Amabile All Good People

This was the first Hatfield CD entirely conducted by myself, a mixture of live and studio recordings that resulted in the only all-SATB Hatfield/Amabile collaboration to date. Of all my CDs this is the most consistently joyous. At first I was concerned that the pieces with a darker atmosphere had been left off the final running order, but I soon came to realize the wisdom of the decision. More than any other Hatfield CD All Good People examines euphoria from every angle, from the smoking gospel funk of "Don't Bend Down" to the trembling release of the insomnia-soaked "Double Shot". The live performances, beautifully captured by producer Ted Marshall, have a particular warmth for me, especially the other-worldly "When The Stars Fall", one of my all-time favourite performances of a Hatfield piece. I remember an elderly gentleman in the audience beginning to cry as Amabile swung into "All For Me Grog", a stomping sea-shanty that I wouldn't normally have thought of as a tear-jerker. "I didn't think anybody knew how to sing like that anymore," he said afterwards. As with my other CDs, All Good People mixes together "greatest hits" ("Dubula", "Living In A Holy City", "Ka Hia Manu", "All Too Soon", "Missa Brevis" ) and little-known rarities such as "God-Bless Wassail", which alternates between a flat-out party and a hushed cathedral, and "Ohisashi Buri", a full-throated, antiphonal romp for double choir that is a favourite in Japan. I remember how we threw together my very bluesy, rocking version of "Ezekiel Saw The Wheel" at the last possible moment, soloists included (how they shone!) with me frantically gesturing to the tenors under the impression they were the bass section. I remember recording "Un Flambeau" with all of us knowing that a choir family member was in an undisclosed crisis at the hospital. I brought out a life-sized statue of Mary from the corner of the church we were working in, put her in the middle of the performance space, and we sang right to her.