Recordings at Persona Digital Studio

Several motivations combine in an interest to arrange and record popular songs of the past 60 years.
Bands often emerge with a repertoire of cover tunes that most audiences know and enjoy. Sometimes a new arrangement renews a songs appeal or changes its appeal so that its popularity moves toward a new group of listeners. Several of the songs we have recorded have been reproduced many times in recordings by many groups. John Denver's Annie's Song, for example has been recorded a 100 times by different groups.

I have treated the songs we have recorded as classics that exemplify an aspect of popular music and Jazz that began to emerge in the 1950s. Many of musicians that became popular in the 60s and 70s have been resurrected to play concerts for the "baby boomers' who feel strongly about popular songs they heard as teenagers and young adults. We all have grey hair and have more wrinkles, but musical enjoyment is ageless.

Every good arranger wants to add a personal touch to a well established piece of music. Classical musicians often spend their entire career reproducing old tunes and often take pride in faithful reproductions rather than novel arrangements and improvisation. Jazz players take pride in improvisations on the base of old tunes, leaving little but the melody and chord changes. There has  been a remarkable proliferation of musical styles, partly because of "crossovers" that merged blues, country music, rock, and jazz. Latin American, African and Caribbean  music merged, especially rhythmically with American and European music. The idea of popular music grew to include this variety of native and ethnic sounds. I have been interested in these eclectic styles and explore them in my arrangements.

My goal is not the faithful reproduction of the originals but the creation of new arrangements with new instruments that become interesting in their own right.

Here are links to Persona descriptions of the groups who created tunes we recorded: