March 2011 in Melbourne, Australia while on long walks thru the quaint neighborhood called Saint Kilda I wrote a collection of songs which I am currently in the process of recording. Strolling around the St. Kilda cemetery and down Chapel Street these songs appeared along with the idea for a Big Band sound. On my previous albums I have had smaller jazz ensembles and they have prepared me for this ambitious creative challenge. Upon returning to America I teamed up with arranger Chris Fulford-Brown, a talented young musician eager for the task at hand. We talked for countless hours about how to create a collection of new original Big Band songs on a shoe string budget. As an independent artist wthout the support of a record or publishing company or representation the thought of putting this together seemed like a pipe dream. At breakfast one morning at The Mission Cafe my Songwriter friend Tom Brosseau told me about an on-line fundraising web site called Kickstarter. This was the first time in my life I ever asked my trusty cult following for their support. I made a short video explaining what I was up too and went to work fund raising thru the Summer.

Late Summer after the campaign was successful me and my trio went on tour to Holland and Belgium (our third tour there), during that time Chris was busy working on the arrangements and a studio date was set for December 8th. My friend Peter Dyson owns the world class Studio West just north of San Diego generously handed me the keys to the studio during the creation the album. From the mere thought while sitting on park bench in Australia to recording my new songs back in San Diego with The Brad Steinwehe Jazz Orchestra it's dream come true. From noon the 4pm on December 8th went by in heartbeat and was skillfully annotated by the confident young engineer Kellogg Boynton. The session was captured by the gifted photographer Masen Larsen and filmed by the talented filmmaker Jeff Wiant. This is a work in progress and the final chapter is the mixing and mastering of the album which I am now calling "Shine, Shine, Shine". There is one specail suprise guest performace left to recrord.

Here are two links:

The Fundraising Film

The Photo Gallery Of The Session