Greg Lyons Nonet new album!!!!

Oh wow, man..

I just got back from a 3-day studio recording session at Synchrosound Studios with my sifu Greg Lyons. We've just finished recording eight tracks of Greg's tunes for his latest album. Seven of those tracks involves the Greg Lyons Nonet... with Greg on tenor, alto and soprano saxophones, and an additional five horns: trombone, trumpet, flugelhorn, bass clarinet and baritone sax (played by my friend Chee Meng), and myself on alto sax and flute. Only one out of eight tunes involve just the Quartet (with Lewis Pragasam on drums, Andy Petersen on electric bass and electric double bass, and my good buddy Justin Lim on piano and keyboards).

It was quite an awesome experience, because it involves ALL of us recording simultaneously in the studio.. a live recording! Unlike pop/rock albums where you can overdub, do "cut-and-paste", or track-by-track recordings, a jazz album is usually done LIVE on the spot! And just imagine: We're recording with Greg coordinating not just with his usual rhythm section (piano, bass, and drums), but also with the rest of the horn section! It's quite a large band to coordinate! And not to mention that a bunch of Greg's horn arrangements are quite challenging... from 5-beat meters to 7-beat meters! So while most of your usual music count in four... we had to accustom ourselves to count in FIVE and SEVEN! Try dancing to THAT! Ahaahaha...

But anyway, we manage to record the 7 tracks for the Nonet within the last two days! The average pop/rock album takes WEEKS.. not TWO days.

Not only that, we've got the best producer/sound mixer in the country: none other than the brilliant Roslan Aziz (the guy who brought you the successful Konsert Ikhlas back in the 90s, and also famous albums by Zainal Abidin, Sheila Majid, and of late, Atilia and ALI - his own group). Even after recording all the songs, the basic sound of the recording was already awesome! Imagine if it it further mixed and mastered! Wow, I can't wait for this album to come out.

And I'm so honored to be even a part of it (even though I made SOOOOOOOO many mistakes in some of the songs!). I got to be part of an actual production of a real jazz album!

Thanks Greg! Now I really, REALLY feel honored being part of it (even though you might not use some of my parts.. hahahha!).

Expect a kick-butt album in the next couple of months!!

And also kick-butt shows to go with it!!