Well....
When last I wrote in January, I was working on three documentaries produced by State of the Art Productions in Washington, DC. I finished those.... and five more about a month ago. Love working for these guys.
A new live album of me - "Beautiful Isle Of Somewhere" has been released in Germany by the people at Radio Bremen. It's a recording of a show I did at a club in Bremen called Moments in 1999. In any case, the music was very well-recorded and although the performance doesn't include my usual story-telling, I'm pretty happy with it.
As to the Bix Project (my tribute album on Deutche Grammophon) - the recording and mixing will be finished by the middle of May..... for release in late summer or fall. The album will be called "Private Astronomy" a reference made by Ralph Burton ('Remembering Bix') to Bix's apparent state of mind in social settings.
This recording project has conjured my childhood days, when I would spend hour after hour listening to the Columbia 3-volume set of Bix in my brother's record collection. The feeling of that music - the chord movements, the spirit, and of course Bix's confident pristine sound - still amaze me. The 'modernistic' white jazz sound of the late-twenties remains a musical mystery. How these young guys, mostly from the mid-west, could have fashioned this unique sound in the midst of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington without having robbed their black counterparts blind... (they seem as much influenced by Ravel and Debussy) I still don't get how it happened, but I'll take it!
"Private Astronomy" will include chamber performances of Bix's 5 piano pieces along with band and vocal arrangements. In addition to the arrangements, I sing a couple songs solo as well as join in with Loudon Wainwright and Greg Prestopino for Rhythm Boys-style tunes. Martha Wainwright sings a beautiful version of "Singin' The Blues" and a very 'hotcha' "There Ain't No Sweet Man (That's Worth The Salt Of My Tears)". Richard Greene has added his fiddle playing to a wonderful eleventh-hour discovery of a Venuti/Bix tune called "Betcha I Getcha."
I'll admit it... this album is a bit of an opus. So, I sure do hope you hear it.
Mid-May I head for England and then early June to Germany (not Ireland as earlier reported). Then back home where, hopefully things will slow down a bit so I can work on the garden. The tomato plants are looking hearty and we put a few in the ground today. Squirrels beware!!!
Take care,
Geoff