When I was a child, Ella Fitzgerald sang me to sleep. My father would be listening to her—or to any number of the jazz greats—on his stereo in the other room, and I would cozily drift off to dreamland nestled in the arms of the Great American Songbook. During the day, I would regale friends and family with my own renditions of these tunes, most notably re-dubbing Cole Porter’s classic “I Love Paris” as my young ears heard it: “I Love Carrots.”
So it’s perhaps not surprising, now that I’m a grown-up who (usually) sings the correct Cole Porter lyrics, that I would return to these musical roots when creating my own album. I wanted to shape my record in the sonic tradition of radiant singers like Ella, whose timeless, sophisticated music still feels as relevant and fresh as ever.
But no one was going to do it for me. It’s no secret that the music industry’s economic paradigm has shifted drastically within the past decade and record deals with labels are now as scarce as cassette tapes. (Remember those?) As a result, all of the production elements—financing, musician contracting, engineer/studio appraisal and booking, song licensing, scheduling, promotional
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