Burt Bacharach, David Foster, Glenn Miller, Jim Brickman, and Christmas Songs

May I Walk in Your Shadow?

If you love the lush melodies and sophisticated arrangements of Burt Bacharach, David Foster, Glenn Miller, and Jim Brickman, you are a fan of masters of melodic pop, romantic adult contemporary, big band, jazz, and brilliant songwriting. If you fancy these genres, then you might like the songs I have written.

I have been writing songs either as part of a songwriting team, (Kramer and KuKes) or as a solo lyricist and composer, for over 50 years. Most recently, I released My First Christmas Album featuring a collection of 15 original Christmas songs.

The one major advantage songwriters have these days is the existence of AI, which was not available when Bacharach and Miller were composing their vast collections of songs. I don’t know if Foster and Brickman have decided to embrace AI or reject it, but most songsmiths I know are using AI for their initial ideas and demos. Once happy with the basic structure, then they move on to the next steps of working with vocalists, studio musicians, orchestras, and recording studios.

I have written all of the lyrics for my songs and directed the musical composition and arrangements. I use a disclaimer of, “These recordings combine original lyrics and human creative direction with AI-assisted musical production.”

In the past, I have engaged the services of studio musicians, but most of the time, they didn’t show up to the recording sessions, did not come to rehearsals regardless of being compensated or not, and were not the best players. The times the musicians did participate for the creation and production of the songs, the end results were okay, but not great. As well, the sound quality of the recordings were not the best due to lack of studio quality gear and or services. AI solves all these issues.

As a musician, I am a drummer and percussionist. Some people argue that drums are not an instrument, but each drum can be tuned just like a guitar. I prefer playing a digital drum kit these days for many reasons. Easy to transport, never go out key, are very versatile with many sound settings, and easy to record since the kit does not require being mic’d. Like a MIDI device or instrument, digital drums use a line in method of recording.

I play the drums on all of the tracks I have written. Actually, I start with the drum track and hum or sing how I want the music to sound. AI takes this basic foundation and builds around it. It’s not quite as easy as it sounds. AI may produce 4-8 different versions and in many cases, none are what I desired. Thankfully, stems are available and editing options allow me to transform a foundation track into my desired song.

Many hours are spent on each song. In some cases, probably more time than just hiring studio musicians, but far less expensive.

On the tracks I have written with my writing partner, Robert Kramer, I am fortunate enough to have Robert write the music, so AI is only used to attain the production quality of a premiere recording studio.

I am not worthy of even breathing in the general direction of Bacharach, Foster, Miller, or Brickman, but like them, even though I don’t sing the songs, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to write a song. Maybe one day people will enjoy my songs as much as they do their favorite Glenn Miller tune or classic David Foster film score. One never knows until they try.

Please check out my music at www.minicooperproductions.com