John Alagia
I’ve known and admired John since we were both living in the DC area. I remember seeing him play with Doug Derryberry in Georgetown, but didn’t meet him officially until a couple of years later when he was working with Karl Straub on “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” and I was doing “Black Hole Buddha”. We worked with many of the same people back then, and often loaned each other gear for sessions. We both went to India at the same time, and John had me play sitar on a couple of his projects.
When John was working with Rachael Yamagata on “Happenstance”, he called and asked if we could do some tracking at my place in Laurel Canyon. At those sessions we did strings, arrangements and some piano and rhodes. John’s talent as a producer and musician is undeniable – just ask Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Trevor Hall, Liz Phair, Mandy Moore, Lifehouse, Brett Dennen and many, many others. He’s also a great hang, and we’ve had many late night jams together, including an epic night in San Francisco to bring in 2010.