by

Armand St. Martin and his Bayou Bohemians

Acknowledgements for the CD SIZZLIN'

by Armand St. Martin

"Be forewarned, this CD is a mood elevator of the first order!" - F.Y.I. Magazine, Bob Compton, CD review

This new CD "SIZZLIN'" benefited from a number of factors.

To begin with, we recorded the drums again with John Gillies of Studio 9 at his new place in Sun Valley, Ca. for Patty Lee Records. We had previously recorded our drums for ALLIGATOR BALL with John of Studio 9 in Hollywood, where once again, Kirk Bruner played and recorded his drums perfectly.

Kirk Bruner (on drums), Chris Stendahl (on bass), and I went in and played the entire album together live on SIZZLIN' (just as we'd done previously on ALLIGATOR BALL), retaining the drum tracks only.

The feel and the composition of a song are encapsulated in the drum performance. THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE for the musicians truly knowing the song, and every nuance of the music is reflected in the drums. Kirk is an extraordinary drummer. He did his drum parts for SIZZLIN' (and for ALLIGATOR BALL) in one take per song, as if we were playing a live concert with no errors.

The core of my Bayou Bohemian band has been together for many years.

At Mardi Gras '97 in New Orleans, Chris and Kirk drove non-stop from L.A., Patty Lee and I, and Marabina Jaimes, one of our back-up singers, flew in from L.A., and we did a number of key Mardi Gras performances (along with back-up singer Romney Richard, and sax player Tom Fitzpatrick, both from New Orleans). Patty booked us at Tipitina's uptown (Bacchus Bash headliner), Dream Palace (headliner), Margaritaville (headliner), on the Morning Show on WWL-TV (house band Lundi Gras morning), to list a few of the venues.

Something in this series of Carnival gigs and TV appearances took the band to an entirely new level, and this excitement is captured in the CD SIZZLIN'.

Technically, at our Bayou Bohemia Studios in Hollywood (owned by Patty Lee and myself), we had added the digital 8-channel Roland DM-80 in snyc with the Ampex MM-1000 2" analog 16 track. This allowed us to have 7 channels of analog tape devoted to the drums alone. By bringing up all of the sounds through our 20x16x2 custom-built Spectra Sonics mixer, and mixing down to the Otari MX 5050 Mark III 1/2 track deck, we were able to maintain a fat analog sound.

One request by producer Patty Lee was to feature and highlight my piano work on these nine songs for SIZZLIN', which we really hadn't done quite this way on ALLIGATOR BALL or BE YOUR OWN PARADE. Also, I played organ and Wurlizer electric on some of these songs for SIZZLIN'.

FREE DOWNLOAD: On our webpage for SIZZLIN', you can download for FREE the cut "I'M SIZZLIN" off our CD SIZZLIN'.

This CD SIZZLIN' includes - for the first time - a cover tune, "LipstickTraces", by the New Orleans great Allen Toussaint, using his pseudonym Naomi Neville. Also for the first time are the two co-written songs, "Blind Leading the Blind", with Patty Lee, and "Watching the River Boats Go By", with Micheal Smotherman. On all my other releases, I've been the sole writer and arranger of all the material.

Samantha Newark joined Marabina Jaimes on the back-up vocal tracks for SIZZLIN'. It was one of those serendipities.

Marabina and Hedy Mayer had done incredible back-up vocals for ALLIGATOR BALL but Hedy wasn't available to record with us for SIZZLIN'. An Emmy-award winner, Marabina was also host of the award-winning PBS children's television series "Storytime". She and Hedy were best friends, and Hedy had been a lead singer and later recorded back-ups, along with Marabina, for Mark "Paul Revere and the Raiders" Lindsay's own band.

We had the privilege of knowing Samantha Newark since she was about 10, at which time she was already an acclaimed professional singer and actress (she did Annie on Broadway at age 8, and was the youngest client of the talent agency ICM where Patty Lee was working around the same time in the ICM Rock Department). Sam had also recorded previously for Patty Lee Records as a teenager on some of my demos. Unfortunately, we'd lost contact with her.

Then, one day Patty and I were listening to the tracks that were coming together for SIZZLIN' when Patty suddenly said, "I wish we could find Samantha to sing on this project." We opened a Los Angeles newspaper and there was a listing with her name in it, scheduled to do a performance that week. She was now a young adult. We left a message for her with the venue, and she returned our call, and she laid down beautiful flawless vocal tracks for SIZZLIN'.

As for Chris Stendahl (bass), and Kirk Bruner (drums) who has recorded with Melissa Manchester, I'd known these players as my best friends since first going to L.A. from New Orleans. They always come through for me and my music. And the base of my sound has always been piano, drums, and bass before adding all the nice sweeteners like back-up vocals, horn sections, and special instruments.

"A crew of capable west coast players (where this CD was recorded) aid and abet the high-spirited piano pumping party that Armand St. Martin throws; it is good ol' New Orleans rock and roll served up "sizzlin'" hot! - Beatstreet Magazine, Bob Compton, CD review