Judy was already pregnant when we filmed the video for "Maroon" and when she appears in that video my daughter Kasandra is technically in the video as well. I was going through a very high manic period and Judy was able to help me realize my goals while I tried not to have complete meltdowns all the time. The most daunting was booking a concert at the Glenn Gould Studio, maybe not the best idea a father-to-be ever had, but that was the tempo of the moment. The CD was finished but not released although tracks from the session were already in the film "Pitch" and videos were being aired on the arts channel "BRAVO!"

 

I intended to have this concert double as the release of the CD plus the first installment of what I hoped would become a big band. I call this my "Duke Ellington" phase. I was now working closely with Buddy Aquilina and his "Jazz Conspiracy" and the music was sounding very good. At the time Nick "Brownman" Ali was playing in Buddy's agregation and I noticed him right away, I thought arrangements that could include my sextet with his ensemble would be the way to go.  I started plotting how all these elements could come together and knew money would be an issue.  The Glenn Gould Studio has 341 seats and I thought I'd have a good chance at filling the venue.  We printed tickets at $27.50 each and I used what I learned from the National Ballet and proceded to sell tickets in advance which proved to be a good idea since the first snowfall that year took place on that November day in 1997. 

 

To add to the stress I was unsure if the CDs would even be ready by the time the concert date came around.  My nerves were shot and I spent most day and night trying to put the pieces together at the expense of Judy's pregnancy while she was always on board running a very small company of one. It also ate up a lot of personal practice time which I beieve hurt my performance but in all the concert had some great moments. 

 

The CDs were ready to be picked up the day of the concert and up until that moment I was rehearsing for a heart attack instead of a concert.  My ambition was high as I of course wanted it recorded and also synched with videos that we would play a live soundtrack for. The snow kept people who had bought tickets in advance from coming but we still had a good size house and by the time it was all said and done with we had come out ahead by a few dollars as people bought multiple copies of the CD and other bits of merchandise we had created beforehand. We had coffee mugs that said "I got mugged by Ken Skinner and the jazzmongers!" It was such a relief to walk away from that without the added stress of being in arrears. 

 

I didn't know it at the time but I was burning out the excited energy that drove my ambitions to any level of fruition I was running on a long deep thought that had to be discharged or I'd certainly never make another record for a long time and ironically I haven't made an album since I recorded this one although my work is out there including "Tell Me Lies" which was finished with Chantal Aston's contributions and she sings it so perfect. The track is included on the site as well.  I was tired. Not so tired that I was unable to walk from Yonge and Eglinton to almost Kennedy selling my CDs door to door which was still lucrative although many establishments were forgoing CDs in favour of satellite radio. There were still enough restaurants and shops that used jazz as background for their shoppers and diners and it was a great way for me to introduce people to my music and keep some money in my pocket so I could have some fun and smoke a joint at the end of a day. I loved good food and was always interested in how dishes are made since my time in the kitchen at Dinkel's restaurant in Belleville. I wasn't drinking at the time so a lot more was getting done than usual and I had lots of energy to bring to the table.

 

Kasandra was born on January 23, 1998 and of course it signified a new phase in my life, that of fatherhood. It didn't seem like I was taking on too much and in retrospect it still doesn't, but it was an awful lot of burden on Judy who was not only becoming a mother but was the principal earner in our household. Selling CDs just kept me out of the bank account and put some food in the fridge.