If you are already a fan of one of the artists on this site, then you are probably well informed about terms like, "The Great American Songbook" or "American popular standards".

If you are new here and found this site through good fortune, well here are some ways to define the type of music I get to work with and what these singers like to sing.

Many of the songs on these albums are from the 1920s to the 1940s. Some are written later and some from the last five years. Usually the newer songs already have the feel of being a classic or at least have the feeling of being familiar.

Some of them are true war-horse standards from the golden age of MGM and Broadway: from Kern and Gershwin, Cole Porter and Johnny Mercer to Sondheim and myriad contemporary writers.

The quality that ties these "greats" to newer songs is that they are all lyric driven. For the most part, these songs could exist as simply as lyric and melody, not requiring any form of harmonic rhythm or even meter. Some of the arrangements do just that. In fact, Nancy LaMott frequently pushed me to see how few notes I could play and still provide exactly what was needed.

The writers of these songs, old and new, have given us as arrangers and interpreters, great imaginary rooms to explore ourselves in.

Some of these rooms are intimate chambers, some are cavernous universes. We place specific people in these rooms to dialogue these texts with. As the singer more clearly defines the room and the person they are talking to, the more specifically I get to define the inner lines and harmonies that support their choices.

If the singer is talented, brave, musical and specific, my job is really just to "get out of the way." Not a bad job at all -- huh?

I have been getting out of the way pretty well for the past 20 years and I hope that you enjoy what you hear on these CDs.