Let's start from the beginning with both of you. Henley,
how did you get involved with music?

HENLEY DOUGLAS (HD): I'm from San Jose, California. I ended up here after I got out of the Coast Guard. I went to New
England Conservatory way back in 1978. I went for two years and then after that I continued private lessons with my
instructors. At the time I wanted to learn as much music as I could. I had three private instructors, one for composition
and two for saxophone. I studied saxophone with Joe Allard and Bill Pierce.  Joe Allard was an amazing teacher. I
attribute my tone to him. We used to work on nothing but tone. It's funny because I was studying with Bill Pierce and he
was the student right after me for his lesson with Joe Allard!

How did you get started, Garret?

GARRET SAVLUK (GS): I was born and raised in Windsor, Connecticut. That's where I got exposed to jazz. Our band
director, Wayne Johnson, was actually a classical trombonist and discovered this love of jazz. He had one of the first
Smithsonian jazz collections and the cassette tapes, too. Later on I wound up going to Berklee College of Music and
moving to Boston. I was a student from 1985 to 1990.

I'm surprised we didn't run into each other.

GS: We probably did at some point. I remember when I was in junior high school we used to crank up the Bill Chase
record all the time.

Not many people even know about that record now.

GS: It’s a great loss. But we used to play those Bill Chase charts and we did them on a variety show once. So I got the
bug early.

Did you graduate from Berklee?

GS: Yes. I got a degree in Performance. My first teacher on trumpet was Lou Mucci. He lived in New York City and he was
on the NBC circuit, doing some of their TV shows and he also played on some cool big band records. He was an old time
cat. I also studied with Greg Hopkins and he was such a maniac with his writing abilities.

(Continued)

How did you and Henley meet?

GS: It's kind of funny. The Hartford Jazz Society would bring in artists. I saw Freddie Hubbard there, Clark Terry and one of
the guys who came through there was Ricky Ford. I ran into him again in New York and he mentioned that he was

teaching at Brandeis University and he needed a trumpet for the big band. The Brandeis Jazz Ensemble was half
students and half other players. Henley was one of the other players. So that's where I met him. We did some fun gigs
and Ricky had great charts. He had Ellington charts, charts from Mingus, Jay McShann, and Mary Lou Williams.

HD: He had this suitcase that weighed like two hundred pounds. It had all the music in it.

I did about half a dozen or so rehearsals and one concert with that group, too. Were you guys on it? I had called
Ricky looking for space to teach some of my students and he asked me if I wanted to play with the group. I lived right
down the street so I did it until I moved. The concert I was on we did the last chart that Thad Jones wrote (and that
Brandeis had commissioned) and a long Abdullah Ibrahim chart. Our friend Jon Fraser was there and he sang and
rapped on a tune.

GS: We might have all been on that one.

HD: I don’t think I was one that concert because I would have remembered you!

I came over with my tenor and I think my wife was preg­nant at the time so we didn't stay to hang after the show.

GS: About a year later Henley and I hooked up on some local gigs.

HD: I was playing with a band called the Wrecking Crew. I got Garret on some of those gigs. Then we had another group
called the Big Blues Meanies, which was a huge band with like a six piece horn section. From there we did the Heavy
Metal Horns.

Henley, you were in a band called Skin back in the 1980’s. You guys were big when I was in college.

HD: Yeah, that was a good band. Prior to Skin I had a jazz band that used to play over at Satch's and I really enjoyed that.
But I wanted to learn more about the music business and I really wanted to have a band like the Jazz Crusaders. It was
an instrumental band that could play rock clubs and funk clubs. And Skin had a few instrumentals. We used to rehearse
about three times a week and it was so different from the way things go at our rehearsals now. Back then with that band it
was all this drama going on and I would leave and go upstairs to the bar on the corner. Mick Goodrick was hanging out
there and I would sit and have a beer with him and try to get my head together before I had to go back to dealing with the
band at rehearsal. He talked me back into sticking with that band and he really encouraged me to learn and play all kinds
of music.

How did the Heavy Metal Horns get started?

GS: The Blues Meanies opened for the Del Fuegos at Bunratty's and they loved the horn section. They wanted to use us
on their next record for RCA that they were doing at Longview Studios. So we needed a name for the horn section and we
came up with the Heavy Metal Horns. We called some guys and tried to put a band around the section.

HD: We hooked up with guitarist Peter Calo and he knew the people at Ryle's in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We did this
one gig at an outside afternoon show, the booking agent for Ryle's was there and loved us. He gave us every Sunday
night and basically said to us that the first time the club is empty you're done. We kept that gig running for over two years
and got some huge gigs out of it. I think that's how we hooked up with the Montreal Jazz Festival so that really worked out
for us. We made some great connections doing that hit. We got our sound together down there. We were very lucky.

GS: Our first record came from that stint, and we worked with George Kucewicz from Square Records. This guy was
definitely someone who knew some people and he had worked with Skin. He got our first album licensed in Japan and
one of the songs became a hit on this TV game show.

HD: When we started touring we went to New Orleans and got really lucky there. We got a gig at Tipitina's just because
they liked the band. They didn't expect a big crowd and suddenly like 250 or 300 people showed up. It turns out a kid that
went to school in Boston had our first six song cassette and he took it to his friend at the Tulane radio station. One of our
songs became popular and all these kids showed up to see us. It blew Tipitina's away so much that they had us play the
opening set for Dr. John's first gig back at the next Jazz Fest. The audience was full of stars (Tower of Power, Allman
Brothers), just hanging out. Dr. John had this horn section of cats that were like sixty years old and they just kicked. That's
when he had Red Tyler in the horn section.

Tell me a little bit about the concept behind the Heavy Metal Horn's line up and sound.

HD: When I first had the idea for the band Garret really had my back. The rest of the guys in the horn section thought it
was crazy and it wasn't going to work. We just had this thing that we were going to break all the rules about having a ten
piece horn band.


(Continued)






GS: Playing originals.

HD: Exactly.

GS: But we had some covers.

HD: Yeah, we had some cool covers. We played the game. That's how come we got the gigs that we got because we had
a few vocals. Thaddeus Hogarth was in the band and he's a great songwriter and singer. We were really lucky with that
band and we were able to do some national tours. That eventually led to our world tour with Extreme.

GS: Somebody saw a video of us doing a party in the park and they hired us for the tour.

That must have been a great tour.

HD: Like being touched by the hand of God, man, it was great. We were the biggest Jethros for the first month of that tour.
We dialed it in right quick.

GS: I learned three years worth of stuff in like six months, just every­thing.

Extreme really was huge that year and the band sounded great. Who was in the section for that tour?

GS: It was Hikaru on trombone and John Vanderpool on tenor. Henley played bari on the gig. We totally lucked out. It was
a good gig for us. They originally tried to hire the Miami Horns but they were too busy with their recording schedule to do
the tour.

What the biggest crowd you've ever played for with the Heavy Metal Horns?

HD: Someone saw us at Ryle's and they were involved with the Montreal Jazz Festival. There was a last minute
cancellation and we went up there to do it. They had a van come pick us up and took us directly to a trailer behind the
stage. So we went never went on the stage and we were just hanging out, drinking beers, eating sandwiches and all of a
sudden our roadie runs out on stage and we heard this roar. He comes back and says that there's like 10,000 people out
there and that the place was only half full! So we played this gig for 20,000 people outdoors on the street and we just
destroyed them. We did such a good job they invited us back to do the fifteenth anniversary which was in front of 40,000
people and Dr. John's band was checking us out because they were on the same bill. We got touched a couple of times,
man, some really nice hits.

GS: And they were beautiful musical experiences, too.

How did the Heavy Metal Horns break up?

GS: As time went on a guy would leave so we'd replace him. It's like modifying your house so much that it's nothing like
the house you had. Because of that the whole direction of the band was affected. A new guy would come in with a bunch
of material that people thought was cool and we'd have to sacrifice it when he split. It just morphed too much. And then
Henley left but I stayed and I was kind of deep into it. We had an album that we were trying to finish up so I did that. About
a year later I kind of had enough dealing with the band and all the problems.

HD: I just decided to take a left turn and move on to some other things. Musically I just had something I really wanted to
do and check out. The band had changed and at that point in time I felt like I loved that band and it was great. But it was
ten guys and you can't be telling ten guys what you want to do, it's got to be a thing where everybody wants to do it. At the
time I was married and I had a little girl so I was just looking at my life differently. But I have to say that with all my musical
endeavors I'm real honest about it. I love the fact that Garret and I have been playing together for eighteen years and I am
still humbled by the fact that we can go out and play mostly original instrumental music with a couple of obscure cover
tunes and some original vocal tunes and we get clubs dancing and people partying. I'll be on this circuit until the day I die.

GS: After Henley left he hooked up with Ron Levy and he called me to come check it out. We started to get a couple of gigs
and I actually really believed in the group. And by the time I got back from doing the first tour with Ron there were no more
Heavy Metal Horns gigs left so it had just kind of fizzled. But it was a great run.

HD: The cool thing about the Levy gig was that we did a show with Deep Banana Blackout and Karl Denson. We heard
Karl play and we knew we had to get a band back together again. It was such an inspiration.

So tell me how you got the Boston Horns started.

GS: We did an EP with the rhythm section from this band Pass the Peas.

(continued)








HD: Julie Dougherty was the original singer.

What happened with her?

HD: Just basically the way the band was developing. We realized we wanted to do more instrumentals and it's hard to
have a vocalist in the band that wants to sing and your repertoire is like forty percent vocals, if that.

And there are a lot of instrumental bands and artists that have vocals in and out of their sets, Like Galactic and
Maceo Parker.

GS: We like to throw in some vocals.

Did you record Live on your CDs?

GS: More or less. We try to keep as much of the tracks as possible.

One of the first things I listen for on a horn record is the production. I want know what mics are used, if there are any
compressors used and what the EQ settings might be. It’s interesting to me to see how much of the dry sound
approach is used. On your three CDs I hear you guys starting out with a good honest room sound and through into
the third CD that sound has just really dialed in. Every voice is finding its spot in the mix and the horns sound great.

HD: That's a big tribute to Garret. I think he has a knack for hearing things. We've done all of our CDs with Dan Tarlow and
he understands what we do.

So Garret, you do a lot of mixing?

GS: I don't claim to be an expert or anything like that but I have an opportunity to try and do something and I have a guy that
is willing to work with me.

What is the signal path for the horns? Did you use your live mics or studio mics?

HD: I use an RE20 live and Dan had some great mics there, some cool ribbon mics. We used the Radar 24 for recording
and we used Pro Tools for mixing. We also used some Avalon pre amps during the recording.

You didn't use a lot of reverb on the horns. There are tunes with delay and wah and envelope filters but for the most
part the horns have that great dry sound.

GS: I always go for that dry sound. No reason in particular, just trying to blend the trumpet and tenor together with the
most natural, raw sound that I could. And then Dan would put a little on at the end.

It sounds like there's a nice reverb on the entire mix and the horns really stand out. It reminds me of the soul jazz
bands like The Crusaders. It some ways you reminded me of the Adderley brothers with that very tight dry sound
and you both sounded so locked in.

HD: We like the old school way of playing it as tight as possible. I did a jazz CD just like that and we kept like ninety
percent of those tracks.

On the first CD the drums sound very jazzy. It's pushed back a bit and the snare sound isn't quite as up front as
usual. And then the second CD had a bit more toms on it and now on the third CD the drums have a more rock
approach. The snare has a place in the mix.

HD: We changed rhythm sections between the last two CDs and that's a great analogy. The first drummer we had was
more of a jazz player and then we decided we wanted a heavier foot going on.  After the second CD came out we were
already thinking about changing the sound. We went to Jazz Fest that year and after hearing all this great music it made
me feel like changing directions.

GS: The way it changed with the rhythm section was a really natural thing. There was that element and then there was the
fact that at the time some of the guys in the group needed some time off so we had to find some new people. So it wasn't
a conscious effort to get this guy and that guy is gone. And now it's changed again and I think it's for the better.

HD: After the thing with our last rhythm section we decided that we were going to just hire cats and contract it out.
Speaking of which, you have to come out with us, Andrew!

GS: That would take it out over the top.

HD: The Heavy Metal Horns, they're back. (continued)








We'll get together soon for the Heavy Metal Attack! So you both do a lot of writing?

HD: Yeah, and Jeff Buckridge, our guitarist, does a lot, too. Sometimes the other band members get a tune in, too.

You guys write together as well.

GS: That can happen a lot in rehearsal. I'll bring in a tune and Henley will just tweak it out a little. Change a groove here,
add a line there. On the song In The Pink Jeff helped me out with the descending line. I knew what I wanted but I didn't
have time to figure it out and Jeff did that. Things like that kind of are the character of the Boston Horns.

HD: The one thing that Garret and I have done for the past eighteen years is rehearse. Back in the days with the Heavy
Metal Horns we rehearsed that band three times a week. Now we just do once a week but I still think that rehearsing is
the key. We've had other musicians come sit in at our rehearsals and they were totally blown away by our rehearsals. We
get together and we just do music.

It seems that most instrumental bands have a certain groove that is their focus. For Galactic it's New Orleans funk,
with Maceo Parker it's an extension of the James Brown funk, what is the central groove with the Boston Horns?

GS: I don't think there is a focus on a certain groove with us. I think the focus is that there is going to be this horn band
with two horns guys playing a variety of grooves.

HD: There are sections of our set that come off with a Tower of Power groove. I come from the Bay area and I grew up
with those guys. We've done a bunch of shows with TOP and Garret toured with them for a little while. Then there were the
world beat sections where it was like a whole other hand up there. We enjoy investigating all types of grooves, and it
works.

When you write music what equipment do use?

GS: Usually just writing stuff down on paper. I have this little Olympus digital voice recorder so if I get an idea I can sing it
and figure it out later. Then I get out my horn and figure out what each part is going to be.

HD: I have a keyboard with a little sequencer in it so I'll come up with a melody and put some chords to it. I pick out one of
the cheese ball rhythm tracks just to get the idea across.

GS: Henley found some old charts recently that he didn't have recordings of so he just taught it to us.

HD: That was fun. When I write I use clusters. I'm notorious for bringing in a chart and people are looking at me like what
the hell are you thinking. But I come up with voicings that are based on the total sound over the bass note and what the
rest of the band is doing. I wrote a lot of songs for Heavy Metal Horns like that. Once everybody learned their part it would
come out really nice.

It's like the Herb Pomeroy line writing concept where it's more important to have a good singable line than to honor
the rules of voicing chords.

HD: Garret again had my back when I would bring these charts in because the guys in the band had all been to Berklee
and he convinced them to try my ideas.

GS: Henley has taught me about having a different attitude towards things. The way he writes things he's pushing the
envelope and not being normal.

HD: Sometimes when they hear it they'll make adjustments to make it work.

Let's talk a bit about your playing styles.

HD: I consider myself to be a very weird saxophone player I definitely have my own style. It's the most honest thing I do, I
shed, I study all the time, and I love all these horn players that I hear. But when I get ready to play, man, I don't know
what's coming out of my horn.

What do you work on when you're shedding?

HD: I'm continually searching triads and then of course chromaticism. I've been working on a lot of the stuff off the web
from Tim Price. I love his approach, it's very cool. His stuff is excellent and I've been getting my students into it, too. He
has these great things all written out but he always tells you to play this but turn it into your own thing. It's powerful stuff.

(continued)








What about you, Garret?

GS: To be honest I'm just trying to work on my technique and keep it honed. I teach every day in the public schools in
Natick and Billerica.

Who were your influences in music?

GS: In the trumpet world it's Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry, Louis Armstrong and Roy Eldridge. My favorite
saxophone players are Johnny Griffin and Johnny Hodges. Of course, I like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane but do you
know who else? Harold Land is one of my all time favorites. He did a bunch of records with Blue Mitchell that are my
favorite jazz records.

HD: One of my number one guys of all time is Joe Henderson. He's taken the saxophone and just gone to some
incredibly beautiful places, And not for nothing, man, but Red Garland is a big inspiration. He has an album with Oliver
Nelson playing on it and this trumpet player, I forget his name. Of course, I like Trane and Brecker, I love so many players.
Guys like Stanley Turrentine and Dexter Gordon. They play the sweetest most soulful lines and sounds.

Henley, you've played with my band a couple of times and Garret, you and I have worked together with Michigan
Blacksnake. The one thing I can say about the both of you is that you are killer readers. Do you spend time working
on it or did it just come from experience?

GS:  Ive been doing a lot of big band rehearsals and that keeps my reading pretty sharp.

HD: Yeah, Garret got me in to that band a few months ago, I love playing in big bands mainly for that reason, I've been
playing for a long time and I'm just now starting to get comfortable with my reading. I did a gig with the Love Dogs and
they said I was reading the book down and I felt good because for a long time my reading was kind of iffy. And of course
writing and working parts out helps, And teaching!

GS: For me, trying to transcribe, just getting down a lick.

That's what I noticed about both of you. Not only can you read the notes accurately, but you understand how it
supposed to sound and you play it correctly right away.

HD: After playing with Garret for eighteen years I've learned how to blend with other people and that's a big part of reading,
too. Just knowing how your part fits in.

The Boston Horns website is www.bostonhorns.com and you can contact them at info@bostonhorns.com

GARRET AND HENLEY'S EQUIPMENT
Garret:
·        SD System LDM94 mic
·        Shulke S32 trumpet
·        Shulke mouthpiece 12A4A (flat rim)

Henley:
·        Selmer Mark VI tenor
·        old Peter Ponzol Fat Boy mouthpiece
·        Ultimate Ligature
·        Rico Royal 3 reed
·        Selmer Mark VI baritone
·        Otto Link hard rubber mouthpiece
·        Conn soprano
·        Otto Link hard rubber mouthpiece
·        RE20 microphone

DISCOGRAPHY
·        Johnny A - Get Inside
·        Shaun Mullins - Beneath The Velvet Sun
·        Boston Horns - Find Your Own Groove, East Coast Funk, Boogie Stop Shuffle, It's In Your Face
·        Heavy Metal Horns - 420 In The Land Of Plenty, Dakini, Horns In The House, Heavy Metal Horns
·        Shockra – Garuda’s Groove
·        Del Fuegos - Smoking In The Fields

Garret also played on Tower of Power's Souled Out (Japan release only) and Entrain's All One.
boston horns | (c) 2008
By Andrew Clark
The Boston Horns have just released their third CD titled
You've Got To Find Your Own Groove.  It features Henley
Douglas, Jr., on saxophones, flute, and vocals and Garret
Savluk on trumpet and vocals. Henley and Garret have been
playing together for nearly twenty years. Their sound is rooted
in the tradition of soul jazz but also incorporates many modern
influences. Through their work together with Ricky Ford, the Big
Blues Meanies, Heavy Metal Horns and now the Boston Horns
they have played everywhere from the night club down the
street to a major world tour with the rock band Extreme. Henley
said recently, "The longer I stay in the music business the
more humble I am about every gig that comes my way. It's so
hard to be a musician and we take it for granted some­times
but I am truly grateful for every call I get." And Henley and Garret
get tons of calls because they are true professionals who know
how to get the job done in practi­cally any musical situation.