There's more than one way to skin a "Guiro!"

Great news! The title cut for the new disc is nearly done! Yes, I started this project over a year ago. Hey, you can't rush perfection! Well, okay, you can't rush near-perfection. Semi-perfection? Look, I'm not so comfortable "tooting my own horn" (figuratively speaking)...but I think you're gonna like this!

Anyway, you get the picture. It simply wouldn't do to have the title cut of the new EP—my first release in a decade, and the first to rely heavily on flute—not be up to snuff; so I worked at it...and worked at it...and let it incubate a while...and worked at it some more...and played it live on several occasions (like the 2008 ATL Jazz Festival)...and worked at it some more. Finally, last weekend, I declared war on this sucker. By god, it was gonna get done, or my name wasn't Adam West™...!

Well, after hours and hours of playing flute until my left hand was so sore I had to put on a weightlifting glove, I am pleased to report that I am pleased with the outcome!

The great musician and producer Quincy Jones once allegedly remarked that you never finish a song, you just finally abandon it. I think what Q meant was that you can work on recording a song forever (and, ahem, some would argue that that describes me!) because you continually hear new possibilities...but if you want folks to hear your idea, you have to pick a suitable place to call it a wrap.

So here's the good news: aside from some of the usual housekeeping and mixing (which will still require another couple of days' worth of work), this track is a wrap.

But wait, that's not all! This song (being the first song I wrote for this disc, and the title cut, no less—the song the disc is named for) has been holding me up for some time. We were very fortunate in 2008 to win the 2008 Future Of Jazz competition (Nu-Jazz) and perform at the 2008 Atlanta Jazz Festival...as it happened, however, those things transpired so fast for us (we had a grand total of ONE rehearsal before the Future Of Jazz competition, and about one more before the festival) that I didn't even have a disc yet!

So I have been hammering away at since then, and this one tune has presented the greatest challenge in terms of presenting a performance on flute that I would be comfortable with preserving forever. That's why I finally declared war on it last weekend. And now that it has been conquered (or at least subdued!), the rest of the disc will be a relative breeze to finish. I suspect it will be done within the month. So look out, Caribbean Jazz festivals...here we come!

(Oh, yes, and the obvious...stand by for Guiro! to be posted on this site and/or MySpace in the next week or so...my friends on the email list will be able to hear it first!)