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December 30, 2014:

THE YEAR IN REVIEW – PART THREE

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, where was I?  Oh, yes, looking back part three.  Once we were done with Li’l Abner, there was no rest at all, with our relentless schedule of Kritzerland shows and getting ready to record the new Sandy Bainum album.  We had many work sessions on that – Lanny and Sandy would come with whatever they’d been practicing, I’d hear it and be fine or ask for certain things that had gone afield a bit too far to be put back closer to the way I’d written them, but I gave them freedom to play as long as they stayed true to the song’s intentions and styles, which they did.  It was a very exciting album to work on and not just because they were my songs.  I think there was some trepidation about it selling, but that’s a whole other ball of potato salad, and the first two albums hadn’t sold that well so I felt we could basically only stay at that level or go up, since I have a loyal, small fan base who would not ordinarily buy but who would buy this one.  At least that was the hope.

The most exciting part for me was recording in a studio that I’d never recorded in – the legendary Studio A at Capitol Records.  We needed a bigger room than Westlake because we didn’t want to cram in thirty-five musicians into a room that really only comfortably holds twenty-five.  So, the only alternative was Capitol and frankly it wasn’t all that much more money.  The minute I walked into that building I was bowled over emotionally – walking toward Studio A just as had Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Nelson Riddle, Billy May, Stan Kenton, Dean Martin, June Christie, Nat King Cole and so many other amazing artists.  You could just feel that electricity in the air.  And Studio A was everything I knew it would be.  The sound in that room is just perfection.  Just listening to what John Adams had up as a rough blend was incredible sounding – clean, clear, simple and beautiful.  I knew instantly that mixing it would be a breeze because the natural sound was so gorgeous that we wouldn’t be doing much to it.

Lanny was, as always, very prepared.  And Sandy was in great spirits and, more importantly, great voice.  I knew we would get almost nothing from the scratch vocals she did on those two orchestra dates – we rarely do because we’re all just focusing on getting perfect orchestra tracks.  We began the session with the song that I already knew would be the album opener (I didn’t quite know it would be the title yet), It Might Be Fun.  Lanny asked for extra time for that first number and I happily gave it to him – only we didn’t need it.  They nailed it in twenty minutes after a rehearsal and two takes.  Oh, to hear Lanny’s glorious orchestration of that song.  I wrote it years ago in 1977, with some very different lyrics in part of it – I rewrote it because we all loved the tune so much.  And Lanny just captured so perfectly everything I had in my head when I wrote it.  That’s always the amazing thing about hearing your songs orchestrated by someone who really gets who you are and what you do, which Lanny did and does.  The rest of day one went so smoothly it was frightening.  Only once did I get impatient, and it was during Two Roads and had to do with a suggestion by Richard Sherman who was there.  In the instrumental Dixieland section, in which everyone was just improvising in that style, he really thought someone should be actually playing the tune.  That became a source of difficulty when it should have been easy – but we got it done and didn’t lose any time at all as it turned out.

The second session was just as magical as the first.  We simply had the best musicians in LA playing on this, which is why everything went so smoothly and effortlessly.  They were two of the best days ever and certainly one of the key highlights of this year.  The vocal sessions were a breeze and a load of fun and, of course, we ate lots of Astroburger.  The mix was the easiest mix ever.  Of course, during the entire year we kept issuing Kritzerland CDs.  There were all sorts of other little projects that happened or that I began work on, too.  Then in November we brought Kritzerland to New York.  It was daunting doing our LA November show, then two weeks later going to New York and doing two back-to-back shows with a total of four performances.  But what was really daunting was how many other events we were up against – like over ten.  That’s the bad part of New York and its endless cabaret madness.  But despite the possibility of very light houses, we ended up okay and the shows went very well.  And more importantly, it was great to be able to introduce New York to some of our wonderful LA performers.  And then two weeks later we were back doing the December Kritzerland show.  I know I’ve missed stuff – figuring out what the new book would be, working on this little one-person theatrical piece, planning the production of Inside Out and having a ton of meetings and way too many meals.

Yesterday was perfectly okay as a day.  I had to be at a breakfast meeting at ten at some little hole-in-the-wall eatery in the Valley.  This place is incredibly popular with a certain type of the populace and it’s not my favorite type.  It’s kind of a hipster vibe there, but the people there don’t seem in any way natural about it.  The place has been there for a long time, but for a jernt that serves mediocre food (at least the eggs benedict were) there is always a forty-minute wait, sometimes longer.  For a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon.  As there was yesterday, although by the time I got there the people I was meeting were already seated.  And I wasn’t thrilled that I had to park two blocks away.  The meeting was fine and then I came right home.  I did some work at the piano, proofed a chart for a new song of mine that we’re doing in the January Kritzerland show, did some writing and then sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched the first half of a motion picture entitled Heaven and Earth, one of those Oliver Stone Viet-Nam pictures.  It’s very well done and it doesn’t make you like the people who invaded that country, but it’s not my favorite kind of film, although I’m certainly involved in it.  I’ll have a lot to say about the transfer once I completely finish it.  I made a teeny-tiny bit of pasta with butter for a snack, had a telephonic conversation, and that was about it.

Today, I have an eleven o’clock early lunch with Sami and her mom, then it’s back here to have a work session for this one-person theatre piece.  That will take a couple of hours, then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then come home and do a little writing and then finish the movie.  Tomorrow I have a work session at ten, then we have our Annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve partay right here at haineshisway.com and you must be there because it’s the place to be and the best way to ring in the New Year, which I like to call 2015.  Friday is a New Year’s Day partay at Barry Pearl’s but prior to that I’ll begin a new book and do a jog of some sort.  The weekend is totally unbooked, save for maybe a dinner, and I hope to keep it that way.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have an early lunch, have a work session, hopefully pick up packages, write and relax.  Today’s topic of discussion: What were your favorite TV shows, TV films and TV specials for 2014?  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be done with this year in review.

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