My Favorite Things

Once again, it was Cookie Jacobs who turned me on to Johnny Smith back in the 70s. I had sort of known about Smith because of his hit Moonlight in Vermont. Johnny’s chordal thinking was/is second to none and his breathtakingly clean chops are awe-inspiring. I’ve played this arrangement countless times in a variety of settings, so it was the easiest of the twelve songs to record. What I truly admire about Johnny is that, after the terrible death of his wife and second child in 1957, he quit touring to raise his daughter. Luckily, he was brilliant enough to earn recording contracts without even having to tour; therefor we are left with hours of his magnificent fretwork to forever enjoy. There’s another GREAT bass solo by Baba Elefante and some terrific drum breaks by Ronnie Ciago.

Technical notes: I’m playing a 1963 Gibson ES335 through two amps (Marshall JTM 45 and a Vox Berkeley Super Reverb Twin). There’s a Sennheiser E906 on the Marshall and an AKG 414 on the Vox. Preamp was a Toft EC1 and a Universal Audio LA-2A compressor was used.