jz8 开案了! [jz8 kicks off!]

it has taken us close to 2 months to convene our first official meeting, even then tay cher siang (our pianist) couldn't make it tonight.

the meeting took place at oldtown kopitiam, south city plaza, all the way in seri kembangan. i have never traveled so far for a meeting!

the three of us - chow, lydia, myself - spoke about jz8's repertoire, the kind of music we want to play, recording schedule and many other issues. chief of it is we would like to launch the debut album in july 2009 (to coincide with the hifi show at j.w.marriot), so we have to work backwards.

since we haven't even started work on renovating our recording studio in nzx mall, we decided to start asking cher siang to rearrange 6 songs in the repertoire so that lydia could practise. we would like to get the overall "feel" of cher siang's piano playing and arrangement style. we are condifent that our pianist is versatile enough to play any "style" that we want provided we give him enough feeeback. as i have said repeatedly, arrangement is key in doing cover versions. it makes and breaks the song. but one thing for sure, jz8 is gonna be "jazzier" than 2v1g!

i also told lydia that i would be featuring jz8 in our magazine, MTX, which will be launched after CNY. so the duo has to attend a photography session as well as an interview session with our writer. i would like to promote jz8 well ahead of its debut so that people would know them early.

tentatively, we expect the recording to start in mid/late-march. it is going to be more challenging as we would be recording piano, which is a difficult instrument to record due to its wide dynamic range.

since lydia is a versatile vocalist who can sing in different tones, we would like her to sing in a lazy, more laidback, husky tone that is suitable for jz8's music. in any case, we are confident both lydia and cher siang would partner well since both of them are so experienced.

so, do monitor this blog closely if you want to follow the blow-by-blow account of the jz8's exciting journey in the next 6 months!