The first time I can remember becoming aware of Steve Khan (guitar) was in The Brecker Brothers Band - especially the album where they're all sitting on the log at the river's edge with the wino. Then, of course, being a Steely Dan fan and very much into Walter and Donald's players du jour, I was well aware of Steve's participation on Aja and Gaucho - two of my very favorite Dan discs.

I was given an introduction to Steve by our mutual friend Rob Mounsey (they had met on the Gaucho project). I emailed him and introduced myself, explained the project and directed him to this website for further references. He agreed to participate almost immediately, and a casual remark of his led to my going to New York for the recording sessions (originally I just planned to send the tapes). Now I can't imagine not having been there.

Rob Mounsey (keyboards) and I were roommates at Berklee College of Music in Boston way back in '71-72. We'd fallen somewhat out of touch over the years, until about two years ago Candlin and I were in New York and I tried successfully to reach him through the musician's union. We went and toured his studio, Flying Monkey, had a lovely meal, and traded CDs. That was when I became aware of The Flying Monkey Orchestra and all the great music Rob had been making.

Since Rob had the studio in New York (and since most of the people I had hopes of guesting on Relentlessly Cheerful were based on the East Coast), he was the first person I contacted when I began working on the new BOZO CD. He was agreeable to participating from the very beginning, and was kind enough to introduce me to Steve Khan and Lew Soloff.

I, like most people, first became aware of Lew Soloff (trumpet) through his fabulous work in Blood, Sweat & Tears. That solo in "Spinning Wheel" - my goodness gracious!

But he also kept popping up on other albums I was listening to and loving: Marianne Faithfull's live album, Carla Bley's big band stuff, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, Gil Evans, and, of course, The Flying Monkey Orchestra. And I kept reading about him as well - I wish I could have been in New York the night they did the Clifford Brown tribute concert with many of his past associates (Max Roach, Harold Land, et alia) and Lew took on the formidable task of sitting in Brownie's chair. As with Steve Khan, Rob made the introduction and I contacted Lew by email. He was likewise very graciously interested in participation from the very beginning.

I studied privately with Steve Swallow (bass) at Berklee. He was instrumental in getting my little finger working on the fretboard, and more importantly he was enormously influential upon me compositionally, philosophically, and spiritually. He used to do so much more than just teach me about the bass in our lessons - he would recommend books (I first read Ismael Reed on his recommendation), bring in articles on a wide range of topics he found interesting, and share his interesting and intriguing views about life. He is a very nice man.

We had not been in contact for over 25 years when I wrote him a letter inquiring about the possibility of his participation, although I had long been a fan of his work - with Gary Burton, with Carla Bley, and on his own. I was thrilled to hear back from him, that he remembered me (from the Telecaster bass I was playing at the time - he says he remembers all his students by their instruments), and that he would love to appear on the album.

The story of how Fred Wesley (trombone) came to appear on Relentlessly Cheerful is perhaps the most interesting of them all. Although I was very familiar with James Brown and George Clinton's P-Funk exploits, I didn't come to know Fred's work until I bought the first JB Horns album, with him and Maceo Parker and Pee Wee Ellis. After that, I was quite taken with Fred's stuff, and especially the way he managed to successfully navigate the funk/jazz fusion - unlike a lot of funk players, Fred could really play the bebop changes, as his solo albums all demonstrated to me.

I first tried to reach him through a phone number of a management firm on one of his early albums. It turned out to be his ex-wife, but she was kind enough to pass my email address on to Fred, and I got a message: "Hey Mark. This is Fred Wesley. What's up?" Like all the others, he agreed immediately to participate and was a joy with whom to work.