Doug McClement met me at the Harris Institute to let me check the two baby grand pianos. I could tell after a couple notes the first one didn’t work for my purposes. I’m looking for a more magical piano to record the next record with. I never exerted this thinking before. I liked being philosophical adhering to the idea the onus is on me to deal with whatever piano I get and that line of thought is well and good but somewhere along the ride I decided this time why not get something magical. It does happen sometimes. Usually by surprise, a piano booth somewhere and nobody warns you and you sit down and from the first touch you know it. Extra things happen to the playing. Maybe velocity, maybe connectivity or maybe epiphany. Doug was going to turn off the rattling snare drum assuming I would want more time on the first piano but I already knew this mustard was not to be cut. I thanked him for the kindness of setting up this meeting, was going to leave but he said there was one more upstairs. Turned out to be closer to my dream. Not Bösendorfer magic but still magic, more than most. Doug has been around the world engineering/ overseeing many big and incredible recordings, a very staggering list of credits. The best people seem like wallflowers and don’t brag. It’s fitting that he named his premier studio Comfort Sound. A very good sign if I can record these pieces with him.