DAVID LOEB has been music director/conductor for Ben Vereen, lead keyboard/assistant conductor for the musical Beauty and the Beast at the Shubert Theater in Los Angeles, and is principal pianist with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. He is a great pianist, and an absolutely "brilliant" accompanist.

JOHN RICHARDS is an outstanding music scoring mixer. He has recorded a number of Academy Award nominated motion picture scores. His is in demand both in Hollywood and in his native England. He is a longtime friend who provides great expertise and warmth to any recording situation.

About The Recording

In preparing to record this CD, both John Richards and I agreed that we wanted to create a "performance" CD. As with my other albums, we wanted excellence in recording, but not to do and redo each measure or section looking for "perfection" until there was no spirit of the excitement of performing left that we were trying to capture. To this end, we did replace some small bits to get rid of those "oops" things, but generally these small fixes were done to the first or second complete take. I mail David the accompaniment parts a few weeks ahead of the recording session, rehearse for about 15 minutes or so, and then record the piece. After maybe a few fixes, we move on. In both the Classics Lite CD and Classics Lite Volume 2, we recorded 10 tracks the first day (a day is two 3-hour sessions with a break between).

About The Music

The selections represent more of my favorite light classics. Most of these I had never performed or recorded before, but were pieces that I have known my entire musical life. Finally, this was a chance to practice, arrange and present a polished performance of this music.

I hadn't performed HORA STACCATO since the early days. BEAU SOIR is a beautiful art song by Debussy that I discovered during graduate school at UCLA some 45 years ago. CUMANA has been with me since the beginning. CAPRICE VIENNOIS is another first timer for this CD. I have used THE GALLOPING COMEDIANS as an "opener" in nightclubs and other shows for years, but I have extended it a bit for this recording. I hadn't performed CSARDAS, an old favorite, since I was 16. I originaly played it in another key, but rearranged it here and changed the key to better fit the instrument (hopefully, I arrange music a bit better now than when I was 16). LA PLUS QUE LENTE is another Debussy piece that I had played for years, and finally brought it to performance level fo this project. RONDETTE was written for the harmonica and piano by Eric Spear in 1956, and published by the harmonica manufacturere M. Hohner Inc. It's virtually unknown in the harmonica world. Years ago Hohner sent me a large number of pieces written for harmonica, including Rondette. PRELUDE IN C WITH AVE MARIA is the "other" Ave Maria. I have recorded this before with harpist Gayle Levant for Windom Hill's Bach Sampler CD.

MARCH ALLA TURCA is the third movement of the Piano Sonata in A Major (K.331) by Mozart. I have always wanted to play this, and finally...ESPANA CANI is another piece I hadn't performed since the early days. It's a wonderful Paso Doble. The THREE GYMNOPEDIE are examples of Erik Satie at his best. Here I perform GYMNOPEDIE 3. I recorded Gymnopedie 1 for the Classics Lite CD. Gymnopedie 2?-maybe someday.

I wrote THE GALLOP early in my career, and performed it as a guest on The Lawrence Welk Television Show. I wrote REFLECTIONS AT THE END OF THE DAY some 40 years later (October of 2003) at the summer home (retreat) that Lois and I have in the high country in Arizona. SABRE DANCE is another first timer that I have liked for years. The MINUTE WALTZ was a piece I had played around with for years. I wasn't sure that we could get it on the CD, but everything fell into place and we succeeded. SERENADE was written in 1953 by the classical harmonica player Tommy Reilly. I have included this wonderful solo piece as a tribute to this great player.

DANCE OF THE COMEDIANS probably started this whole Volume 2 "thing". Last year I played a tape of this piece that I had performed during an appearance that I made on the Betty White Daytime Television Show in 1953 (when we were both a lot younger!) I hadn't performed this piece since that day. As I listened, I was surprised at how fast I had played it. I wondered, "could I do it that fast now?" This is one of the hardest pieces to play "at speed" on the harmonica. Thus began an eight month period to rebuild the "top end speed" that I used to have and to arrange the accompaniments for all of these pieces that I have "known" for all of these years, but had never before brought to performance level.