Smitty: Well, I think you will. I think you have been released from Canada to really step out into the U.S with what you’ve done and what you’re doing now and in the future as well.
CW: Wow.
Smitty: Now, talk to me about this great album. Oh, now, I gotta tell ya, and this may come as a shock to you, I don’t know, but I just love the French rendition of “Beautiful.”
CW: Oh.
Smitty: That’s my favorite song on the CD.
CW: You know, it’s so sweet to hear that from you because I have a real soft spot for that song, number one. Number two, I know Gordon Lightfoot. I’ve met him a couple of times and I sang a Bossa Nova version of “Beautiful” for him and he’s been known to be quite difficult with people kind of rearranging his music, but he apparently really liked it, he was very gracious, and so I went ahead and took this to the next level, which was coming up with a beautiful French lyric from a friend of mine who’s a lyricist in Canada, and I have to say it really makes it stand out. It’s so unusual to hear.
Smitty: Yes.
CW: And it’s very romantic in French.
Smitty: Yeah, I just really locked into that whole romantic mood when I heard it, you know? It’s like wow, this is incredible. And trying to sing a song not knowing any French, it wasn’t until later that I realized what I was singing.
CW: Uh-huh.
Smitty: But that’s all I know in French. I can sing that song, but at first I didn’t even know what I was saying. That’s how much I love that song.
CW: Oh, that’s so wonderful to hear. Well, they snuck in the bonus track in English.
Smitty: Yeah, right.
CW: But you can stick to the French as long as you want. I think that’s wonderful. It is pretty daring. The whole idea of recording five different languages on this CD is daring. It’s a dream I’ve had, though, since I was right out of college. I’ve always had this vision of taking either pop songs and jazzing them up or jazz songs and adding some kind of more contemporary slant to them in a very early stage of my career, and I’ve always been careful because people say “Oh, American audiences prefer English” and all these things and, funny enough, everybody seems to be embracing all these languages. People who have bought the CD tell me “Oh, it’s got this breezy feeling throughout” and I don’t think they’re really noticing that they don’t understand the lyrics, so it’s more just a little bit of a nice musical romantic journey.
Smitty: Yes, and Eric Marienthal, what great work he did with that song on soprano sax, just incredible.
CW: Oh, so lovely, so lovely. I remember meeting him. Finally I met him last year. I had never met him. And though I’m so familiar with his music and love his sound, and he’s a good friend of Jimmy’s and he said “Oh, sure, I’d love to play” and, oh, it’s the icing on the cake for me, it’s the glisten.
Smitty: Yes, I bumped into him in Holland and we got on the subject of your new project.
CW: Uh-huh.
Smitty: And he just lit up, you know? He was like “Yeah, man, it was just great being a part of that project.” He had so many nice things to say about you.
CW: Oh, that’s so wonderful. Well, the feeling is mutual.
Smitty: Yes. Now, one of my other favorite songs, once again, this time a Latin flavor, the classic song by Henri Salvador.
CW: Oh, “Dans Mon Ile.”
Smitty: Yeah, the French song. That’s the one. I listened to them and I said “I can’t wait to talk to Carol and ask her how do you pronounce this?” (Both laugh.)
CW: We had all different permutations of the title and most of the time it was “Dans Mon Ile.” Everybody would say the “ile,” which is cute, as it sounds a little more Italian, but it’s “Dans Mon Ile.”
Smitty: Yeah, oh, and you have a unique way of singing with such ease and such effortlessness that me trying to sing this in English, I would have trouble. (Both laugh.)
CW: I don’t know about that, Smitty. I think we’re gonna have to put you to the test. I think you’ll do great because you’re so musical, but that kind of rhythm too, though, I’m really partial to the rhythms on this CD. It’s like Jimmy Branly, the drummer, had a big hand in coming up with different styles for these songs. I basically had most of the arrangements sculpted out and then between Jimmy and Jimmy, the two Jimmys, many things were added and reshaped because I essentially came to the table with the idea of Bossa Novas and Sambas, and then Jimmy Branly would say “Oh, no, well, we can’t just do this as a Samba. Let’s do it as something different.” And he knows how much I love to play funk music and sort of the funk shuffle grooves because they’re very similar to swing, in a sense, and so when he started playing that groove on “Dans Mon Ile,” I said “Oh, yeah, this is just too good,” and so if you have that to sing over, it’s really easy, I have to say, with a rhythm section that strong. My goodness.
Smitty: Oh yeah, and the song, “Café,” man, you guys just tore it up on that song, wow.
CW: (Laughs.) I didn’t really want it to be that fast, I have to tell you the truth. It’s a little speedier than I would’ve liked.
Smitty: (Laughs.)
CW: It’s hard for me to keep up at that tempo, but it has a great energy and I’m half kidding you, but it’s always fun for us to play live and the audience really seems to chime into it and they seem to be able to sing the refrain back. I have lots of people who want to sing along.
