Can you cite some specific examples? The song he helped the most on was "The Lady In My Life." That was the only tune on the album where I punched in--every other cut was recorded live from beginning to end, and if I didn't like how something went, I'd redo everything. For "The Lady In My Life," we had all of the other tracks already recorded. I'd play along, and when I came up with a good lick, Al and I would look at each other and say, "Yeah, there's the next idea." So the whole solo was constructed piece by piece. At one point in the solo, he suggested that I give a note more impact by playing it off of the beat rather than on. At the time, I didn't understand why he wanted me to do that, but now that I listen back, I feel he was right. The ideas came from me, but he helped put them together in the strongest way. Does the fact that you punched in compromise the statement on Magic Touch's jacket that no overdubs were used? Not really, because there are no guitar overdubs on the album. We could have included something about how most of the tunes don't have punching in or whatever, but I didn't record live just to say I did; I did it because I usually like how the music comes out. I like hearing it back and knowing that it was a real event that happened and that it wasn't just constructed. A lot of times, a piece of music will come out more coherent if it's improvised from beginning to end. Why did you decide to construct the solo in bits and pieces on "The Lady In My Life?" It's a different kind of song--it's more pop-oriented. In jazz, it's more important to get into the musician's mind, and even if there are mistakes or unclear ideas, it's okay because it's improvisation. In pop music, however, people don't want to hear about that. They just want to hear a good sound, and how you make the sound doesn't matter. The emphasis is less on the musician and more on the groove and the feeling of the song. The other reason we used a different approach is because we wanted the solo to be just right since it's so short. At the session, I had a dogmatic aversion to punching-in, and everyone, including my manager and Al, were trying to convince me that everybody does it. They wanted me to do it on just one tune, so it was sort of a concession. Before that, I never really thought much about how albums were made. I'd hear solos and I'd be amazed that they were so perfect. [Pianist] Keith Jarrett is one musician who can play perfectly without punching-in; that's the level that I'd like to achieve. I'm not against punching-in per se, but on this one album I wanted to stay away from it as much as possible. What are your favorite cuts on Magic Touch? I like the ensemble-oriented "The Lady In My Life" and "Return Expedition"--they represent opposite poles of the continuum that the album is trying to span, because one song is very arranged and the other is more free feeling. As far as the solo pieces go, I like "Round Midnight" and "All The Children." "Round Midnight" was the easiest one to do because I found a certain inspiration that carried me through the whole tune. Did you use fourths tuning for every song on the record? Yes; that's pretty much the only tuning I use. I know standard tuning, and I'm interested in exploring other ones, but I've hardly ever done that. When I get into a rut, I'll change my tuning to something totally random and play to see if I can come up with some new ideas. That approach is similar to material in the book Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain [J.P. Tarcher, Los Angeles], which has some exercises to help develop the artistic side of the brain and turn off the analytic side. The only thing I'd use standard tuning for would be regular open-string or barre chords. But any time the music gets complicated harmonically, fourths tuning is the only way to go. Standard tuning is too confusing. So the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Yes. You have to learn far fewer patterns because the tuning is uniform, which really helps you think quickly when you're improvising. Fourths tuning might not be for everyone, but it is highly useful.
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