Jazz critic Ben Ratliff gave my new CD, The Art of the Soprano, Vol. 1, a great review in today's New York Times, Arts & Leisure section.
It was nice that he was able to trace the arc of growth between the three solo CDs: Monk Abstractions (2007), Blue Soliloquy (2010) and The Art of the Soprano, Vol. 1 (2012). And let me just say that this is one of the benefits of being a do-it-yourself artist. No label will just sit back and patiently let you work out your thing, over the course of five years, while you make three solo soprano saxophone recordings. And understandably so. Art and commerce don't mix. Sort of like oil and water.
What's really interesting, is that I almost didn't release it. Like with most recordings, after I made this one, I went through Post-Recording-Depression (PRD). This is where after you record it, you think, "Wow, this is a great CD!" Then three-months later, you're wondering how you could have allowed such a tragedy to take place. You start to focus on that one note that was out of tune, that one phrase played slightly out of time, that extra chorus of rambling, that second take, which may have been the better of the two, and the list goes on and on.
At one point I even told myself--as I tried to rationalize why I should just go ahead and release it--that if it does get trashed, I'll just try to learn from my mistakes and do a better job the next time. When I sent it to Disc Makers, I literally closed my eyes as I dropped it in the mailbox.
I'm glad I didn't listen to Mr. Voice of Doubt. Once again, he would have led me down the wrong path.
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