Ha, I felt so cutting edge when I had one of the first websites in 2002. For the past 5 years I have felt the pull and need to update. But who had the time and focus? Certainly not me. I feel like I am waking up out of a dream.
Very grateful to Ed Velandria and Louise Crawford for their guidance and expertise.
The last recording I was lucky to make was ‘Grove House’, released in 2007 on Ravi Coltrane’s label RKM Music. It was amazing and time-consuming and seemed to take forever, just like my 1st CD did. I was thrilled to work with Ravi and Kathleen Hennessy to birth ‘Grove House.’
Then I birthed my son Julian in 2008. It was life-changing—the true cliche. As an older Mom, I have cherished every minute, warts and all. We tried to have another but I crossed the line where that was not possible. Had to do some mourning there, and then woke up realizing I was lucky to have had Julian at all. Fertility can be so complicated.
Alas, back to this website….I realized I needed to carve out this kind of time to focus on it. I have to fight myself for it. Do I even want it? To give myself the time and space. What keeps me busy—35 private piano students, Julian’s elementary school (I am so involved it’s ridiculous), my weekly singalong for little ones, my weekly Unitarian Church gig. Performing here and there on lots of different projects. My husband Jim. Being a Mom. The Mental Load of a Mother: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-mental-workload-of-a-mother_us_59765076e4b0c6616f7ce447
Yet, I have a collection of songs that have been lying around waiting for me to pay attention to them. Waiting patiently. Folks would ask me when the next recording was happening. And I didn’t have the time or interest because it is a huge push. I would watch the world ingest music in such different ways—too much change for me to keep up with. There is so much out there, and I know how my OWN attention span is shot. Why put more content out there? Plus organizing folks schedules and cancelling a pile of students to make it happen…huge overwhelm.
In 2014 Chris Thomas suggested we record together with Brian Blade. Thank you Chris. It took 4 years for me to be even ready to open up that conversation again. I felt motivated for some reason in April of 2018 and got in touch. We all settled on dates in October, 6 months later. That still felt daunting.
But we broke that ice or my draught, however I want to look at it. I went into the Bunker Studios in Oct 2018 with Chris Thomas on bass and Brian Blade on drums and we recorded 12 songs in 2 days. With engineer and co-producer Rich Lamb at the helm. It was joyful and high. Of course it was. There really is nothing like it. I have worked with Brian since 1997—he is on both of my CD offerings up to this point. We rehearsed the night before at Michiko Studios, a blast from my past—and it was Lurah Blade, Brian’s wife and partner, who that night woke me up to the importance of doing your art. I mean I knew, but she powerfully witnessed and mirrored the moment.
We had the Bunker session and my other lives took over again. I didn’t even listen for a month. Rich and I then started slowly picking over takes. Because again—who has time for this? I know I don’t! Just scheduling sessions is laughably hard.
Next steps: Late Jan, 2019, I did some piano overdubs at Bennett Paster’s Studio, Benny’s Wash N’ Dry. Bennett has a deep and rich Steinway. Rich and I (mainly Rich) poured over those takes. And we have started lead vocals.
It’s May. When will this be done? My guess is….I can’t even fathom. In the meanwhile….here is a new website! Another huge undertaking.