David Howard and pianist Steven Mitchell
The CD David Howard and I called I’ll Be Seeing You began as our other collaborations on recording had: we chose the “tunes.” With David, the “tunes” came first. He mostly chose certain melodies because they reminded him of a time in his life, of a person, of a dancer. Where he was, when, and with whom. So every tune meant something to him.
As we combed through recordings in David’s vast collection, he reminisced of his favorite singers: Judy Garland, Caterina Valente, Julie Andrews (whom he attended school with – a reminiscence he gladly shared), Judy Garland, Vera Lynn, and, his favorite, Yma Sumac.
We settled on a list of 30 tunes and timed each to accompany the barre and center practice exercises.
Some I didn’t know (“Lady of Spain”, “Sidewalks of New York”, “We’ll Meet Again”) and some were hot in my hands (“Brotherhood of Man”, “Song of India”, “Secret Love”, and “I’ll Be Seeing You”).
The CD encompasses a wide variety of rhythms, tempos, characters and time signatures. David hinted that this project might be his “farewell”, and we both poured all of our artistry into the recording. I am proud of our work and warmed by the memory of the many times that David would call me to speak of the album and say “Steven, this is our best one.”
