Album Notes

Between May 12th and May 30th 2003, during a series of eight recording sessions, I played (and played with)
these marvelous songs, many of which were no doubt born on this very instrument. Since I play purely by ear and by instinct, none of these arrangements was written down or even (with the exception of the basic structure of "My Favorite Things") pre-meditated. We'd turn on the machines and for a couple of hours I'd call out one Rodgers title after another and improvise wildly different versions as the spirit moved me. Then came the task of deciding which version of each song to include. I chose those takes in which I felt I'd responded in the most intuitive and spontaneous way to the instrument itself. I also tended to choose those where the song was at least somewhat recognizable (though there is a dissonant, nearly 12-tone version of "If I Loved You" that was tempting...) What you hear are all single takes. There was no overdubbing, no editing of takes together for perfection's sake. This is exactly what happened in the moment in what turned out to be a deeply rewarding collaboration - a collaboration with Richard Rodgers' piano.