STEVE KHAN infos

de Bel7 · 19 décembre 2018

STEVE KHAN

2022

JUST PUBLISHED!!! Honestly, I never imagined that I would have done another book, and this one was something that I never would have thought of. So, when this past August 31st, 2021 brought with it an e-mail from vaunted music publisher Chuck Sher asking me if I would want to be a part of the 2nd Series of JAZZ SONGBOOKS, when the 1st Series had included friends and artist/composers such as: Ralph Towner, Steve Swallow, Carla Bley, Oscar Hernández, and the great Horace Silver, this was an offer that I had to consider seriously. I was told that the “book” would be digital only, and that the next series was to include Randy Brecker and Benny Golson. Upon hearing that, I was ready to explore with Chuck exactly what I had to do to see it through to completion.

https://www.shermusic.com/0921695969100.php

I was told that each book would offer the lead sheets for 20 tunes, all of the artist’s choosing. When Chuck did not balk at the fact that my lead sheets were all done by hand and had never been entered into a computer music writing program like Finale or Sibelius, that was another huge positive. Now the question became what approach would I take with choosing compositions that span some 45 years of recorded work? I decided to try and assemble a list of tunes that could possibly represent all of the various albums, as best as I could. In the end, I came pretty close, and this book presents music from “TIGHTROPE”(1977) all the way through to “PATCHWORK”(2019). Once I had done the selection process, I had to group each tune, number of pages depending, into its own pdf so that Chuck would not have to fish around to assemble a book. Then, via a Word doc, I made up a sample Table of Contents with all of the pertinent information about each tune – not knowing whether or not it would get used.

The last possible sticking point to really having a ‘deal’ cemented was the cover. As everyone knows, my albums have had a very particular look, and the fans of that music are used to seeing the images of Jean-Michel Folon or Michel Granger. My prior books had a pretty artistic look as well. But the publishers of Jazz educational books, especially when those books represent a series, as the Jazz record labels have always done, they go by the guiding principle, even if not expressed as such, “A familiar look with familiar names breeds familiar sales!” It’s as simple as that, and, for better or for worse, the artists all must conform to the “look” that is assigned to them or the series. Any true sense of individuality usually goes out the window. So, what does one do? How could I fight for what I believed was best for me while still trying to respect what Chuck was trying to do? After all, in the end, it is Chuck who is doing me the favor – hardly the other way around.

I looked at all of the covers for the 1st Series, and I decided to make a test design using similar ideas, but trying to do something that would make me feel proud of the look of my particular book. By some miracle of civility and the spirit of working together to achieve a common goal, Chuck liked what I had sent him, and gave his approval to use the cover that I had created. However, that wasn’t good enough for me, I sent it off to my graphic designer of choice, Janet Perr, and she took what I had done and made it look far more professional. The look is a parody of a small portion of one of my favorite Adolph Gottlieb paintings.

The book can be obtained from directly from Sher Music Co., so take a look and, if it’s for you? You will know what to do! I hope that some of you will enjoy having it.

P.S. My all-time favorite Chuck Sher book is his “THE LATIN REAL BOOK”!

Peut être une image de texte qui dit ’THE STEVE KHAN SONGBOOK SHER MUSIC Co. Co’

Chico Huff, Mark Peterson et 490 autres personnes

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This morning, once again, in the early morning hours, I received a most surprising message from Mike Ricci @ AllAboutJazz.com informing me that senior writer, the great John Kelman had selected my reissue: “PUBLIC ACCESS”-“HEADLINE”-“CROSSINGS” as one of his BEST RELEASES OF THE YEAR 2018!!! Needless to say, it’s very rare when a “reissue” makes such a list. Still, it makes me feel happy and very proud of what we were able to do in getting Universal Music(Japan/USA) to coordinate a reissue with BGO Records(UK). As the 3 recordings involved span so many years, believe me, this was no small task. So, in this moment, as we bring 2018 to a merciful close, I would love to publicly thank all those involved for their immense efforts in helping me to put it all together!!!

Firstly, the great musicians who comprised this group and its music: Anthony Jackson and Manolo Badrena with Dave Weckl appearing on “PUBLIC ACCESS”(1989), and Dennis Chambers appearing on both “HEADLINE”(1992) and “CROSSINGS”(1994). And of course, the always greatly missed Michael Brecker who appeared on 3 memorable tunes on “CROSSINGS.”

To the great recording engineers for their spectacular work on these albums: Malcolm Pollack “PUBLIC ACCESS”; Doug Epstein & Malcolm Pollack “HEADLINE”; and James Farber “CROSSINGS”

To the labels involved: BGO Records (Andy Gray & Mike Gott); Universal Music (Yoshihisa Saito & Hiroshi Itsuno); GRP Records (Dave Grusin & Larry Rosen); Verve Records (Nate Herr); Mesa/Bluemoon Records (Jim Snowden & George Nauful).

For the cover art on these albums: Ned Shaw (“PUBLIC ACCESS”) and always and forever, Jean-Michel Folon (“HEADLINE” and “CROSSINGS”). For his wonderful liner notes for the reissue package, Bill Milkowski.

On the reissue, the cover art is again by Jean-Michel Folon with the wonderful design of Janet Perr. The images seen here are of some special “poster” designs that Janet did, even though we knew that they would not really be seen by many people nor used. This is the first time that I’m sharing them here.

Once again, to everyone who visits this page and beyond, here’s wishing you all a warm and wonderful Holiday Season, and the best of everything during the coming year of 2019!

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=565313