I just got done giving "I Miss You Most at Nighttime" it's very first listen on my stereo, start to finish, and I must say that I think I've managed to impress myself. I think this is the first time ever (no, I KNOW it is) that I've ever had a first mix sound like a ready to go mix. I mean, I made a bunch of notes and all but it's all minor things. I'm used to first mixes sounding so bad that I usually want to cry after. This time...well, no tears, at least not of sadness. Maybe I'm finally getting somewhere? I can only hope since I'm slowly running out of time, as they say.
As soon as the album ended, I immediately reached for "This Land" by Bill Frisell, the very first album I ever heard by Frisell. I should say that this is also the first time ever that I have listened to something of my own and then something professional and not wanted to sob hysterically because mine sounds so inferior. Now, this mix certainly doesn't sound as good as a high budget jazz album, of course, but it doesn't sound bad either, and I'll take that as a win.
In all honesty, this whole thing started for me back around '94, back when I worked the overnight shift on a help desk, and I came in to work one evening at my usual 10pm start time to find a new guy working the swing shift named Scott. He was a fairly tall guy, with dark hair and glasses, and seemed awfully friendly and chatty considering he was brand new and all, and I was amazed how everyone acted like he had been working there forever. For some reason, he and I started chatting almost immediately since I think someone had told him beforehand that I played guitar (he played drums) and perhaps he was more or less waiting for me to arrive? I don't know...it was something like that.
In any event, it wasn't long before I learned that he was a huge jazz fan, something I had a mild interest in but had yet to really even consider exploring. I had dabbled more with the new age sound a bit so I had an interest but wasn't sure if jazz would really be my thing. At that point, I was really into moody rock music so jazz was sort of in a different world. I don't remember if it was that very first night or the next one, or the next one, but somewhere in the very beginning he brought in a small pile of CD's for me to take home and listen to. One of them was Bill Frisell "This Land" and I distinctly recall how excited he was to introduce Frisell to me. In fact, I remember him saying the night before he brought it in something like "...oh, you'll love Frisell...I'll bring it tomorrow..."
I still remember going home that next morning after work with this small mound of CD's kind of wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. I was already mentally preparing for how I'd break it to him that this wasn't really my thing but I did silently vow that I'd give each CD at least some sort of fair listen. Putting "This Land" on for the first time was like entering a world I didn't know existed. What the hell was this??? Looking back on it now as a mega Frisell fan, it's one of Frisell's albums just loaded to the gills with brass instruments, and I never ever liked brass at all, especially back then (I do now...but that's a different story). I think I got one or two songs into the disc and recall thinking and perhaps even saying out loud that, whoah, this is some corny sh*t and really not my thing. I mean, these were my biggest years of bands like Marillion, the Connells, a bit of Al Stewart, the Church, R.E.M. still, and my most recent fav at that time Talk Talk, the later years in particular (gorgeous, gorgeous albums). My point is that it was a million miles away from this weird brass music where the guitar was sort of in the background and all the music sounded like some bizarre mixed up version of "The Music Man".
I think I even gave the CD's back to him a few days later and probably said something along the lines like they weren't my thing and so on. But somehow, and I don't remember what or when it was, I think I asked for "This Land" again from Scott, and this time I really listened to it because that damn first song had somehow gotten into my head. And that, my friends, is all it took. 3 years later, I would venture out to L.A. completely alone for the first time ever to see Frisell play a solo show at the Skirball which was quite an adventure in itself. Pretty much ever since then I've been a diehard Frisell fan and own everything pretty much that he's ever played on, which is a ton of recordings.
It was really the albums "Good Dog, Happy Man" and "The Sweetest Punch" that pushed me into mega fandom, and those both came out within months of one another. I can't recommend those two enough, "The Sweetest Punch" having the added mystique around it of being the instrumental rendition of the album "Painted from Memory" that Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach were simultaneously working on in a completely different studio on the opposite coast, I believe. "Painted from Memory" is one of my all time fav's as well but hearing both versions of those songs is beyond words. Bacharach's work is amazing, if you ask me.
In any event, I haven't heard from Scott for years but I'd like to think that he'd be rather tickled by this new album of mine. In fact, I might even dedicate it to him...who knows. Without him and his influence, I seriously doubt any of this would be happening so cheers to you, wherever you are, and thanks!
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