Under the NEWS Update “It’s Here”, I described Reminiscence as a labor of love, which is a very appropriate phrase for what this CD was to me. Being a completely new and independent artist, a lot of work went into the making of this album (needless to say, much more work than I thought from the get-go). Having to wear the hat of both producer and engineer in addition to performer made this debut CD take much longer than expected, but in the end, it was a tremendous learning experience for me. This is the Chronicles of Reminiscence:

I wrote and recorded “Reminiscence” when I was 18. This was the first song that I brought to the project, and what would later become the title track to the album. “Reminiscence” has a basic yet haunting background and melody to it. It was a tune that I had been hearing in my head and playing around with for a while. When I finally got it into the studio, it just developed from there. Shortly after I brought to the studio the mid-tempo song “Rock The Boat”. I gave this song a very simple melody, one that is easily remembered…which is never a bad thing to have in a song. These two songs turned into the starting point for the album. For these tracks I did all of the keyboards and drum programming in addition to my sax stuff. This being my first time in a real studio, I took the time to learn how to operate the studio equipment and program.

Around a year later I teamed up with Syracuse musician Andy Rudy to record a couple songs I had written. I had Andy helping out with some keyboards and drum programming. The first song I brought to his home studio was “Magic In The Air”, a laid-back slow jam with a relaxing theme. Once the recording of that track was wrapped up Andy and I were messing around with him on keyboard strings and me on sax, playing around the chords used in the “Magic In The Air”. Before we knew it, we had something worthy of being recorded – an ethereal, wispy sound that some-what foreshadowed the song we had just completed, thus giving us “Prelude to Magic”. The last track we recorded was “In Good Company”, a light-hearted song with an easy-going feel.

The next track recorded for this album was “Hopes & Dreams”, a song that was co-written with bass player and long time friend Max McKee. We first wrote this song when we were about 16 years old in high school and decided to bring it back for this CD. It has a very slow jam R&B feel. We wanted to relate the title of the song to us somehow. So with the song’s uplifting moments and us being at an age where we had MANY “hopes & dreams” of our own, that seemed to fit. Max and I have created so much music growing up together, I’m glad I was able to get him into the studio to make at least one of our songs a part of this CD.

Late in the summer of 2005, I had the privilege of meeting and befriending several great musicians in the Central New York area, Darneal Jackson, Bernie Reid, and Hiram Swain. When it was time for me to wrap up my solo album, I couldn’t think of anything better than to get these guys in the studio to bring their energy to my material. With Jackson on drums, Reid on bass, and Swain on keys, I was excited to add a live band sound to the CD. The first song produced, at the time, didn’t have a title yet. We were recording on a nice hot summer day in Rochester; the song had a smooth Latin flow to it. When the recording was done, the track was given its title by everyone in the studio that day, coming up with “Cool Breeze”. A track that went into a recording session without a name, came out as one of my favorite songs on the album. After that we recorded “Sound Check”, a cool, flirty song with an urban vibe. The last song we recorded was “Groove Town”, a funky mid-tempo song with a jam at the end worthy of its own track entitled “Groove Town (Reprise)”. For both tracks we invited another exceptional CNY musician, Brother Wilson, to add some extra flavor with his guitar. Since meeting in ‘05, we are always playing together, doing some jazz gigs here and there, and playing lots of Gospel and R&B in between. Whenever we aren’t gigging, we are hanging out, listening to music, watching live concert DVD’s, constantly introducing each other to new stuff. I’ve been inspired just being around this talented group of guys.

Now that I’ve given some insight as to how some of the tracks on the album came to be, what do you think about when you hear these songs? Where do they take you? You can hit me up at evan@evanknight.com. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Hope you all enjoy the album. Peace.

- EK