World, watch out for Kelsea Rae Little.

Over the last couple days (Monday-Tuesday), I took a little self-retreat down to San Diego.  During my trip I hiked, got lost in works of art, caught up with old friends, and explored beaches and cities.  I have an entire two entries on my travel blog describing the trip experience (Day 1 and Day 2), but this entry in this blog is for something special I did while down there.

I met Kelsea Little at the music camp we both grew up attending, Arrowbear Music Camp.  She was a harpist, I a saxophonist.  At this camp, we grew musically, emotionally, spiritually, personally.

Then we lost touch for a couple years, but through the magic that is modern social media discovered we would both be attending the Coachella Valley Music & Arts festival, and together with another camp friend Emily (who I attend with every year) decided to find a time and place to meet.  We did that a couple years in a row, and then finally our camp circle of friends started mingling again and visiting each other.

Throughout this entire time, neither of us gave up music.  While I have taken the more academic, classical approach, she has been actively performing and collaborating.  She played harp and sang for a while in her band called The Wrong Trousers, and now has been picked up by a record label to record her own solo album!

I went down to San Diego to give what I could to her project.  I wound up laying down four saxophone parts on her single - one each of bari / tenor / alto / soprano sax - in essence contributing a horn section.  It was amazing to hear each part added to the next, on top of the scratch track that gave us a rough idea of what the final track might sound like once each part has been recorded and mixed properly.

So, sometime in October, expect her album (Personal Myth) to come out, hopefully with the horn parts still intact! Even if for whatever reason something comes out wonky and she can't use them, I'm so glad for the experience and for being able to help her as she embarks on this amazing opportunity.

And everyone, when Personal Myth comes out, GET IT. I heard a bit of some of the other stuff, it's absolutely beautiful.

I'll leave this entry with a couple photos from the session, and a couple videos of Kelsea.

Getting ready to lay down the bari tracks.

 Meet my bari, Vince.

Communicating to a camera in a soundproof room is a strange experience.

 Kelsea, accompanying a candlelit restorative yoga class we went to after the recording session.

 This is Kelsea. She's wonderful.

Kelsea recording a beautiful track in the studio - this is what she sounds like with no studio magic, can you just imagine what's coming?

Kelsea playing "Thunderstorms Bring Broken Hands" in 2010.

Kelsea being interviewed by Aural Gravy Records, explaining her album.