"Andy and I first recorded 15 years ago. At that session I promised Andy that I would come over every year from England and make a CD that would feature him, since I considered him to be the prince of all trombones, king being Carl Fontana. Carl has now unfortunately passed away.

 "THE PROJECT" was my idea and I chose the tunes one by one with help from Andy along the way. Ideas were passed back and forth for months until all the tunes and arrangers were decided upon. The finish of this CD is the project of my dreams. Andy, you are the King."

- Vic Lewis

	I'll Be Around (MP3)

 In working with Vic, I suggested that a trombone feature that I had been playing with the Bill Holman Big Band would be a fantastic addition to the choice of tunes. The Holman masterpiece "I'll Be Around" starts off the CD. Tom Kubis lent his incredible talents in many different ways. He arranged my composition "Paz Y Jazz" for the sextet. I had titled this tune from Jacques Braunstein's radio broadcasts as a tribute to Jacques, "the Voice of Jazz" in Venezuela, whose knowledge of jazz is second to none. Tom also composed and arranged "Kubis Shuffle" and responded to my request to compose a feature for the musician's musician, bass trombonist Bill Reichenbach, and me. The result is his big band arrangement of "Everything You Is". The amazing Gordon Goodwin, six-time Grammy nominee, did the five-trombone arrangement that I overdubbed of "Love Dance". He also composed a big band arrangement especially for me of "So Close And Yet So Far (A Tribute To The San Francisco Giants)", teasing me about the Giants unsuccessful quest for the World Series Championship. Vic was instrumental in getting me to record with the Metropole Orchestra where I had the pleasure of working with Rob Pronk. Vic and I thought it was a good idea to include Rob in the arranging of the string charts. We were thrilled that he could come to Los Angeles and conduct his arrangements as well as being there for the other sessions. As you know these musicians involved in "The Project" are all world class and I hope you enjoy listening to them as much as ! enjoyed working with them. What an honor to work with these guys!

- Andy Martin