from Dewey Erney…
"Lucky to Be Me" is exactly how I feel to be alive and thoroughly happy with the way my life has transpired. I have three lovely children whom I adore; extended family throughout our country, with whom I'm always excited to spend time; two brothers and a sister who have exquisite taste in music; and musician friends who are absolutely the best at what they do. If I had enough space here, I'd list you all, but you know who you are and how much I respect and love you.
I'd like to thank Tom Kubis for his awesome talent and wonderful orchestrations in which he provided a beautiful cushion for me to express myself. I wanted to have plenty of space for instrumental passages which I've always felt enhances the overall musical success of a recording. On most of these selections, Tom and I would talk about my concept (framework) for the tune and Tom always came up with just the right thing at the right place. The arrangements by Tom and the musicians who performed--during several recording sessions in 2004 & 2005--on this CD are absolutely fabulous. It's been such a pleasure for me to be around them all.
As you can hear, this is beautifully recorded and mixed. Jon Kubis (Tom's son) is the engineer responsible for this, and if you think about it, that has as much to do with the success of the recording as the performers. I appreciate his attention to detail. Tom was also at every mixing session, lending his expertise on how the band should sound. My good friend, Chuck Mitchell (Voice of the Arts) is responsible for the mastering of this disc, which is the final step in the recording process and also very important in that it smoothes out the entrances and endings of the tunes.
I'd like to thank the great musicians who played on this recording, many of whom are well known to jazz fans. It was a thrill to record with "real" strings. I especially want to thank Luther Hughes for releasing this album on his Primrose Lane Music label. I also want to express my gratitude to Dan St. Marseille, good friend and fine musician, who released my previous 12 recordings on his Resurgent Music label.
A special mention to my great-niece, Kate Prestia-Schaub, who played flute throughout this album. She played so beautifully and added so much to the recording and acquired another fan in Tom Kubis.
If you look at the cover of this album, so nicely done by my good friend and graphics artist Stan Hollon, you can see that the lucky fellow holding that "straight" has a queen of hearts. My Queen of Hearts is my wife Sandra (shown here in my favorite photograph of her). She is my focus for this album, and I dedicate it to her. I have selected all of these songs for not only the lovely melodies and harmonies of the tunes, but especially the lyrics which speak to me as an outpouring of my love and affection for my beautiful bride. So here you are, my love, my tribute to you. May you always know what you've meant and mean to me. --Love, Dewey
from Tom Kubis…
Many a wise man (or woman) has said there is a reason for every person that you meet. I met Dewey many years ago here in Southern California in a band called the Orange County Rhythm Machine and Wind Ensemble, led by my friend and bassist, the late Bob Cassens. Bob had Dewey sing with the band and I was one of the tenor sax players. Dewey and I did gigs together for so many years--more years than I will mention! All of us who get the chance to work with Dewey know his commitment to excellence in not only the music he chooses to perform but always having the best players in town work with him. When he asked me to arrange this project I was thrilled and hoped I was up to the challenge of keeping the music level as high as possible!
Dewey got the finest players on this planet and any other planet! The result (well duh!) is great music! It's all here…Dewey's great interpretation of these wonderful songs, great solos and terrific ensemble work by this amazing band and string section. I am very thankful I got the chance to be a part of this project, but then again, there was a reason to meet Dewey so many years earlier and hopefully there will be more reasons in the future! I wanted so much for Bob Cassens to hear this project but we sadly lost him as it was being finished--he would have loved it! Maybe I'll drag the CD up there with me when it's my time! --Tom Kubis
