For the follow-up album to "Live at Rocco," the Trio wanted to capture the growth of the band ... a growth which has resulted in freer expression, more interplay between us than ever before,and a higher level of abstract thinking. And all of this manifested by a new minimalism! ... or, perhaps, a relaxation ... or maybe, an appreciation for the beauty to be found in small things.
We decided to record this album at home, in my home studio. I've enjoyed a great-sounding rehearsal room and comfortable workspace in my backyard studio ever since my family and I moved to Santa Monica (back in 1987), but I never had the proper recording equipment to think of my studio as a "recording studio." But, with the addition of some excellent microphones (including Shure condenser mics), pre-amps, mic cables (Planet Waves) and the Yamaha AW4416 digital audio workstation, we had the means to document the trio. Luckily, engineer Brian Risner (who I worked with during my tenure in the group Weather Report) lives across the street ... Alan Pasqua recently moved to Santa Monica, and Dave Carpenter drove from the "valley" to the west side of Los Angeles to join us ... it all seemed a very convenient and natural way to make our next album!
We originally set aside and planned one night to "get sounds," and 5 evenings to record in a relaxed manner ... well, during the first night of getting sounds, we wound up recording for about 3 hours, and on the official "first" night of the recording, we tracked for another 2 and a half hours ... and we realized that we had just recorded the "best" album of our lives!
Jazz recordings are like snapshots, or family photos ... a moment of time, captured for eternity. (Sometimes a smile might seem a bit crooked, or one person's eyes might be closed at the moment the shutter is snapped, etc.) We really like this "picture" of the band! We hope our listeners will, too. The album is a sonic treat, and the tunes plus the improvisations are all gems. |