Last night I did a recording for a wonderful singer/songwriter named Chris Koch. He’s a dad right here in my town of Montclair- our sons attend the same school – and has undertaken a massive recording project. He has tons of material and apparently has decided to get it all documented. He says he’s laid down over 30 tracks of original music over the last 6 months. I play tenor, soprano or flute on about 12 of these tracks. He’s very humble about his writing and is learning about notation as he goes, but the content is brilliant. There’s a challenge in determining what on my sheet music is to be played literally, what is a guide and what is a cue for another part. But while I’ll never complain that a chart is too clear or too perfectly notated, there is something about a musician’s self-made notation that speaks to his/her individuality. Not understanding something completely on a linear level causes me to access more intuitive understanding and the challenge is to really hear what the composer wants. So, I enjoy the sessions with Chris because he has definite ideas, but his style allows for much interpretation and he seems genuinely pleased with the results of my experimentation. I like the fact that I’ve done enough sessions for him now that I know (or at least think I know) what the process is for me as a player and him as a writer/producer. I’m really happy about the regularity with which I’ve been recording. I’m really learning about the whole process.
One more note is that Chris is a poet so the lyrics are genuinely inspiring. He’s not producing this for release, but in order to shop the tunes. They span the range of popular music; he writes country, latin, jazz, R&B and everything in between. Hopefully he’ll let me post a couple of tunes on here.
