Before I got involved with 'ohana, whenever anybody asked me if I was a musician I would tell them "yeah, but I'm way too good of a producer to ever hire me as a musician", and I still think of myself as a producer more than as an artist. "Producing" can mean all different kinds of things, and it should mean all different kinds of things, depending on the artist and the project you're producing. But it always has to mean at least two things: first, that you're trying to see clearly what this artist is trying to do right now (even while they're still discovering it themselves), and second, that you're responsible for getting it done ---- for making sure that they can finish it the way they hoped to when they started it.

One of the best discoveries of the past few years is how much the collaboration with a choreographer is like producing a record, not so much in cases where I'm writing something original for them (which is a fantastic but different experience), but in those cases where choreographers come to me to help them put together the music they've chosen for a new work.

Brock Clawson and I have just completed what really doesn't have a name --- some times they call it "sound design", some times "music editing", and often it's not credited (which is alright too) --- but in any case, we've just completed the process of putting the tracks together for his new work "Give and Take" for Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. The work is a full-company, richly dynamic expression of, well, of "give and take". The World Premiere will be March 13 and 14 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago, but there's a lot more to say about it before then, coming soon.