Smitty: Yeah, now, is that you with the fishing pole in the liner notes
JL: That is me.
Smitty: (Laughs.)
JL: I thought that was great. Blue Note is so famous for their artwork. Gordon Gee, who’s head of their art department there, he came up with this great idea, which was to go out to the Santa Monica Pier, and the photograph that’s on the cover is me walking underneath the Pier.
Smitty: Oh cool.
JL: And it looks like trees or it looks like—you don’t quite know what it is because it’s a little out of focus. But that’s what that is and then he got this really cool beanie hat and this old vintage fishing pole and took a bunch of shots of me kinda fishing the hat out of the bay there.
Smitty: Yeah, that’s pretty slick.
JL: I just thought that was a very clever and very funny approach and visually it’s pretty interesting too.
Smitty: Yes, very creative. Jeff, this is a great project you’ve got and there were names we didn’t even mention like Russell Malone.
JL: Yeah.
Smitty: These are legends.
JL: That’s funny ‘cause I saw Russell play with Diana Krall, I don’t know, like 10 or 15 years ago at this jazz festival in Europe and I’ve always been a huge fan, and we knew we needed somebody great on “Burn Brightly” and we wanted a guitar because we had a lot of saxophone and trumpet on the record. We wanted to kind of mix it up a little bit and somehow Russell Malone’s name came up and we were just very fortunate to have him and he just plays a burning solo on that track.
Smitty: Yes he does. What a way to close out the record, you know? Wow.
JL: Supposedly, he liked that tune so much that he’s already playing that tune in his own sets.
Smitty: Wow! That’s fantastic!
JL: After we sent it to him, he showed up at the studio and he really didn’t need the music or anything and he really knew the song really well already.
Smitty: Yeah, he’s an incredible musician. I love his latest project too. So, let’s see, the record dropped when?
JL: April 3rd.
Smitty: April 3rd, wow. That’s exciting.
JL: Definitely, you know, it’s a challenging time for all of us in the music business these days, but we hope people will actually go out and buy one of those plastic discs known as a compact disc. (Both laugh.)
Smitty: I totally understand.
JL: Well, if they do, I’m pretty sure they won’t be disappointed.
Smitty: I totally agree, man, and I was about to say if they pick this one up, then it’ll be well worth the trip to the store and well worth the dollars to put it in the changer, man. This is a great record with some incredible musicians and I’m not gonna let you slide. Man, we’ve been talking about all of the other musicians on this record but you threw down some incredible solos on this record yourself. Man!
JL: Well, you know, it was funny ‘cause the last few records we were more focused on writing and style and, I mean, playing kinda came into it eventually, but working with Steve Dubin, he’s sort of a nerd like me and he kinda loves to like stare at his computer and play with stuff inside the computer and move things around and come up with real imaginative like unusual sounds and stuff like that, and I love those records. I mean, the last one got a Grammy nomination, so I can’t be mad at that. You know, the last time that happened to me was 20 years before that.
Smitty: Yeah.
JL: So but this record, the way I describe it is like sort of the action got off the computer screen and into the room of live musicians playing and the action was not inside the computer, it was in the studio, and I think that’s why, because it was just more of a player’s record, more playing going on, and that freed me up to really be inspired and really kind of excel in that area, I hope.
Smitty: Yeah, I would say so, man, because there’s that overriding voice of your keyboard playing on here that’s just incredible.
JL: Thank you.
Smitty: Yeah, man. Well, I must say that this is one that everyone should pick up because it’s just a great record and it has all of the elements of just a great improv gig. It’s almost like having a live record, you know?
