More Great Jazz Songbooks!

About a year ago, Andy Narell reached out and asked if I was planning to release any more jazz songbooks. I hadn’t planned on it—but I love Andy’s music, so I said, “Sure, why not?”

That question sparked a whole new wave of releases, and you can see the results here!

One of the highlights of this process was receiving a package from Benny Golson’s publisher containing copies of his original lead sheets—yellowed and worn, just like the charts I used to play from when I first started making music over 50 years ago. It felt like Christmas in February. And Benny’s tunes have been a joy to play with my various musical comrades.

I also reached out to other fantastic composers who were equally enthusiastic about having their music preserved in this form:

• Enrico Pieranunzi

• Denny Zeitlin

• Randy Brecker

• Steve Khan

• Larry Dunlap

• Barry Finnerty

• Doug Morton

And I’m especially happy to release The Dave Tull Songbook. To my ears, Dave is both the most soulful and the funniest singer/songwriter in jazz today. Check out the sample songs on his webpage, and I bet you’ll agree!

A big thank you to Matt Heister for his graphics work on this project, and to Bob Afifi, my tireless webmaster, who made sure everything was seamlessly published and running behind the scenes.

I just turned 75, and you’d think I should be at Shady Acres contemplating the beauty of nature. But instead, these projects keep finding me—and I feel it’s my duty to help keep good music alive and thriving.

As I sometimes joke: Like Lot in the Bible, I believe the Good Lord is only letting this show go on because, at any given time, there are at least ten good tunes being played somewhere on the planet.

So let’s keep the music flowing!

—Chuck Sher