Product Description
The process of recording this CD has taken us, Trio and Orchestra alike, in some exciting new directions, allowing each of us to explore many new approaches to style and performance. As co-producers of the recording sessions in Nashville this summer, Jake Fleming and I were confronted with many new challenges, and we each learned a great deal about large-ensemble recording. The String Orchestra rose to the occasion with distinction, quickly apprehending jazz idioms, the peculiarities of multitrack recording (headphones, multiple takes), and a very demanding recording schedule (long days, Nashville take-out). I'm proud to say that we even challenged our erstwhile recording engineer, who shortly after our arrival declaimed, "Uh, I don't think that we've ever had this many musicians in the big room before..." With four different arrangers for the project, we knew that we'd have a diverse, exciting mix of styles from song to song. Eric Funk's work is always very distinctive. An established American composer, he brings his own unique language to his arrangements, finding new ways to communicate the sentiment of a classic tune. Glen Johnston's technical finesse is unmatched, his style very much part of a living tradition of large-ensemble jazz arranging that goes back to the days of the big bands and elegant ballrooms. Jake Fleming's imaginative orchestrations are a riot of color and texture, and my own style of jazz arranging seems to be a happy marriage of Broadway drama and good old hochdeutsch counterpoint. With great arrangements, a fabulous orchestra, and the incomparable Craig Hall and Brad Edwards filling out the rhythm section, we all knew we were going to have something special. And we did. We'll Be Together Again is an album which has brought together many professional Montana musicians from markedly different stylistic backgrounds, many of whom had not previously worked together. For Jeni, Jake and I, it has been a wonderful opportunity to bring together some of our most important mentors and teachers. Johan Jonsson, Eric Funk, Glen Johnston, Craig Hall, Ralph Sappington (playing trumpet tonight) and Brad Edwards have all helped the three of us to mature as performing musicians; it has been a great honor to have them all with us on this album and concert tour.
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