Erik Deutsch – Hush Money

With layers of keyboards, guitars and woodwinds, Erik Deutsch’s Hush Money is not your usual jazz album. The keyboardist and composer, a co-founder of Fat Mama and known for his work alongside trumpeter Ron Miles, singer Erin McKeown and guitarist Charlie Hunter among others, brought together collaborators from his time in Colorado and New York, headed up by guitarist and co-producer Jonathan Goldberger.

“I really set out to make an atmospheric record – one that didn’t sound like a sparkly jazz CD,” Deutsch says. “My last record (Fingerprint, Sterling Circle, 2007) was done on a Yamaha C7 [grand piano] and I was looking forward to achieving a much different sound.” Bed tracks were recorded to tape at The Bunker in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with Deutsch and Goldberger doing overdubs up the street at Goldberger’s home studio in Greenpoint. Analogue tape gives Hush Money a warmly saturated sound, as does Deutsch’s collection of vintage keyboards: an ARP Omni 2, Moog Source, and Casiotones augment the piano, Wurlitzer and Hammond organ tracks laid down at the Bunker. “I decided it would be cool to feature these keyboards; they’ve been in my arsenal since ’95 or ’96. One of the Casios I actually got when I was 13. A lot of people have seen me using these boards live over the years and probably associate aspects of my music with their individual tones. I’m very comfortable with them, but I haven’t dug into them too deeply in the studio.”  With some tracks boasting as many as five keyboard layers, the blend between keys and reeds is a hallmark of the album. “In a way,” says Deutsch, “this music is a tribute to my favorite keyboards!”

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