Interview with Thisbe Vos
By Alejandro Szita
We are only seven days away from the release of Sophistication! It has been several years in the making, took hundreds of hours to produce and required painstaking attention to detail.
I wanted Thisbe to share with all of us how the making of the album actually materialized into what is going to be released on September 16th.
You’ve been working on this album for quite some time. How did it start?
About three and a half years ago I was in Holland, sitting in the attic at my parents’ house, and I thought to myself “it’s now or never”. I had been wanting to record a solo album for some time but I had not been able to find the right musicians in Holland to help me materialize what I had in mind. I wanted to record a very traditional jazz album with new songs in the style of the old standards. I needed musicians who could authentically perform that traditional style. That’s when I made the decision to come to the US. I hoped that I could find some musicians that understood what I wanted to do.
How did you end up in Los Angeles?
I had toured the US before, when I was working with an English swing band, so I had some idea of what different cities were like in terms of this type of music. In my mind it was either going to be Los Angeles or New York. I didn’t know anyone in New York and I knew a couple of people in Los Angeles, so in the end, I decided to start here. I’m glad I did.
How did you find the musicians you worked with on your album?
I was looking on the Internet where jazz was being played and I decided to just go see some of those musicians. The second or third person I went to see was Henry Franklin. He was playing at a nearby hotel. I walked in, and after about two minutes I knew that he was the kind of person I had been looking for. A friend of Henry’s asked me who I was and introduced me to him on a break. I sang a song with them in the next set. I found out later that Henry had been on the jazz scene for over 50 years and that he had played with pretty much everybody you could imagine. He knows almost everyone in jazz in Los Angeles.
How did you meet the other musicians?
At Henry’s gigs, I met many other musicians and jazz fans who came to see them play also. He and his friends recommended that I go see other musicians play in the area, which I also did. When it came time to record the CD, I already knew some of the players I wanted to use and Henry recommended the remaining musicians, as well as the studio to record it at. Almost all the musicians I have worked with so far in LA, all top of the line people most of whom have a long track record in jazz, I met directly or indirectly through Henry Franklin. I was very lucky in that regard.
How did you come up with the songs for the album?
I wanted to include songs that people would already know, and also introduce them to new ones. I had written some of the new songs already, and some of them I wrote in between recordings. Sometimes they are inspired by something that happens in my life or something that I see around me – sometimes they are inspired by an existing jazz standard. For example I was listening to “The Man I Love” and I thought it would be nice to do a romantic song like that, with that same sort of concept in the lyrics. That idea became the song “House of Make Believe”. The first jazz song I ever wrote – called “Pordenone” – was about a small Italian village I had just visited [Pordenone] – I wrote it in the train leaving Pordenone.
How much work is it to make an album?
A lot of work – easily 500 man-hours have gone into it. Fortunately, the musicians were all great so that made it a lot easier. Most of them have over 30 years experience and they are all very good. Most of the songs were basically down on the first or second take. But organizing everything, and doing the artwork, the pressing, the printing, the barcoding, the licensing of cover songs, warehousing, shipping and a whole bunch of other details is a lot of work. And then there is also the shooting and editing of the music videos of course – that was just a lot of fun. I like to be able to share a visual with the songs. And I am very happy with the finished album.
What are your plans for the future?
After this album release, I would like to do a second album that I have some specific ideas for regarding the instrumentation – but I am keeping those under wraps for the moment. Just as this album, it will be an album in the traditional style of jazz and will include a number of new, original songs. I would like to get that done and released some time next year. I also intend to continue making music videos and I have some ideas for some videos coming up that I am very excited about. No lack of ideas here… And I would like to reach out to more people who like this style of music.