LIVE AT THE METROPOLITAN ROOM

with Sheldon Forrest, piano

 

SUFFER

Suffer came about because someone on Twitter told me I’d like Maurice Tani’s songs, and I did like them. Then the pandemic came, and the city went silent. Possibly it was the weird hush – NYC is not meant to be quiet – that made me need new music. Something different, to break up the monotony. And I wanted musical comfort food. Maurice’s songs come from California, but remind me of Kansas and the music I grew up with there. So I found him on Facebook, where he accepted my friend request and went so far as to suggest Suffer. As I hummed the tunes and considered the lyrics, they made their way east, where my city put a put a stamp on them and settled them into a slice of Venn diagram where Jazz and Americana cohabit.

Thanks to Maurice for accepting my friend request, for listening to the drafts, and for being supernaturally generous. Thanks to the boys for their work, and the gods of Gmail and Logic for making it possible to create this record remotely, socially distanced and safe in our homes.

With Mike Rosengarten, guitar; Matt Cusack, bass, guitar, vocals; Mike Lunoe, percussion, production; Jonathan Russell, violin;
Nick Frenay, trumpet; Maurice Tani, Songs