Jazz Monthly: Yeah man, it’s like a live performance, with the exception of the strings that maybe you wouldn’t use live. But that’s a perfect lead in with your CD, A Holiday Wish, because I’ve had that CD for five years, you know I guess since it came out. I know it really well… you’ve got like Santa Baby on it.
JS: And Chris Botti played Have a Merry Christmas. Chris played on that for me; he did a great job.
Jazz Monthly: You’ve got Greensleeves, a very poignant version of Greensleeves and Silent Night, but that’s a perfect lead into your latest CD now, Time Stands Still, because when you recorded A Holiday Wish five years ago…
JS: Yes, the response I got from that Christmas CD, was I could tell people liked that kind of production. That’s why for Time Stands Still, I picked some of the best tunes. I work with a guy, Richard Perry, who produced all of Rod Stewarts classic songs, when he first came out, and I heard that… and that’s what kind of got me hip onto that type of production.
Jazz Monthly: Absolutely, and you know when I said you did A Holiday Wish, you were saying, “It’s tunes that people already know and love.” So, it’s the same thing with this latest CD, Time Stands Still, people know these great standards, but that’s also a challenge for Jimmy Sommers because look – how do you put your own unique slant or twist on these songs and still be, true to these songs. In other words, not take them way out or over produce them… and you succeeded!
JS: Yeah, that’s true. You want to stick to the melody but you’ve got to add something to it so… it’s different. It’s got to be your own style to it.
Jazz Monthly: Yeah, and we’re going to talk about some of these cuts on here too, but you know when I first heard about the CD, of course I already knew your work, you know we here at JazzMonthly.com know your background and we respected you Jim, but I’ve got to tell you, even I, and I can say this kind of to make you chuckle, I said “Well lets see… Jimmy Sommers is playing some of these romantic songs, well, what kind of an approach is he going to take?” I was almost ready to kind of “skim” through it when I got the CD, but not at all man because its just so refreshingly honest… there’s such a hipness!
JS: Well I really worked on those orchestral intros. By not playing the melody yet, you really didn’t know what tune was coming – but I kind of hint to it, you know.
Jazz Monthly: Yeah, that’s well said Jimmy. There’s such hipness to it too, and that’s what really did it for me. By the way man, what a stellar supporting cast on the CD. Why don’t you tell us about some of your fellow musicians and singers on Time Stands Still?
JS: Well you know, who got me into this business… the first CD I ever did was with Eric Benet.
Jazz Monthly: that was Jame’s Café right?
JS: Yeah, exactly.
Jazz Monthly: That was ten years ago.
JS: Yeah, ten years ago, you know he got me into this; I met him in Chicago. It seems to me like I put Eric in every one of my albums, he’s right by me too. He was singing Over the Rainbow, which he comes in and just nails it; he’s such a talent. Then there’s Gloria Loring – who I met through a friend. She sings Fever, and what’s funny is… she’s an incredible Jazz singer and her son is Robin Thicke, do you know Robin Thicke? He just hit the scene and he’s done really well. A great R&B singer.
Jazz Monthly: Yeah you know, and you have one of my favorites, as a fellow drummer, Joe LaBarbara – who worked with Bill Evans and everybody. In fact, Joe LaBarbara was in, I think in the last Bill Evans trio with Mark Johnson and Joe LaBarbara.
JS: Yeah, he’s something else.
Jazz Monthly: Yeah, and of course you have your pal Chris Botti who you mentioned earlier.
JS: Yeah, Chris Botti and Rick Braun playing on a tune. He’s playing on Fly Me To The Moon. Then I have a great new singer who I met on Myspace called Dina Deadly. She did a great job on At Last.
Jazz Monthly: I want to talk about some of these cuts. We’ll see if we can get to most of them because it’s just such an appealing CD! Again, I really invite everybody and encourage everybody to get this CD because you will not be disappointed, you will not be hitting “next.”
JS: (Laughing) You’ve got to hear the intro to every song.
Jazz Monthly: Yes, so let’s talk about… you mentioned Fly Me to the Moon, you now Bart Howard wrote that and it was originally titled In Other Words. That was actually the title, and everyone recorded that from Joe Hornell. Everyone, of course, knows Sinatra’s version… Tony Bennett… I think even Bobby Womack did a version in the late sixties, but I really love your version because it really is true to the Bossa Nova feel.
JS: Yeah exactly, that’s how it turned out which is great you know. We can thank Joe for that on the drums.
Jazz Monthly: Yeah, Joe LaBarbara. Just nice blowing on it by you Jimmy… and really… as I mentioned: true to the song, keeping it beautiful. There’s a beautiful string bed, I think you said Bill Cunliffe did it?
JS: Yeah, Bill Cunliffe, incredible piano player but he you know arranged the song and I was so impressed with what he did, he’s one of these musos who’s just genius.
Jazz Monthly: … and there was a trumpet solo on there?
JS:Rick Braun played on that.
Jazz Monthly: Just beautiful. You mentioned Over the Rainbow with the vocal by your long time pal… the guy that got you started… well not got you started, but helped.
JS: In other words the guy that was married to Halle Berry.
Jazz Monthly: (Both laughing) All right, you answered it Jimmy, Eric Benet. You know the thing that I was really impressed with was that you played just a little bit of it. Just little garnishes, you know… understated.
JS: Less is more these days.
Jazz Monthly: Absolutely, and I have to respect you so much for that Jimmy Sommers, because look man, this is your album and you let Eric shine on it. I think you came in on the tag and just really took it out in the end. As you stated, less is more.
JS: You know that’s what I do with all of my records. I don’t want to just keep blowing the horn; I want other people to shine. The ear wants to hear other things, other instruments, other voices.
Jazz Monthly: You’re absolutely right Jimmy, and listen what I respect about you is that if you wanted to rip this song to smithereens with note after note and all of these sax splashes, you could have… and you could have justified it. But, you didn’t.
JS: Exactly.
