Monday 19 July it was the first recording day. I walked in at 8:30 to help Lex Tanger with the drums, but at that time the grand piano was tuned. Lex got orders to get in later. He arrived at 9:00. Lex prepared his drums and Richard and Lex checked all the microphones and the sound.

At 10:00 Paul Poulissen, Rico de Jeer and Martin Jagt walked in. They all prepared while I got some “coffee food”. As I returned they were already rehearsing the most difficult part. This song, written by my friend Tico Pierhagen, contains many different music styles. From classical to latin and from funk to swing. Paul suggested to make two takes of each song. After the second take, we made the descision which take to keep. Then the “difficulties” were re-recorded. I was playing along in the control room, to get the complete picture of each song. The song was ready at about 11:00 to everyones big surprise!

As soon as the most difficult song was recorded the team got more enthusiastic each second. We decided to record three more tracks before the coffee break. In the mean time the piano was tuned again. I was amazed by the good “ears” of Richard. He heard every mistake, every wrong or off key note and he was focussed on the tuning.

In the afternoon Adrie Hoogland came along to see how things were going. He is the executive producer for Home of Jazz. During the recording he made some good remarks and did several suggestions. Mathilde walked in at 16:00 to sing along with her two tracks.

Everything went just great! At 19:00 the first recording session was finished, while everyone expected to come home late. A chat and a glass of wine and then everybody went home. This was an amazing experience for me!