Pop jazz

10 MP3 Songs
POP: Folky Pop, JAZZ: Smooth Jazz

Show all album songs: Archived Sessions Songs


Details:
Raun MacKinnon
Archived Sessions

In 1976, in New York City, I and my husband, Jerry Burnham, performed in and around the city, mostly in small clubs, restaurants, bars and the occasional college concert. I had achieved a certain amount of local recognition but as a live stage performer only. I had published recordings in 1963 and 1968 with small labels and nothing that hit. In 1976, I had the good fortune to meet and then be sponsored by John Hammond Sr. to record a full album, which he then tried to place with a label without success. John Hammond passed away in 1987, but shortly before his death, he generously released the masters of that recording project back to me and Jerry.

The masters resided in our living room closet in New York, and then they got transferred with us when we moved in 1988 to Los Angeles. There they lived in Jerry's clothing closet for a few more years and then in the basement of the house where we still live.

Seven or eight years ago, we received an odd little packet from our friend, Gus Skinas, that turned out to be a CD copy of the John Hammond masters with a note handwritten on the disk that said "play me." Through the years, Jerry and Gus would sometimes meet up, usually at trade shows, and during one of those meetings (I may have been there, but I don't remember) Jerry promised he would send to Gus in Colorado the two-track master (for the matrix that never happened) of the Hammond project to see if Gus could do a digital conversion of it and make a CD of it. Gus performed numerous acts of alchemy, including slow-baking the masters, so that he could get the recordings off of this old, magnetic tape that had been in Los Angeles with its acid air for about 10 years, not to mention its prior life in New York City where the air was not much better. The odd little packet he sent us was the results, and it is just amazing to me what he was able to accomplish.

We received a second little packet from Gus some months later with another CD that said "_please_ play me." This one included mixes from one set of demos and one vanity set that we recorded subsequent to the Hammond project (and that I had forgotten about). The Archived Sessions collection presented here contains one additional song from the vanity project and two from the demos set. They, too, have stood up quite well to the test of time, probably way better than I have. I am extremely grateful to Gus (and to Jerry who kept prodding me to complete this project and publish the recordings). Their combined efforts made it possible to have a product to offer.

The playlist is:

Precious Time
Easy Love
Adeline
Train to Nowhere
Lucky Stars
It's Gonna Winter Again
Bull
We Got Each Other
Think I'm Gonna Leave You
Gig, Honeys

Here is what I hope is a complete list of everyone who performed on these recordings. Some of these folks are no longer with us, so I dedicate this album to their memories and hope somehow they know I still love and appreciate their wonderful talent.

Raun MacKinnon - Vocals, Piano, Acoustic Guitar, String Synth
Jeremiah Burnham - Vocals, Bass, Flute
Andy Polon - Acoustic and Electric Guitars
Lance Quinn - Electric Guitars
Ralph Schuckett - Keyboards
Jerry Marotta - Drums
Luther Rix - Drums
Marshal Rosenberg - Latin Percussion, Percussion
Larry Packer - Violin
Richard Grando - Saxophones
Curtis Fields - Saxophone
David Buskin - Vocals
Elizabeth Corrigan - Vocals
Sue Halloran - Vocals

Secret Sound Studio, NYC
Gus Skinas - Engineering, Mixing, Magician and Master Chef
Jack Malkin - Studio Owner, Engineering, Mixing
Gene Chamlin - Studio Manager and All-Around Good Guy

This was all done 30 years ago, so if I have forgotten someone or really screwed up a fact, please let me know through CD Baby.
Thank You

-- Raun MacKinnon Burnham