It's Been A Lot of Work & A Lot Fun!

lisahiltonmusic
Sep 8
3 min read

Hi there,

I’ve been pretty quiet lately, but I bet you figured out that I was in my “Composing Season” - that’s correct! Every February or March I start fleshing out the little composition embryos that I begin in late fall. Over time, with luck, magic or alchemy, they progress to actual finished tunes - yippee!! But after several months of creative freedom, I need to ready the scores, or charts, for the upcoming studio session. COUNTLESS hours go into trying a variety of approaches on each tune, and finally the notated music is ready to send to the band. The charts show generally what the piano is doing along with improvised sections, but only have simple suggestions for the band such as “cool bongo intro”. Preparing eleven tunes, each about four pages in length, for the quintet is a stack of paper and a lot of time!

Next up: with my producers hat on, I discussed placement of my bandmates in the studio with the engineer Fernando Lodeiro, I arranged for a fabulous nine foot Steinway D to be delivered for the session, figured out lunches, piano tunings, photography and video all while praying everyone’s flight would go smoothly for the recording in Hollywood at EastWest Studios. We record, or “track” the album in only one day, but it’s a pretty full day as you can imagine. The highlight for me was the Miles Davis track, So What - I just don’t think I will ever forget the combined power and virtuosity exhibited by JD Allen, Igmar Thomas, Rudy Royston and Luques Curtis on that first track. Truly a high point for me, but I also really enjoyed the title track I wrote, Extended Daydream that featured JD and also the cover tune Wildflowers by Billie Eilish that highlighted a muted trumpet by Igmar. A truly fantastic day for all of us!

Then all the listening work starts! Yep, the day after recording, I begin track selection, which is an entire art itself if you ask me. Using a notebook and my own musical shorthand, I closely analyze each track before deciding on which of three tracks to use. When those decisions are made, I work with an editing engineer to do any clean up - removing the noise at the end of a track, shortening the intro, or choosing another take if necessary. I color code my decisions as I move through each stage, then the music is sent to the “mix” engineer - in this case, Jay Newland who lives in Connecticut. His job is to balance the instruments inside of each tune, so you can hear everyone. The last step, in Culver City on the Sony Studios lot with Eric Boulanger, is referred to as “mastering” - each tune is balanced as a whole across the album and the spaces between each tune are created.

I love my band and think they played extraordinarily on this project, and I love the album a lot too. (It will be out the day after Thanksgiving so I’ll fill you in about it later as we get closer.) Right now I am vacillating between euphoric and overwhelmed! I feel very thankful that somehow, even though I grew up in a small central California town without a lot of musical guidance, that I find myself playing, every year with some of the best jazz musicians on this planet. I feel very lucky.

Besides all that? I love staying near my home in Malibu during the summertime, even if we did not get the best weather this year. Hiking, biking, tennis, swimming, yoga, beginning golf and lots of piano time for me!

I hope your summer went well, and I look forward to sharing more with you soon,

Lisa

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