4 Days of Creativity

The instrumental portions of the recording of Azucar de Amor are now complete. Whew!! I am amazed, relieved and thrilled that we were able to record 10 full songs in 4 days. Granted they were LONG days, but we did it and the result is overwhelmingly positive. Wayne himself said that he feels the CD was raised to a higher level musically than the last one--and I agree. There was some really amazing stuff/magic that happened this week in the studio.

Ray Vega was such a pleasure to work with. He is hilarious, full of entertaining stories, and most of all, a dedicated musician. Despite his clowning around, when it came time to get down to business he gave 150% of himself. His solos were inspired and beautiful and his session playing was also fantastic. We worlked him hard in the studio but he always remained calm and positive. I hope we get more chances to work together. I feel as though I made a new friend this week.

Jovino Santos Neto also was a true pleasure to work with. I picked him up from the airport on Thursday and, after having a nice breakfast together, we went to the studio and laid down the tracks he recorded on. He played on one of my originals and one jazz standard/bolero. What a beautiful sound he gets from the piano. He's lyrical and pensive and exciting all at the same time. I feel that the songs we recorded together will be very beautiful.

Now it's up to me to record the vocals. My job, should I choose to accept--and I do!--is to maintain the same level achieved by the instrumentals OR raise it even higher. My goal is to raise it even higher. I need to really center myself to allow the spirits to speak through me. I am hoping to get my ego out of the way so the true voice of each song can be honestly revealed. I'm going to have to do some serious meditating before going back into the studio in two weeks!!