Click to hear track #1: 01-sugar

OK, this probably looks like an ad for our new CD… It is available on CD Baby, I Tunes, and Amazon. For now, there are a couple cuts from it here on the blog. In a Sentimental Mood is posted a couple posts back. I’ll be getting back to posting the kind of material my blog is known for soon…

Emiko, Stan Poplin, and I recorded this “ridgetop session” at Highland Studios on August 18, 2008. Emiko and I met last July 4th and played for an hour or two at my home… we had a nice connection both musically and personally. She is a dynamic professional pianist, composer, arranger, and performer based in New York. I later wrote Emiko asking if she would like to play for an afternoon at Joe’s studio while on her summer trip to Santa Cruz. . The idea was to explore some musical territory that showed itself during our first visit.. Emiko said “let’s do it” and she asked Stan Poplin to play on the session. Stan is one of the best acoustic bass players on the west coast… having played with Dave Brubeck, Roger Kellaway, Robben Ford, Mose Allison, and myriad of other great musicians. I feel very fortunate to have had Stan and Emiko on this recording. for they are both exceptional in all ways.

I was looking for an all acoustic sound and with Joe’s expertise we accomplished just that. Emiko played the session on Highland’s 7′ Kawai grand piano, Stan played his 19th century standup bass, and I used my favorite guitar, the Andersen Archtop . We were pretty focused and were able to put down these seven songs that day. We chose to play these jazz classics simply because they are beautiful songs that have stood the test of time.

<