FEBRUARY/MARCH 2026 | 11 How long has it been since your last onstage performance? I remember it well. Oct. 4, 2022. Yoshi’s in Oakland. I had to leave the stage about 20 minutes into the rst show. I just couldn’t stand up. Amazingly enough, I recovered and did the full second show. And it was a good show. I just f--king powered through. But it really scared me, as that had never ever happened before. I tried to come back, but I had already canceled a bunch of dates that year from not being up to it, and I knew I had to get it sorted. I had all kinds of tests. ey would nd very minor things, but nothing to do anything about. I told the docs I just had no energy, and they said it was probably just anxiety. I just tried so hard to power through it and couldn’t do it. Not until I passed out for 10 minutes in October 2024, and took the little red school bus to the ER, did they realize the extent of my heart issue. I was even in the ER two weeks prior for severe, severe nausea. My rst ever ambulance ride. So, you know it was severe. ey treated the nausea and sent me home four hours later. It was totally a precursor to what was going on with my heart. ey just didn’t do the right tests. Treated the symptom and didn’t look for a reason. Your rst scheduled live performance is on e Smooth Jazz Cruise in September, followed by the Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival in October. How are you feeling about that? I am tremendously excited and very con dent about getting back out there at full speed ahead. I am delivering my album I have had nished since June of 2024, minus the sax, at the end of March. So, I’ll have new music, new show. I’m going to do a few weeks of rehearsal with my band just to get back in the swing. I really don’t want anyone saying, “I remember when.” I refuse to go back out that way. Do you still su er from anxiety? Not a drop. I actually feel better in every regard than I have in a very long time. I feel probably the least stress I’ve ever felt since I was about 17. Although you haven’t performed in awhile, you have been busy producing others. Can you please give more detail on that? During the pandemic, I got into “analog” mastering. Mastering, the nal touch to an album, was always a mystery to me. I realized it was the analog component my ear liked. My wife wouldn’t let me buy a Porsche, so I bought a ton of really expensive analog audio gear. It kind of took on a life of its own, and I started mastering for a bunch of people. Richard Elliot, Rick Braun, Vincent Ingala, Mindi Abair, Norman Brown, George Benson, Peter White, the list just goes on and on. And I love it. From a nancial standpoint, not a good investment with all the gear I got. But most de nitely passion over pro t. And yes, I got into full-on production and mixing for others as well. I really, really enjoy it. And it’s been really cool to work with a younger generation of artists trying to make their mark. I’m just about nished with a year-plus-long project mixing for Chase Huna. Look out! What a great project. Classic smooth jazz style. I think people are going to really love this one. What are you doing to physically prepare to play the sax again? Physically, tons of doctors. Taking care of any and every little thing. ey xed my heart, but that doesn’t mean the rest of this 63-yearold body doesn’t have wear and tear on it. Carpal tunnel surgery in both hands. Severely impacted wisdom tooth. Blood clot in my leg from the 2 million miles I’ve spent in the air over the last four decades. I had literally every organ in my body checked over the last year. Everything. At one point, the doctor that was doing my upper endoscopy, asked me in the surgery center to remind him why we were doing this test again. I said, “Remember, I want every inch of my body checked out.” Pretty funny. en, of course, cardio and practicing. But you really need to be healthy to do what we do. e travel. e cardio of 90 minutes, sometimes outside in 100-degree heat. You have to be in great cardio shape. Where are you in that process? Getting stronger every day. You told me about how you and Odysseus spent Saturday (the day before our brunch party), but could you please detail it again here? Since we were going to spend the night in Seal Beach before your brunch, I decided to make an adventure for Odysseus and me. We spent the day on Balboa Island, and then a few hours at Dog Beach on Huntington (Beach). Just letting him run and play with all the dogs continued on page 29 “I am tremendously excited and very confident about getting back out there at full speed ahead.” —Euge Groove Photo: Harper Hardwick Richard Elliot, Euge Groove and Eric Darius
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