Lola Danza: Life of Luxury

C. Michael Bailey

Senior Contributor since 1997

...wants to know if Gene Harris is playing "Summertime" in Heaven...

Recent articles (1,693 total)

Published: September 26, 2012

LD: This project is very different from the rest as we are using the recording studio as an actual instrument. This is something that I've been thinking of doing for years, and I was lucky enough to meet James and get to collaborate with him. It is an interesting way to work because I'm not working with a live band—and we're not even using real musical instruments, for the most part. We're using sampled sounds—and manipulating them and organizing them into a composition and then adding vocals, some guitar and bass. James is the real mastermind behind the programming—he's a very creative and inventive guy—and I've learned a lot from him during this process, as he is also a music engineer. But yes—it's a totally different way of working. And it's really great to approach music in a whole new and fresh way.

Usually I write tunes—bring a band into the studio—we record, mix and master and then I have a record. This was just me and James— playing with sounds. He also played bass on a couple of tracks. After we laid down the vocals, we knew something was missing and so that's when I called Fung Chern Hwei and asked him to write the string arrangements. He did a beautiful job and, because of the magic of the studio, he played all the string parts: violin, viola and cello. And on some tunes it sounds like an orchestra, which was a dream come true for me. As an artist I am always looking forward and this project is part of that forward motion.

Selected Discography

Lola Danza, The Island (Evolver, 2012)
Janya, Janya (Evolver, 2011)
Lola Danza, Live Free (Evolver, 2009)
Lola Danza, Vision Quest (Evolver, 2005)
Lola Danza, Rebirth (Evolver, 2002)
Lola Danza, Within the Path (Evolver, 2001)