Time After Time

-Time After Time.mp3

 Renditions of "Time after Time" are sprinkled over much of Chet's discography.  More than likely though it shows up in listeners' record collections as one of the songs on "Chet Sings" or "The Best of Chet Baker Sings."  Ubiquitous as it is, this song is a perfect vehicle for his natural ability to translate feeling into sound.

I recently ran across a mellifluously stoned out version--1964 in Belgium-- replete with shots of his missing tooth..front no less.  Imagine a trumpet player missing a front tooth right where the mouthpiece nests.  Amazing that he played the way he did.


Anyway, here is my not-so-stoned out version of the 1947 tune with lyrics by Sammy Cahn and music by Jule Styne.  Baby steps.  Newborn steps.  Hell, in utero-steps.


Still can't seem to sing on pitch with any consistency.  And the range, my range, continues to be at large. Someday I will spend the time and attention it deserves.  I'll take lessons or stop drinking milk or get my deviated septum re-broken and mended straight.  Who knows.


The recording was spread out over a week or so, mostly owing to my new-found commitment to research, reading and study of literacy and reading and writing and whatnot.  Getting back in the game is what i'm calling it. Rather, responding to a perception of a need for a more proactive stance in relation to rejoining the great march toward accumulation of wealth, or as in my case, to stop the bleeding.

The Song is You

Thumbs up for victory!

- The Song Is You.mp3
You know how when you get a new toy and all you want to do is play with it?
Cool feeling isn't it?

Well this post has nothing to do with that. Sorry.
In fact, this post has more to do with old toys...the kind you've had for a long time, the ones that you clutched to your chest when first they were new.

Reaper. My beloved music editor. My wicked good taskmaster. my music technology mutha-fletcher.

I've been away. Reaper didn't come with me.

I was building things...with tools that i held in my hands, saws and drills, clamps and hammers, not virtual tools, no VSTI's. Although come to think of it, it might come in handy to have a virtual hammer; I'd much rather have clobbered my finger with a virtual hammer than the 22-ounce number i did do it with.

Anyway, i dove back in today, back into the glossy pages of computer music recording. it was no end of fun for me. and although i'm not sure if Reaper missed me as much as i, it, we did shake hands and come out fighting for the lion's share of this mid-january wednesday.

The tune that happened to be on the top of my music is the one i chose to break my fast: a Jerome Kern classic called "The Song is You." It's a good thing i chose this particular tune because it's level of complexity, while belying the amount of tweaking it took to round up and capture, was comparatively low. i still struggled.

patience and perseverance was the order of the day. the methodical plodding offered weird comfort. although not exactly enjoyable, it was at least familiar. Moving from roadblock to stupefying barriers, virtual rampart to real frustrations, i lumbered through these like a drunken giant returning from his nightly pillage. it was inexorable. i burned through an entire day.

but in the end, i got it down. Quality? Questionable.

but in the end, i got it down.