer and Steve Kaldestad to find a playable instrument that would get me through the weekend including the recording… I actually got back in time to rehearse two tunes!” The band played magnificently to sold out houses at Frankie’s Jazz Club and Weeds transcended this unfortunate situation.

From the very first refrains of the opening track, a rendition of Horace Silver’s “Home Cookin”, the eleven-piece ensemble displays a stellar synergy. The Little Big Band seemingly marries the dynamic sensibilities and interplay of a combo with the harmonic intrigue of a big band. Weeds indicates “I’m happy to have two Horace Silver tunes here as he and his late 50’s band has become a huge influence on me. The title track and “Metamorphosis” are two of my favorite Horace tunes. So hip!”

The recording of “Corner Kisses” is a truly special moment on the album. Composed by Weeds’ father, the tune offers a bright, and yet sentimental moment to the album. “Blossoms in May” is a throwback to Weeds’ very first date as a leader. The track, written for Weeds’ wife, adds a moment of tenderness to the release - with a sultry, lyrical solo from Weeds.

““Lullabye Of The Leaves” comes from one of the albums that is the impetus for this band”, Weeds notes. The bandleader is referring to the classic album Gene Ammons - Late Hour Special featuring arrangements from the great Oliver Nelson. The tour de force of Weeds’s stunning musicality amplified by his personnel and Bill Coon and Jill Townsend’s stunning arrangements places this release with one foot rooted in the hallmark sound of Gene Ammons and one foot pointed toward a bright future, with a singular ensemble sound that has to be heard to be described.

Weeds gives the Little Big Band treatment to pianist Michael Weiss’ “Power Station”, a hard-bop fueled tune which Weeds first encountered while on tour with Weiss. Weeds and Turner swing gracefully over the changes with a tight-pocket accompaniment from Gestrin, Lee and Cahill. Gestrin takes a tremendous solo ending in cleverly-placed harmonic jabs from the horn section carrying the ensemble back into the melody.

Weeds remarks “Thad Jones’ “Thedia” screamed a little big band arrangement to me and Bill Coon made this tricky little tune come to life!” The track highlights the tremendous dynamic range of the ensemble, traversing sonic palettes seamlessly. What other outfit can harken back to Birth of the Cool-era Miles Davis during a tune’s head and then shift dynamics towards the sound of the Cookin-era Miles Davis quintet as soon as the solo section hits? It speaks to the ensemble’s tremendous collective knowledge and respect for the artform, and their acute, individual focus on the group-sound.

Made up of compositions that hold particular meaning for Weeds, this album’s tracks embody the sounds of Vancouver, interpreted by the very artists who help to make it such a vibrant city. Weeds indicates “Given all that happened leading up to this recording I was a bit scared to listen back to it fearing the worst. What I hear however is myself powering through what was a tough situation, making the best of it and most importantly having fun with my friends. The music is meant to make you smile and if it does that then I have done my job!”

What Is There To Say?
Release date: November 19, 2021
Label: Cellar Music Group

Cory Weeds, the saxophonist and creative and entrepreneurial force behind Cellar Music Group and its imprints—Cellar Live, Cellar Music, and Reel to Real Recordings presents his 18th album release as a leader, What Is There To Say, and first album backed by a string orchestra. Though Weeds headlines and co-produces, he’s tapped saxophonist, pianist, composer, arranger, and bona fide Canadian jazz hero Phil Dwyer as the project’s other co-producer and de-facto music director; in addition to playing piano, Dwyer’s written all of the arrangements here, including those for the accompanying 13-piece string orchestra.

“I grew up kind of idolizing Phil Dwyer,” said the Vancouver-based Weeds who’s become Canada’s preeminent jazz ambassador. “Phil just made everything come off great. He wouldn’t be involved in a project if he didn’t believe in it.”

In order to ensure this would be a project Dwyer would really believe in, Weeds gave his pianist and arranger broad creative authority over all eight tunes here, even Weeds’ own. “I gave Phil carte blanche,” Weeds said. “I said to him, ‘Look, if you don’t like my originals, you are not going to hurt my feelings.’”

As it happened, Dwyer thought enough of Weeds’ originals to want to arrange them.

“Phil said, ‘Oh yeah, I can really make these good. Which, coming from him, was very flattering.” Weeds recalls. “In some ways [What Is There To Say] is almost more of a Phil Dwyer record; it’s really about the arrangements and the writing and the ensemble, rather than the individual playing.”

With the amount of thought and feeling Weeds puts into his own compositions, it’s no surprise they appealed to Dwyer’s sensibilities. Whether it’s a tune written for a longtime benefactor who’d always eschewed public acknowledgement—“Waltz for Someone Special”—or a ballad dedicated to his wife and her steadying equanimity— “Alana Marie”— Weeds is always communicating something personal.

No matter the subject matter, Weeds’ compositions never occur in a vacuum; that’s clear here. Case in point is “Love is Wild,” the last of Weeds’ three originals. It’s a close musical cousin of “Wild is Love,” the standard originally written for Nat King Cole with orchestrations by Nelson Riddle. Weeds heard saxophonist Sam Taylor record a version of the latter on his 2017 Cellar Live release Along the Way. Soon after, that music took up residence in Weeds’ always-churning mind until it became, well, something different—an original, yet also a send-up to Riddle, one of the forefathers of jazz with strings. Once that seed took root, Weeds knew he’d have to nourish it to viability.

“There’s a certain vulnerability with writing,” Weeds says. “Quite frankly, it’s terrifying…Every tune I’ve ever written is an idea that’s lived in my head to the point where if I don’t get it out onto paper, it’s going to make me crazy.”

Familiar faces and built-in chemistry help keep things less crazy, too. Though Weeds has never played with such robust orchestral accompaniment, he’s maintained continuity here by rounding out his rhythm section with bassist John Lee and drummer Jesse Cahill. “I have my people that I like to use when I’m doing a straight-up jazz gig,” says Weeds. “And I didn’t want to change that for this.”

Of course, when a saxophonist of Weeds’ stature puts out a “with strings” album, it’s anything but an ordinary jazz gig. We can all thank Charlie Parker for that. His iconic Charlie Parker with Strings albums threw down the gauntlet and became brass rings for woodwinders. Interestingly, Bird’s recordings were not Weeds’ primary inspiration here. Though, as Weeds found out, their immense stature in the canon makes those recordings hard for a saxophonist to escape.

“The record that really made me want to do a strings record was [baritone saxophonist] Gary Smulyan’s Gary Smulyan with Strings. And in fact, I presented Gary here in Vancouver doing that record. There was something about that sound in particular—I believe they had 12 or maybe 14 strings on that record, and then [at times] they doubled them up. And, actually, we ended up doing that, too, on some of this.

“Oddly enough, while I was recording this record, I got an opportunity to play with the Kamloops [British Columbia] Symphony doing the Bird with Strings music. It was just kind of funny that it all kind of came about when it did. But it was really that Gary Smulyan record—something about that sound.”

And there is something about this sound, too. Weeds and Dwyer clearly doff a cap to the songwriters whose standards were so famously recorded on Bird’s strings album. You’ll note that just as Parker and co. recorded a well-known Vernon Duke and Yip Yarburg tune (“April in Paris”), so, too, have Weeds and Dwyer with the title track, “What Is There To Say.” And just as Bird and co. played the Gershwins (“Summertime,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”), here, too, there’s love shown to George and Ira with the closer, Porgy and Bess’s “There’s a Boat Leavin’ Soon for New York.”

And yet, What Is There To Say? is anything but a baroque reproduction of standards. Dwyer’s string arrangements are crafty, lush, and decidedly contemporary, making for innovative new variations on classic themes.

“[Dwyer’s arrangements]…inspire Cory to search for new and evermore lyrical melodic lines,” writes saxophonist and Cellar Live label-mate Steve Kaldestad in the album’s liner notes, “while also giving him ample space to get lost exploring the nooks and crevasses of the music.”

Take the group’s treatment of Duke Pearson’s “The Phantom,” and notice how Dwyer’s retained the big-collared, prowling coolness of the original while using the strings to ratchet up tension by mixing long, bowed phrases with repeating angular riffs punctuated with winking pops of pizzicato. The relationship between the strings and Weeds’ voicey-yet-cool runs on tenor is a symbiotic one. They lend his lines gravitas; he lends theirs assertive coolness. And then, seamlessly, the piece evolves into a medley, anchored by a version of “The ‘In’ Crowd” that works just as well as Dwyer envisioned.

“I felt that we could pull [“The Phantom”] off,” Weeds recalls. “And Phil was hearing it—and he liked it—but he was hearing something else, too. So he said to me, ‘What would you think about a medley situation going into ‘The In Crowd’? And that’s not really even where I live musically, but when Phil Dwyer says something’s going to work, you listen. Not surprisingly, he did a great job and really kept the spirit of “The Phantom” the way I wanted it, which was awesome.”

“I Wish You Love” presents a noticeably distinct aesthetic. It’s a bossa-driven ballad with the type of august string introduction that brings to mind Gordon’ Jenkins’ arrangements for Frank Sinatra. All class and majesty.

Meanwhile, the opener, “At Dawning” might be most representative of how simpatico Weeds and Dwyer were in putting the album together. Weeds fell in love with the lyrical ballad when he heard it on At Ease with Coleman Hawkins (1960). “I gave it to Phil,” Weeds recalls, “and he heard [the fit] right away and said, ‘Yeah, this is happening.’”

In hearing Weeds interpret this carefully curated set of compositions, listeners really get to know him for the musician he has become: an expressive saxophonist with a unique and personal voice on his instrument. A visceral strength to his delivery on the tenor, while at times exposing a beautifully honest vulnerability as well. Phil Dwyer’s crafty lush string arrangements inspire Weeds to search for new and ever more lyrical melodic lines while also giving him ample space to get lost exploring the nooks and crevasses of the music. Weeds has compiled some real musical gems on his latest while also contributing an eclectic trio of original compositions to round out an extremely enjoyable musical program.