The story behind this album begins a long time ago. As a child, i often heard my mother singing along to records as she did the ironing. Musicals were popular in our household. I remember one in particular — ‘the lost horizon’ soundtrack by burt bacharach — that, although cheesy in places, still moves me.
Maybe i am really a frustrated singer without a decent voice and that is why i chose to play the alto saxophone. The cds i have released so far have been mainly instrumental with the saxophone taking the melody. When i write i always think of the melody first. Over a period i had accrued some tunes that i felt were songs rather than instrumentals, but never found the right person to sing them. I was always sure of one thing though — i would rather not record a song than record it without the voice that was close to the one i’d imagined. Otherwise it’s pointless. These tunes would haunt me now and then — nagging me, always there in the background. I was beginning to think that they would never be recorded. I had asked my friend Danny Maitland to write lyrics to a few of the melodies. He had recorded them for me, but it was a female voice i heard — higher pitched, like the alto sax, and with an exotic flavour.
I have for a while been interested in the music of latin america — the harmony, compulsive rhythms and beautiful melodies — so was a little excited when a friend told me of an argentinian singer called Ana who lived close by. I sent her a tape of ‘Picture of You’ with Dan singing a guide vocal track. She said she liked it and we agreed to meet.
I couldn’t believe my ears when i first heard her voice — I knew immediately that i had found the right person for my songs. We recorded the vocal in one take and it was obvious that Ana was a natural musician combining great maturity and passion, coupled with a professionalism that i respected. After that initial meeting we started to work on my other tunes and became friends.
A couple of months later i was on the phone to a brazilian friend who had just returned to London after being back home for a while and was eulogizing about this great singer i was working with. I played him some songs over the phone and he agreed the singer had a beautiful voice. When i told him the voice was Ana’s he didn’t believe it — they knew each other well but, in her humble way, she had never told him she sang, just that she played piano! I soon discovered that this shy, unknown 25-year old not only sang but also played piano, guitar and percussion to an extremely high level. She also composes her own music (‘La Seca’ — track 7) and has studied audio engineering in Buenos Aires.
It has been great fun working with Ana on this project. Her approach to music is very organic and natural, in contrast to my more academic (neurotic!) one. I have learned a lot from her and am glad to have had the opportunity to record with her at this early time in her career. arranged and composed by nick homes