Dream Wandering

I believe in the power of dreams. Dreams worth wandering with are born out of our authenticity. They reveal and call out our highest potential. Over the years I have come to realize that when a dream emerges and show its beautiful face and mine, it would be best to take it seriously and start wandering with it, for it always leads me home. One dream was to record again. I desired to record an album of jazz songs with my friend and fellow jazz wanderer, guitarist Fred Wulff. In 2007, while living in Hamburg, Germany, I met Fred when seeking an accompanist to sing for my husband at his birthday party. During our first meeting we tried out a couple of songs I would be singing. I was taken by his sensitivity and taste and he was evidently also impressed with me. In good northern german tradition we politely underplayed our enthusiasm and agreed that playing together would be pleasant. That was the beginning of an enduring, fun-filled and rewarding collaboration. Early on Fred played me a couple of recordings by June Christy, which quickly resulted in our decision to do a musical tribute to her. My admiration for her grew as I began to work with her one of a kind phrasing and incredible time feel. I soon came to understand why she is hailed as one of the finest, although sadly neglected, voices in jazz. More than a few songs here on this album are inspired by her wonderful renditions. Blessings and thank you, June! Fred and I have similar musical taste and we were equally enthused about a few other songs that I fortunately happened to have loved and sung for many years. “I Got the Blues,” a scat song based on Sonny Stiitt’s solo on “Lester Leaps In” is texted by the great Eddie Jefferson. I remember the first time I heard his incredible vocal styling which he called Vocalease, my world changed. It was the first recording I transcribed while studying jazz at the University of Miami. At Fred’s urging “Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most” with the unforgettable lyrics by poet Fran Landesmann, and “Wave,” from Fred’s and my favorite brazilian composer, Antonio Carlos Jobim, had to be included. As I searched for one more song for this album I stumbled onto the music of Lorraine Feather. When I heard “Sweet Miriam” I knew that I wanted to include this fascinating song. I asked a friend of mine, professor/trumpter Oliver Groenewald, if he might be able to do a chart for me. He informed me that he knew her personally. His wife, my friend Wendy Thomas, has a home on Orcas Island off the coast of Washington and Lorraine happens to be a neighbor. He wrote an email and a day later the chart showed up in my mailbox. There’s the magic of wandering with your dreams! Many thanks and admiration to Lorraine Feather! It has been a great pleasure, as always, to collaborate with Fred on this album. We met a series of evenings, without any preparation, and found the arrangements in a whimsical way. We let the texts speak to us and obediently followed after them. Both Fred and I also work with people vocally - he as a master speech therapist and I as a vocal instructor. We are both fascinated with the human voice and therefore, melodies and texts. In fact, Fred is one of the only instrumentalists I have worked with who is as concerned about the text as I am. This is why, as he so wonderfully demonstrates on “Mimosa” and “You Go to My Head”, his solos reveal such a creative conversation with the texts of the songs. I like to think of him as an instrumental singer. What a beautiful voice! Accordingly our approach to recording the material was to be true to the glistening moments of interpretation. We documented those moments and chose to leave small imperfections here and there. Our engineer Kansas City native Fontaine Burnett, a sought after musician and impressive singer/songwriter in Germany, helped us to remain true to our intention. He was the Guardian of the Magical Musical Moment. The rule of thumb was: if our hearts were moved and opened, we chose the goosebumps rather than musical perfection. Thank you, Fontaine! Fred and I hope your hearts will also be moved and opened by the selection of songs and tunes we offer on this CD, so much so that you might also start to dream your own dreams and wander with them. Here’s to dream wandering!