...lush and beautiful.
When I first started composing and selling my CDs, I was all about doing my original music. But as a saxophone player I had been playing standards my whole life, songs from the 30s and 40s, the greatest songs (some would argue) from the 20th century. So when my late friend,
Paul Reeder, suggested that I do a CD of standards, it seemed obvious, and thus was born Midnight Mood.
For the songlist I relied on those tunes that were totally familiar to me: Misty, Body & Soul, Stardust, Someday My Prince Will Come, tunes I had been playing at jazz gigs my whole life.
Stylistically, we went for that "red wine with dinner" feel - spacious, relaxed - and heavy on the romance, lots of that breathy, sensuous sax sound. The sound of red velvet if you will.
This group of musicians are a group of friends that I had been doing gigs around L.A. with, all excellent, versatile, seasoned, creative players, not afraid to let the romance flow through them, but also willing to subjugate the ego to the vibe. I think you'll hear what I mean.
- Mark Maxwell - saxophones
- Doug Mathews - drums
-
Chris Sidwell - bass
-
Sanjay Divecha - guitar
- Bobby Zee - piano David Scott - piano Get cozy on this one, folks.
This is the stuff.
Enjoy!
Note: a complete transcription of my playing on My Funny Valentine can be found here.
