August 15, 2006
Interviewed by Harvey Cline

Smooth jazz saxophonist Michael Lington has just finished his fifth disc and his second for the Rendezvous label. A Song For You is eleven new lush arrangements of 70s and 80s classics that are sure to be favorites of many. We recently caught up to this exciting performer to discuss how this new project came about and offered insight into the release before it hits the streets in September…

Smoothviews (SV): Hi Michael, and welcome to SmoothViews.  Are you excited about the new release?
Michael Lington (ML):Thanks. Things are pretty good.  I’m very, very excited. This is sort of like a new beginning for me a little bit. It’s going to be a very exciting journey. It’s a different type of record. It’s a very different type of record this time. You’re always faced with what am I going to do this time around that hasn’t been done, or I haven’t already done. So I wanted to go back in time a little bit and put a new spin on those and pick the songs. You know in the past all of the songs I had done were ones that I had written. These are songs that I had grown up with and had inspired me to be who I am. How it turned out was we took songs from the 80s and played them so that they would be current to date and be current 40 years from now. I wanted to go back and make these records the way records used to be made where everybody was actually in the studio at the same time. Everybody was collaborating. There were arrangements being made. You had an arranger who was arranging songs before you ever got together and everyone collaborated with the band recording the album. It’s just very, very lush and very classic feeling. 

SV: Which new single is coming out first with this disc?
ML:There is a new single coming out called “Both Sides Now.” I have to be completely honest. When I made this album it was pretty easy for the record company to pick this single. It didn’t matter to me; they could have picked any of them. (Laughs)

SV: With all of those great songs, do you have a favorite so far?
ML:You know that’s such a tough question. There are songs that came out different than what I thought they would.  Remember, these were all my favorite songs. There were many more, but then we would have to make an album with 500 songs! I tried to do songs that made the most sense. They’re just songs that inspired me. One of the songs that became very, very much over the top that came together for me was “All In Love is Fair.”

SV: Tell us a little bit about that one. Was that an original?
ML:  No, that was Stevie Wonder. There are no originals on this album. That was a hit for Stevie Wonder in the 70s.

SV: Is that an old favorite of yours?
ML:It’s so hard to say. It’s just a matter of me having a love for all these songs that I want to do, then just deciding on which ones to do.  All the songs have an emotional connection to me. I also believe that those songs have kind of an emotional connection with my audience.

SV: I do too. I was just reading down the names of the artists who had previously recorded them. There’s Billy Joel, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Sting, Carly Simon, and Elton John. The list is like a who’s who of the 70s and 80s. I noticed that there’s full orchestration on many of the songs.   
ML: There’s full orchestration on nearly all of them. There’s like two songs that don’t have any orchestra. Randy Waldman arranged this album. He was going to be a key player from the beginning. I knew that for me to do the album the way I wanted it, I had to get that type of caliber. I had a relationship with Randy. We had worked together on the Bobby Caldwell album some years ago, so we had a friendship. He’s just one of the premier arrangers and musicians of today. He’s Grammy nominated.  He’s getting ready to go out on the road. His arrangements have been albums that sold in excess of 120 million. He arranged a lot with Barbara Streisand. He had that sort of classic background. He understood exactly what we were doing. He would take it back, so that it seemed dated. He took those classics with a new twist on them. That’s exactly what I had envisioned. He was very understanding of what it was I was trying to achieve. We had some great sessions where he would be at the piano and me with my saxophone and play through the songs trying different keys, trying different rhythms, different arrangements and we just fine-tuned what we were doing.   

SV: How long does a process like that usually take?
ML:We started doing pre-production in October of last year. The reality is that we didn’t work straight through. Again we would get together maybe once a week. So we probably could have done it faster. That’s where we started doing song selections. We recorded the basic track which was the rhythm section and myself. We recorded that and then he arranged the actual orchestration. It wasn’t like we were working on it every day. We had time to reflect a little bit, and time to adjust if you need to do that. If you want to make an adjustment, you can. 

SV: How do those songs evolve from an idea to the finished product?
ML:Well, the songs were already written. They were all classics in their own ways. What it really came down to for us was whether these songs would work as instrumental because they were all vocal songs. So before we started recording, he and I got together and found a key we liked and just recorded it – just piano and saxophone.  Then together with the record label we felt these songs worked for the saxophone before I even got to that point. It’s one thing to do songs that you really, really like, but if they don’t translate to an instrumental, if you need the lyrics for the song to work, then it’s not going to work. One of the filters that I used was just to pick up my saxophone and just play the song. If it made sense, if it really made sense, then I knew it was a winner. If it was like yeah, you need the piano, you need the drums and this and that in order to make it work or seem to make sense, then I knew something was wrong. Songs had to be able to stand alone by themselves. I had to just be able to pick up the saxophone with nothing else and you would understand what it was. It would make sense. Any other stuff is just icing. You know what I mean? It’s better from that point. I didn’t want any production value to determine what songs we were doing. It had to be all about the song, the melody.   

SV: I was listening to “Tell Me All About It.” Is there another sax artist with you on that one?  And who else do you have on this CD?
ML:Yes, that is Dave Koz.  There aren’t a lot of usual suspects if I can call them that in the jazz business. Dave is basically the only one. I did that purposefully. All my other albums have the top names in smooth jazz on them. Between producers and songwriters and artists, it was great. But I wanted this album to be different in every possible way. The way we did it, who was involved in it, you know how we did it and everything. So that was the one thing that I wanted – to bring in people that were not that well known. You look at who it is and it’s players and touring musicians for the past 20 years. It’s actually really insane that I was able to get everybody. It was my dream band. I was like not knowing that I could get it. You start really high at first then you can settle for a bit lower not knowing that in time, I got it. Because everybody is touring with everybody and to get them at the same time is almost impossible. We were dealing with like the “A” players. They heard what kind of album we were doing and everyone came together.     

SV: Do you think that has to do with your record label and the recognition there?
ML:I don’t know if they’re familiar with my label. I don’t know if that was a factor. What I know was a factor because they told me is the fact that Randy Waldman was arranging. Also I think it had to do with them maybe feeling a little bit the same as I did. That there was a certain charm, a certain musicianship and they knew that I wanted to recapture that gentle sound. I think the most important factor about this album is the audience. The audiences have strong emotional relationships to these songs. These were very important songs to a lot of people. The people are going to be very connected to these songs. With that being said, I understood my responsibility to interpret these songs right and do them justice. It makes it important because if these songs are so important to my audience you have to do them right. You have to make sure you do a good job interpreting. At the same time do something with them because otherwise why not just listen to the original?

SV: Yeah, they’re saying “you’re playing my song, I want to hear it the way I like it.”
ML: Right, and at the same time breathing new life into it. And I think by just the arrangements and just by doing that I understood my responsibility. We didn’t want too much improvisation or too much melody; we just wanted that fine line between the two. 

SV: And that’s a tough place to be.
ML:And you know why that’s a tough place to be, because if you play the song straight up then it sounds like Muzak or any other instrumental version of your favorite vocal song. If you do too much improvisation then you’re going to lose people. Where’s my melody at? You know what I mean? Where’s the song I love? So you have to find that balance.

SV: Tell me how you came about the title track” A Song For You”?
ML:“A Song For You” is just a beautiful song. One of the most difficult things to do in instrumental music is to name songs or albums that fit. I love the title “A Song For You” because it focuses on the songs right? The “for you” aspect is the emotional connection that I’m talking about. So I think that title makes total sense for the album. It’s like, “How do you name this album and why?” As I just explained, I think it is personal and it’s practical for what I talked about the songs. A song just for you. And there will be a song for everybody you know? Everyone can have their favorite and somebody else can say that’s their favorite.    

SV: One of my favorites that you do on the new album is “Fragile” by Sting. Tell us a little bit about that one.
ML:Well, if you end up in the direction that it was going in where it was becoming a singer songwriter, it was hard not to include Sting on that. That song fits. It’s very, very strong. It starts with the orchestra and the original doesn’t have that. One of the things that I tried to do was to have every song with a new intro. So a lot of the songs have newly composed intros. They’re not a part of the original of how they were. I wanted to keep the anticipation until I came in, if you know what I mean. You wouldn’t really know it. You could kind of tell it was familiar. You knew you were going to know it once you heard the melody, but you couldn’t really put your finger on it. Its like, “Gosh that sounds familiar but I can’t tell what it is” until I come in and then you go, “Oh I love that song!”

SV: That’s exactly the way it came across at dinner last night when my family and I listened to the disc for the very first time. We were all saying, “What’s this and what’s this one?” So you’re exactly right!
ML:Yeah, that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want from the first note of a song everybody saying, “Oh yeah here we go again.”  Right? I just wanted to have that part unique. Another part that I wanted to have unique was to compose new intros for all the songs then just keep the anticipation until I come in. That way you get such a nice release. The other part of this album was that I tried to pick songs that were not the most famous songs of that particular artist but songs that were right under the radar. With people who bought the album originally, those became their favorites, even though it wasn’t the first single from the album or it wasn’t the biggest hit. But it was that song that people always go “that song, I love that song.” With that being said, obviously it was a big hit for Sting. You could have played other Sting songs that were a little more well known. So that was the thing. I wanted that reaction where it was a forgotten jewel. You know what I mean by that? It’s one of the things you haven’t heard in awhile and that you always loved. That way when I come in with the melody, it was like, “Oh yeah I liked that one!”     

SV: You finished up with 11 songs here. What didn’t make the cut?
ML: Oh there’s a lot of songs that didn’t make the cut. However we recorded 12 songs so instead of naming all the songs that didn’t make the cut, because they could possibly make the next one, I could tell you the one song that didn’t make the cut.  That was “When I Need You.” Do you remember that one? The only reason that one didn’t make it was because it had the same feel and groove as two songs that had the same sort of feel to it. So we decided on “Still Crazy.” 

SV: How many of these will end up on your tour?
ML:There’s not a set amount. What I’m dealing with or what I’m thinking about right now is to create a little melody so I can get in as much as possible. So I’m assuming four or five. That way they’re centered together instead of doing a new song, then an old song and then a new song. But basically center the concept of this album which has so much emotion at one time.

SV: Tell us a little bit about the tour. When are you going out?
ML:Well this is what’s in the works right now. We are planning a promotional tour for myself the whole month of October, then we’ll go into markets doing the PR, [and then] we’ll come back with a full band. That’s being set up right now. There’s a lot going on right now. This is the time when the most is going on. It’s basically my whole team, my management doing a big theater here.

SV: This is your fifth disc. How does it feel to have five under your belt?
ML:It’s pretty unbelievable. It’s beyond all expectations I have to admit. You have to remember that I came over here when I was 21 years old. All I wanted to do was to live here in the United States and be a musician. I had no idea that I would be an inspiration to others, help them out of trouble and help them get back on track. When you take a moment to look back at what has gone on or what has been going on over the past six years such as performing at the Hollywood Bowl last summer, it just shows that be careful what you wish and dream for because it just may come true.    

SV: Exactly. Looking back at your last disc, how do you feel about the success of Stay With Me?
ML: Well Stay With Me was a very important CD for me. I feel that there was a chance before that CD that I was mostly under the radar. I think Stay With Me kind of really put me on the map. I had something to offer. We had a lot of success with that record. It was my best selling record that generated some hits for radio. It was another stone in that building. I really admire my record company. They’ve been so supportive as to what I want to do musically and as an artist. A Song For You was a very expensive record to make.  I don’t think there’s many companies who would let you take a chance like this. I mean who else is making music like this? Maybe you can name a few.  I really, really appreciate that. I understand how lucky I am to have someone willing to let me do that. 

SV: You’ve been with Rendezvous for three years now?
ML:Yeah. It’s been three years and this is my second album with them. Dave (Koz) has been very, very instrumental. It was actually my idea to have him play on it.  At first I wasn’t sure. You know he’s a sax player and he owns his own record business. We were going to do it with two different saxes and exchange parts and put it together like a real duet. We did it together. It was really a beautiful thing. I thought that it was a very charming duet. I’m very pleased the way it turned out. Besides, on the rest of the album he’s been the one telling me “Michael, it’s so easy to get lost. You have this incredibly lush and beautiful background. You’ve got an orchestra. You’ve got the best band in the world. You’ve got the best arranger. You can play one note and it’s going to sound great. But remember at the end of the day, it’s still your performance that will make this happen.” With all the bells and whistles it comes down to audience. Do they feel what I’m doing? Does it lift you in the heart or does it just repel like water on a duck.  

SV: Some of the solos in “Still Crazy” really hit home with that emotion.
ML: Well, thank you. That was one, by the way, that we changed from the original. What I’m saying is that certain songs for whatever reason depending on the vibe or the mood I was in or influence or state of mind – half of the songs were first takes together with the rhythm and we all did them the first time. It wasn’t the most perfect. We could have gone back and fixed things and made it a little more perfect. This record is really not about perfection. This record is about emotion. Who’s to say what’s perfect when it comes to music? Everything is subjective. Then there were other songs where we said that maybe I was trying to be too perfect. You know you’ve got to get into that zone where you were when you did the other songs. We would sit and listen. Dave would say “Listen to “All In Love Is Fair.”  Then listen to “She’s Always a Woman.” I’m feeling you here. I’m getting it. I’m understanding what you’re saying here. But [on] “She’s Always A Woman,” I’m not believing you.” He said, “Go back in and do whatever you got to do. I’ll be there with you if you want, but get back into that zone where you were in that song. I need you in that zone.” You know, it sounded great. The indescribable thing about emotion is that it’s something you can’t put your finger on. It’s a zone. It’s indescribable, but it’s the same zone you put your fans in.      

SV: I think you really do put that emotion into all of the songs here. Well, Michael, I want to thank you for your time this evening and congratulations on the new disc. I’m sure that A Song For You will be a great, great disc for you.
ML:Thanks so much.