Oh What a Dream Come True! The musicians on my Cole Porter CD, Easy to Love, were some of the finest… Anywhere! Even more than being exceedingly talented, they were each a pleasure and a joy to work with! What an honor to be in such fine company. If you have a moment when you are finished looking at the great pictures of many of the players below, I invite you to Listen for Yourself!

This picture to the left here is me with Ron Abel. Ron… Where to begin? He is responsible for so much of what makes this CD all it is. From the lush and beautifully orchestrated arrangements I commissioned him to write, to the wonderfully produced quality of the recordings… All Ron!

We made the recording over a two-week period in the summer of 2010.  The basic tracks were first created over three days with Ron on piano, Brett EE Paschal on drums and percussion and Dan Schulte on stand up bass. This was followed by one day recording the brass instruments, and two days with the strings. I can tell you it was heaven, singing through the headset with the lushness of all those strings!

[nggallery id=6]
Brett (shown in these last three photos of the gallery and the crazy picture in the center of the top row) was brought back in at the end to lay down the percussion tracks.  When all the tracks were in place, I sang my final vocals over a two-day period.  Vocally I got a little tired, if I were to repeat the process I would have returned at a later date after the tracks were completed to record my vocals. Live and learn!

A Special Thank You

Brass – Steve Hayworth and Mike Hettwer on French Horns, and Micah Wilkinson and Paul Mazzio on trumpets and oboists, Pablo Izquierdo and Karen Strand.

Strings – Paloma Griffin, Eva Richey, Tatiana Kolchanova-Parente, Karen Hilley, Camilla Wilson Scott, Anita Perkins, Angelika Furtwangler, Katherine Schultz, Trevor Fitzpatrick and Jenny Lindner.

Eva Richey – Contracted all of the musicians.

The marimba was donated from my alma mater music department, Lewis and Clark College.

There’s More to Cole Porter Cooking at Kung Fu Bakery

Curious about our recording sessions at Kung Fu Bakery in Portland, Oregon? There’s a prequel to this post… Cole Porter Cooking at Kung Fu Bakery – PT 1.  If you have a minute the great behind-the-scenes pictures are worth the visit!

 

Photo Credit – Rocky via his iPhone 4