Intimidation

[thenumberten]

So I've been busy playing lately, just like I had hoped. Its been really fun and really exhausting, but the best part by far has been doing original music. The Manila CD was really fun and I'm really happy with it, and I'm just beginning to write and record some of my own stuff, but I got called by my friend Matt to play bass on his new record, which is a jazz/funk/soul sort of thing. Something in the vain of Harry Connick Jr's pop stuff. Anyway, I was intimidated at first, because I'd never done a record with any of those guys or with that producer, or in that style. They're all amazing. Matt played with Clark Terrry and Ray Brown when he was at UNH, and the drummer Norm used to play with Al Jerome and they're all incredible musicians. It got worse yesterday when Matt called me to tell me that he got some producer named Eugene Macdaniels interested in producing our record for us and maybe writing a few tunes. I googled him to find out a little bit and apparently he produced a few hit records for Gladys Knight, Roberta Flack and Nancy Wilson back in the day. He, like Matt and Norm and basically everyone else on the project has way more experience and has played with far better musicians than I have. I was kind of feeling like the weak link and maybe a little nervous that he'd dig into me when we started recording, and then I kept reading about him and I guess he did his first record with Ron Carter. Like... the jazz bass legend Ron Carter. So I don't know if he's going to be a huge dick or just a really laid back dude or how he works. Producers are all really different. Engineers tend to be more or less the same but producers are hard to predict, so I'll have to find some way to ask Matt if he's a cool guy or not.

Anyway, gig tonight, gig tomorrow night, and basically gig every night until half way through July. Then I'll go to sleep for awhile. Until then... you know. Work.