In the midst of what we hope is the last winter blizzard in Toronto Jackie Richardson and I made our way up to The Drive Shed studio's to cut the duet version of our title track "New York Story". John Beetle Bailey and his trusty side kick Taylor having raised the already recorded band track into a suitable key for us… and Jackie and I already having rehearsed and performed the song live at our annual Jazz Valentine concert at Hugh's Room last month..so of course the recording session itself was a breeze, and the lady could not have sounded better. Our romantic vibe together is so delicious, what an amazing feeling to hear this song come to such beautiful life.
Our fearless engineer John Beetle Bailey and Jackie Richardson
"New York Story" the song itself burst into life last fall 2013 while my honey and I were spending time at the New York apartment, for what seemed the first time there was space for us to take in the city and feel the romance of living in New York. Inspired by Jazz standards and the likes of Carmen McCrea and Tony Bennett I started to feel that there was an emotionally true story to tell about my experience of romance both in the city and WITH the city.
At first the lyrics were just little snippets but the melody already felt lush and romantic in the tunes infancy. In fact it was based on the bones of another song, (which happens a lot when I am preparing material for an album) "The Rules Of Romance" which served the title song from the solo show I had toured in order to try out the new collection of original and cover songs on audiences across Canada. (FYI Winnipeg loved "My Used To Be", Halifax liked "After The Romance The Rent"!)
Sketching the new snippets of the song in our Harlem apt (on the electric keyboard I had driven down from Canada) and finishing up the first draft of the lyrics in a nearby coffee shop up on Sugar Hill, I was able to bring the song into enough shape to present it to my trio (Daniel Barnes and Russ Boswell) in time for our Month Of Sundays Dec 2013 at The Jazz Bistro.
The Micah Barnes Trio, Micah, Russ and Dan, backstage at The Jazz Bistro
During that month the tune kept eluding myself and the trio, tempo, key, chords and melodies shifting subtly until the fully realized version began to emerge. But the words still had some glaring holes in the lyric and so after our month was done I began the hard sweat part of writing, zeroing in making sure every single word fell in just the right way melodically and that the sense and meaning of every moment in the song was perfectly clear.
The listeners will be the judge but by the time Jackie and I were rehearsing the tune for our Jazz Valentine it felt like the lyric and melody had in fact landed. What a relief.. and with guest pianist Michael Shand on deck for both that show and the recording session the whole arrangement started to make sense to our ears; the first chapter in our romantic adventure with New York City!
The solo version will be available for download from itunes April 13th! Single release show at The Jazz Bistro Sunday April 13th at 12.30 pm and 7 pm! Single Release Show Details!
