Amira from Divergent Path by Air Craft

– I guess we’re in the Georges Lammam section of the cd as Georges did record this piece on his album Dreaming the Diaspora, with the title Borne by the Mediterranean (I told him he could title it anything he wanted.) I found I really didn’t much like that title, though,… always thought it should be feminine, that it represented unrequited love for a woman of great beauty and charm. Amira, Arabic for princess, that was more the name I was looking for, and Matt Szemela takes it here to its romantic essence. My friend and mentor Fred Catero listened to this and described it as pure schmaltz. I’ll accept that. I’d like to think that we can keep a place for schmaltz in the repertoire, maybe just not all the time.

Doug McKeehan was playing piano in his first band at the age of 14, and continued with classical training at Oberlin College and Kent State University. He studied extensively in India with notable teachers Pandits Ram Narayan and A.G. Bhattacharya. He has been playing jazz in the Bay Area for the past 30 years, performing at venues such as Yoshi's, the Herbst Theater, and Grace Cathedral.