I would like to thank my dear friend and jazz legend Terry Gibbs for helping me to select this take on this song “everything happens to me”. Terry is a huge admirer of Charlie Parker’s work as I am and no better person to help me as he played with Charlie Parker and knew him. This project is very close to my heart like my earlier Clifford Brown remembered album and I want to pay homage to those greats that helped make me who I am and who I owe everything to. This was the first time any jazz artist recorded with strings which paved the way for future artists like Clifford Brown and Stan Getz. I wanted to see what it would feel like if I walked the studio on that historic day in 1949. Of course it helps to have Charlie Parker open the door and point the way. I am doing my own solos and even playing in different places than Bird just as I hear it. The project is going a little slowly due to some illness in the family of my arranger but it should pick up shortly.