The “Jazz Baby” project was born when Grammy® award winner arranger/musician/ producer Doug Beavers Rovira was approached by the executive producers (Bob Saul and Cathena Campbell) to arrange children’s music for a community big band to perform in public. 

 

These arrangements would then be compiled on a CD and released for local parents and the friends of these parents to play for children.  Over time, the excitement and buzz about how the arrangements were turning out led Rovira to push for a commercially viable release of the songs.  

 

The big question was how does one write jazz big band arrangements, in 2006, while holding the attention span of a broad range of children and their parents and immediate family?  The answer was the dynamic arrangement of the music. Extended instrumental solos were stricken, sometimes at the request of the executive producers. Long durations of music without vocals were avoided to keep children actively engaged.  

 

The 10 songs for the Jazz, Baby! release were recorded at Skywalker Sound with multi- Grammy® Award winner Leslie Ann Jones as the project’s engineer.  Vocals were recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood and feature Linda Harmon (National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation) and Grammy® winner Matt Catingub (Good Night and Good Luck)