More Tracks Recorded for "Unsung Heroes"…

It’s been always at the back of my mind since recording the material for “Unsung Heroes” that somehow I managed to track 12 different tunes without a single ballad. Nothing says that you have to include a ballad performance on a jazz record, but I always have had done so in the past (or an bolero on the Latin records), so I’ve been a little uneasy about it.

Now, at the last moment, I decided to correct this “oversight” by going back into the studio with the rhythm section to track what I thought would be two or maybe three ballads. Fortunately, the cats (Rob, David, and Pete) were available. Though we didn’t have time to rehearse and I selected the tunes on the spur of the moment, I think it turned out well, and we were able to record seven tunes in about four hours on the Tuesday evening before Christmas, Not all of these may make it on the project, but I’ve got good stuff to choose from:

Orange Blossoms (Idrees Sulieman)
Short Steps (Sulieman)
Heleen (Joe Gordon)
I Could Never Forget You (Tommy Turrentine)
Gone But Not Forgotten (T.T.)

The Sulieman and T.T. tunes I got through Don Sicker and Second Floor Music, and I believe are debut recordings, like some of their tunes from the original sessions last year.

We also recorded two more up-tempo quartet numbers, Donald Byrd’s “I’m So Excited By You” and an original blues I wrote on way way out the door to the studio, “Unsung Blues

This is not making it any easier to get this thing out the door!