A True Story

About the CD Cover Photo

This is the cover photo for the new jazz CD, "A Place to Dream." There's a story about this picture, wanta hear it?

Several years ago I found this great photo on a clip-art CD. It was of this exotic-looking building in sunlight, with interesting shadows, everything in white and shades of blue. It looked like it was in the sky, very dream-like. I used it to create a fake CD cover of a non-existent group, just as a design exercise, for fun.

So, last year in February, my wife and I were walking along near the beach on the island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, in late afternoon. Tenerife is covered with resorts and hotels and touristy stuff. For some reason, I remembered that picture of the dream-like building, and thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be funny if that building were here on the island?" A few minutes later, I looked up, and there it was, high on a hillside. So I took my own picture of it.

We met an Italian musician, Phillippo Francavilla, a guitarist who played solo in the restaurant at the resort we were staying at. He invited us to hear him play with his keyboard-playing partner, Oscar, a German guy, at another location later that week. We managed to find the place, they were playing on an outdoor plaza, a gorgeous place, palm trees, beautiful multi-colored lighting all around, you can't imagine. Phillippo and Oscar played beautifully, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I said to myself, man, I need me an Oscar. When I get back to Indy, I'm gonna find that special jazz piano guy I need, and make a real jazz record this year.

When we got back, I made some calls, I got some names and numbers, I left some messages. I left a voice mail for Ken Fary, telling him I'm a singer, I do a lot of standards, and I want to make a real jazz record. I'm looking for a solid jazz piano player who can wail on his own, but also accompany a singer, maybe write some charts and get the best available musicians together. Ken called me back and said, "That's one of the best things I do." He was just the guy I needed to help make everything work. We started rehearsing and arranging in March. We met once a week for an hour; it was like taking a lesson. We did lots of preparation.

We started recording at The Lodge Studios in late July. We recorded the trio - grand piano, string bass and jazz drums - all together, at the same time, in the same space with minimal separation. That gave us a traditional, live jazz sound and feel. I did guide vocals in a booth, and came back later to do them up right. We got tenor sax and trumpet parts, and about half the vocals done a few days later. It took a lot of sessions to edit the solos, re-sing vocals and mix the tracks; we finished in late September. I did my own mastering in my home studio, and designed all the package graphics.

So that's my own photograph on the cover. The title, "A Place to Dream," like that exotic, dream-like resort building, just kinda popped into my mind.