If I had not met Mark Thayer in 2012, I would not have been introduced to Miro Sprague at our first studio session two years ago. Nor would I have met saxophonist Daniel Rotem, bassist Marty Jaffe or trombonist Eric Miller on three subsequent sessions bringing us up to last July, when Marty introduced me to an incredible poem by Carissa C. and Mary Lou Williams I Have a Dream (from Mary Lou's Mass) which we recorded right then and there.
On each of these sessions, I came with a loose (very loose!) list of song possibilities. We recorded live in the studio, no isolation or overdubs. What you hear is how it happened. We were not thinking about a record at all until Mark and I were listening back and realized that this is the story of an unfolding musical friendship over two years, and it feels exciting and joyful and worth celebrating and sharing.
Just last week, we were listening to the final mix on Beaver Island, Michigan, a place beloved to me, and what popped upon Facebook but the two year memory to the day of Miro's and my very first session!
Oh...and if I hadn't stayed at that B&B in northern California almost 20 years ago and read the previous guest's journal entry, I might never have encountered this beautiful word: CONCINNITY. Indeed.