Well, there’s me, me and me. I see it as
an ongoing thing, particularly now having done this one. I can now see more
possibilities, and I’ve only just scratched
the surface. It’s also going to be a lot
easier now—it got so much easier as we
went along. I like to use the studio as a
tool, not go in there and pretend it’s like
a live performance.
Guitars:
Mike Vanden Martin Taylor Artistry
Mike Vanden Martin Taylor Gypsy
Martin 000-45
Amps:
AER Compact 60
martintaylor.com
That’s interesting for a jazz guitar play-
er to say because usually it’s treated as
a live performance.
Was any of it written out after the fact?
Well, I don’t really read music. I can read
music, I just prefer not to read music. I can,
I just don’t do it very well. So to stay out of
trouble, I tell people that I don’t.
It’s unique, I think. I like that too, but I
would sooner just do a gig and have that
recorded rather than go into the studio
and pretend you’re doing something live.
On “Drop Me Off in Harlem,” the harmo-
nies reminded me of Tony Mottola.
I haven’t heard any of those, actually. On
that song I did a lot of improvising and
listened back a little at a time, to see
what I could then do with the second guitar. It was just another way of doing the
arrangement, really. I’d like to do more
like that, because I discovered that way
later on in the sessions.
What about the Spirit of Django, will you
be doing anything else with them?
We haven’t done anything for a while. The
problem is, our accordion player retired
and he doesn’t like to travel much. We do
get asked to do summer festivals and we
did one this past summer.
Cradling the Vanden
