Naim Label

Forcione albums are all good. I also really like Charlie Haden Private Collection

I shamelessly recommend this delicious new album from the Naim label:


SINCE FOREVER




It features my own music (and one cover) played by Paul McCandless (Oregon) on woodwinds, Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny Group) on bass, Mark Walker (Oregon, Paquito D'Rivera) on drums, and me on piano.

I'm extremely proud of this one ... can't wait for folks to hear it!

All the best,
Fred

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:
Forcione albums are all good. I also really like Charlie Haden Private Collection

Second both.

quote:

Originally posted by fred simon:


I shamelessly recommend this delicious new album from the Naim label:

Fred, I still have to get this one - thks for the pointer.

Cheers ... Oliver

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
Also try some of the Naim sampler discs, there is a good range of music on them.
Stu

Hi Munch, I have quite a few of their older sample disks which sound a bit tired now, but will check the new offerings.

You're too much Fred!

Can you give me an idea of the equipment used for your recording, process etc.?

Thanks
Peter

Remember The River is excellent and in its more pastoral bits hints at Finzi, but Dreamhouse is Naim's best CD (in my opinion).

Wonderful from start to finish, it would be a Desert Island Disk for me. Nothing can come close to it for chill factor and even after all these years/listens can still produce goose-bumps.

Look forward to the new one.

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Shaw:
Remember The River is excellent and in its more pastoral bits hints at Finzi, but Dreamhouse is Naim's best CD (in my opinion).

Wonderful from start to finish, it would be a Desert Island Disk for me. Nothing can come close to it for chill factor and even after all these years/listens can still produce goose-bumps.

Look forward to the new one.

I have that CD, must give it a spin.

quote:

Originally posted by PMR:

You're too much Fred!

Can you give me an idea of the equipment used for your recording, process etc.?

Hi, Peter ... thanks for your interest.

I spent most of the four years between the previous album, Remember the River, and the new one composing and revising, although some of the tunes are older, and one is a radical re-working of a piece I recorded twenty years ago.

Working off and on over this period, but then really ramping things up in the year before recording (September 2008), Steve Rodby (who played bass on the album, and who has also played in the Pat Metheny Group for almost 30 years as well as serving as its co-producer), spent a couple of months, off and on, making the final selections of material and generally preparing for the recording. The band rehearsed the day before recording.

We recorded direct to a Nagra digital recorder, using four of its six tracks, with a stereo pair of mics on the piano and a stereo pair for bass, drums, and woodwinds. Steve Rodby also co-produced and did the editing of the performances.

We recorded at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (with a beautiful Steinway concert grand piano) over the course of two days, and then took our time in post-production. You can probably find general information on engineer Ken Christianson's "True Stereo" method and equipment at promusicaaudio.com

All my albums are labors of love, of course, and I feel guilty picking favorites, but I do feel I'm doing the best work of my life right now.

Hope you enjoy it!

All best,
Fred

quote:

Originally posted by munch:

Bloody good PR there Fred.

Well, you know, Stu, I can hardly expect others to plug it if I won't myself.

Thanks for your endorsement.

Best,
Fred

quote:

Originally posted by MilesSmiles:

Fred, I still have to get this one - thks for the pointer.

You're welcome, Oliver. You especially should check it out seeing as we recorded a version of In A Silent Way in tribute to your namesake, Miles Davis, and the tune's composer, Joe Zawinul, who sadly passed away last year.

Not sure if you know the history of Miles' version of that song, but when Zawinul brought it in they recorded it as he wrote it ... a kind of bossa nova (you can hear it on the complete In A Silent Way sessions boxed set).

Miles wasn't satisfied, though, and later re-recorded it, stripping away the chord changes and groove until it was just a beautiful floating melody over an E major drone. But Joe's original changes are equally beautiful, and performed intact on the version he recorded with Wayne Shorter on the live Weather Report album 8:30. My idea was to combine the two versions ... so it starts as just melody over the E major pedal point but ends with Joe's chord changes. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Oh ... and I wrote a bunch of tunes, too.

Hope you get a chance to check it out.

All best,
Fred

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Shaw:

Remember The River is excellent and in its more pastoral bits hints at Finzi, but Dreamhouse is Naim's best CD (in my opinion).

Wonderful from start to finish, it would be a Desert Island Disk for me. Nothing can come close to it for chill factor and even after all these years/listens can still produce goose-bumps.

Look forward to the new one.

Thanks so much Gary ... I can't tell you how much that means to me. As I told Stu in another thread, my vocabulary of gratitude is really straining against its limits ... I'm running out of ways to say thanks!

I hope you like the new one just as much ... or even more!

All the best,
Fred

quote:

but Dreamhouse is Naim's best CD (in my opinion).

Hmm - i'm not a great fan of Jazz (sorry ) but just listening to the sample tracks on this CD it's really rather good. I think i'll treat myself to a 24/96 on this one.

Cheers

James