What an amazing last couple of weeks I have had!  Jarome Matthew, my producer, and his lovely wife Felisha were here visiting from Vancouver to help out with a Chinese CD project that we are working on.  We accomplished all that we set out to do and recorded several incredibly talented musicians in the studio.  The first artist we recorded was talented musician, Jin R, on her beautiful Yang Qin.  The Yang Qin is a Chinese hammered dulcimer originally from Persia and resembles the Persian Santur (I have included a photo of her playing it in the slideshow below).  Jin R played her own spontaneous composition with such fluidity and emotion.  It was so inspiring and moving to watch.  After the recording (which lasted over 10 minutes and was practically flawless), she confessed that she didn’t want to end playing for the recording.  It was definitely a magical session listening to her play and create music on the spot.  

A couple of days later, we had the privilege of recording Phil Morrison and Keith Williams, two extremely accomplished jazz musicians.  What a pleasure and a joy it was to spend time with them and Jarome in my studio.  So much talent all in one little room was quite overwhelming!  They recorded Blessed is the Spot (I had composed the music for this piece for the CD, Melodies of the Nightingale for the Family.  They also recorded God is sufficient Unto Me and their arrangement for these two pieces in a jazz style was amazing.  They play a lovely style that has not yet been heard on these devotional pieces.  I so look forward to sharing them with you when they’re ready.

We were also very blessed to record Cheng Lin who graciously accepted to sing the vocals for Blessed is the Spot in Chinese for the album.  Her vocals were simply stunning and so smooth.  What a gift it was to watch her singing with such emotion and talent and with such consistency.  I was so touched that despite Lin’s busy schedule, she was able to make time for recording for this album.  Her contribution to this CD is truly a gift.

One of Lin’s dear friends, Lily, is another talented vocalist on the project. Lily will be singing several of the songs from my most recent album, Fire and Gold, in Chinese for this CD. Her voice is so suited to the style of the music as it is heavenly and angelic.  I’m so excited to be able to share a few of the Fire and Gold songs in Chinese as many of the friends have requested it. 

We will do some more recording for the CD in the next couple of months and hope to complete it early next year.  I will definitely keep you posted.  Even with all the recording that we did, Felisha, Jarome and I managed to fit in some site-seeing in between sessions and had a fantastic day celebrating dear Felisha’s birthday in China!  I’m so grateful to Jarome and Felisha for coming all this way to assist with the recording of the CD!

I would like to share a gift of a video that we just completed for one of the songs on my most recent album, Fire and Gold.  The song is titled, ‘The Bird Which Soareth’ and we thought it would make a perfect video because of the evocative imagery in the words by Baha’u'llah.  The words, used in Book 1 of the Ruhi series, describe the relationship between the material and the spiritual world through the metaphor of a bird.  Despite its freedom the bird struggles in its longing for the things of the earth and finds itself so trapped by its desires that it is unable to resume its flight.