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Q: So, how did this latest group come about?

A: Well, I thought about getting this group together for a while, and once I did, I booked a tour to see if a band like this would work, with Marc and Joey and Drew (Gress on bass) because we had all played together pretty much in different bands over the years. So, I got this tour together and we were coming to Switzerland to play and (ECM founder and producer) Manfred Eicher happened to be in the audience that night. It was in Lugano. And immediately after the concert he came backstage and said, ‘We really have to record this group.’ It was in the back of mind anyway, you know, and I know Marc had always dreamed of recording for ECM, just to get in on the experience of what it’s like to get a really great piano sound on a recording for the first time in his life. So, it all kind of worked out — it was in my mind to make a recording, Manfred got things rolling when he heard us play and a year later we made the recording. So, the idea came from me and it also came from him. It was kind of a co-operative thing once Manfred made the approach. Everybody in the band was good with the idea to record the album as soon as we could arrange it.

Q: So, how far along in the tour where you when this happened, and how did the music change between then and when you made the recording a year later?

A: I actually can’t remember exactly where we were in the tour. I think it was early on. Manfred was there because there is a studio there that he likes to use. He was in town to record Carla Bley and Steve Swallow, and so he ended up in the audience. And also, Craig Taborn opened for us, he was playing just before us, and he was someone Manfred was interested in as well. So, a lot of things came together. It was a multi-purpose concert, a real ECM evening — Craig ended up recording for ECM and my band ended up doing the same. It couldn’t have been better. So yeah, to answer your question, the music evolved quite a bit between then and our recording. It always does when you tour and play together in stretches like that. But, you know, even so, when you get into the studio, there is yet another vibe that happens. You tend not to play as much, as many notes, you don’t stretch out quite as much, just because of the confines of a studio. Your only audience are the other musicians and whoever is in the recording booth — Manfred as the producer in this case. It’s not like you are playing to an audience sitting in chairs listening carefully to you. So you play a little differently. You finish a tune and there is no applause, nothing coming back at you except what Manfred might say — you know, something like, ‘That was good, you should come in here and listen to that,’ or ‘That was too fast or too busy, can we try again?’ That’s his job, to hear what we don’t hear. He’s really the fifth member of the band.