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BiTS: In an interview which you did, I think with NBC, I’m not sure, you said that the chamber
musicians that you used in Amsterdam were versatile, but there were cultural differences. What
did you mean by that?

GM: Well, of course, there were cultural differences. I mean, they were Dutch and with that
incredible language and I was an American, but the other thing was just the language of music.
You write something some way and record it in New York, and they know that a particular type
of notation sounds like this, but then in Amsterdam, it would be a little different. So I had to learn
their musical language and how they looked at what does it mean to put a dot over a note.

BiTS: Oh, stuff like that. Tell me something about some of the tunes that you actually selected.
One of my favourites is the fabulous version of ‘Black Horse Blues’. You can almost hear Blind
Lemon in the arrangement. I think it’s terrific.

GM: It is taken from his guitar playing and I heard a group do that up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, at
a folk festival about 20 years ago, and when I heard it, I went, that could be a classical piece, man.
I mean Blind Lemon is so logical it’s ridiculous and so it marinaded and when I got going on this
project, I said okay, I’m going to put that on these instruments, and it worked. It worked.

BiTS: Sorry, my dog is barking in the background.
You probably can hear her.

GM: Where are you?

BiTS: In a place called Exmouth in Devon in England.

GM: In Devon?

BiTS: Yes. Does that mean anything to you?

GM: Spotted Dick [chuckles].

BiTS: [Laughing] Stuff like that, yes.

GM: I love that area. It’s beautiful.

BiTS: Yes, me too.

GM: As a matter of fact, we mastered the Bix
Beiderbecke album I did right in Devon. Who was
that engineer? It was in a beautiful place there and I went out there and stayed in a little B&B
and we did the Bix Beiderbecke album there, the one in 2002. It was beautiful country out there,
man. You’re very lucky.

BiTS: Yes, indeed [laughing]. Tell me something about some of the other tracks, for instance,
‘Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You?’ Absolutely fabulous arrangement with some terrific, absolutely
terrific, French horn that sounds like a trombone, which is unbelievable.

GM: Yes, he’s amazing and he did the same thing on ‘Michigan Water Blues’, the Jelly Roll Morton
piece, where he sounded like he was a trombone player on the street of New Orleans and Gee

Baby goes way, way back for me. It was a tune I heard when I was a child by the McKinney's
Cotton Pickers and then I brought the tune to the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in the 60s, and we did
it and it's been one of the pieces I’ve done over the years in different ways. Once again, I went
well, here they are. Here you are. Let’s see what it sounds like. It’s incredible. These players were
fantastic.