I think I've done enough damage.

Well, after a marathon session last night--which lasted until 3am--I now have the makings of a new album.

In my last post, I said that I was going to record three more pieces after the Mahavishnu-ish thing I was working on then.  Scratch that.  I recorded one more (that groove thing I talked about), but it's a rather long one that completes the album nicely.  I've more or less run out of time and energy to do any more.  I'm spent.

Anyway, a lengthy free-jazz freakout jam would not fit well on this album, and I already have a short free-jazz piano piece that serves as a nice tribute to the late Sam Rivers.  I'll talk more about Sam and my love for his music later.

The other thing I was going to do was to refurbish and upgrade "Funkoverture," which I recorded in 2009 but never placed on an album.  You can read about that piece and listen it to it in this blog post.  Unfortunately, I seem not to have saved the multi-track files for it, so it forever is what it is.  The existing version simply doesn't fit in sonically with the album, so it'll have to stay in the odds and ends bin for now.

I've still got to do some final tweaking, proper mixdown and the artwork.  I'm going to have this sucker pressed up into CDs and sell it on CD Baby, since I'm so happy with the way it turned out.  The album is called Fire Goddess, and I will make a dodgy YouTube clip for the lead-off track before I have the album for sale.  It's that Mahavishnu-ish piece, and now I can start referring to it by its real title, "Kiss of the Fire Goddess."

I'll post more about the album shortly.

This album is going to kill me

This album I'm working on is beating the crap out of me.  I'm working on the fourth piece, which is a Mahavishnu-like thing, and the mental effort needed to process it all in a short amount of time is wearing me out.  I think it will be worth the effort, though.  It's a piece I've had in mind for several years, and I just couldn't wait any longer to do it.

My initial thought in putting together an album before the birth of my son was to just do some quickie free jazz thing, but I'm just not feeling that at the moment.  Instead, I've embarked on an experiment to see if I can make a genuine fusion album in a month's time.  So far, it's working.  I've got three finished pieces and should finish the Mahavishnu-ish thing today.  That leaves me about two weeks until the baby's due date to complete the three other pieces I have in mind.

It should be downhill from here, though. I want to do a long groove piece, a free jazz tribute to the late Sam Rivers, and re-record most of the parts to an overture thing I've had sitting around on my hard drive for several years.  That's your album, right there.  None of those songs should require the type of intense effort I've had to give to the ones I've done so far.

It's mainly my high level of satisfaction at the work done so far that keeps me going at this point.

Here's a picture of my ramshackle, half-unpacked studio, in case you're interested.