Throwback to Famous Blue
This was my debut recording that was released in 2007. I had been in NYC for 7 years but hadn’t found my music “people” until a few years before we made the record. The band on the record is Michael Cabe, Mark Lau and Ernesto Cervini. We recorded at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, CT with Nick Lloyd engineering and Oded Lev-Ari producing.
Favorite track:
It’s a tie between “Extraordinary Machine” (Fiona Apple) and “Holiday” (Weezer). Looking back, it was pretty ballsy to record these tunes on my debut jazz record but it never occurred to me that I shouldn’t. Ernesto plays clarinet and Michael plays accordion on “Extraordinary Machine” and the band sings AMAZING back ground vocals on the Weezer tune. They make me smile to this day.
Small world connections:
I recorded a Feist tune called “Mushaboom” that I first performed with Ingrid Jensen at Joe’s Pub having never met her. We were just in Vancouver together at the Juno Awards hanging out and I had forgotten all about our first meeting!
Vocalist, Laila Biali, also recorded “Mushaboom” on a record released around the same time. We got a joint review in the Ottawa Citizen. I had never heard of Laila at that point (my fault…I was too out of touch with the Canadian jazz scene) but just recently recorded a podcast with her for “Harmony and Hijinks with Duchess” and had our sons first (American) Thanksgiving together years ago!
I also recorded a Jonatha Brooke tune called, “Because I Told You So.” I was a big fan of her music after a friend (thanks Matthew Libman) introduced me to her in college. Since recording the tune I have had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with Jonatha a number of times through mutual friends and my admiration has just grown!
You all know how tight I am with Melissa Stylianou and I recorded a tune that she wrote lyrics to on this record, “Sliding Down.” We had met only a year before I made this record but as soon as I heard her lyrics for this Edgar Meyer tune, I knew I had to record it.
Nicest thing anyone said about this record:
“...cool, assured delivery and a sensibility that demands finely honed, well conceived arrangements." - Peter Hum, The Ottawa Citizen
Meanest thing anyone said about this record:
A DJ in Florida told me that he was sorry that he had to be the first to tell me this and that my friends and family really should have told me years ago but that I was a horrible singer and I should “just stop now.”