"I fell in love with the music of the brilliant composers Harold Arlen and Frank Loesser in my formative years. Of course, "Over The Rainbow" and the other charming tunes from The Wizard of Oz touched all of us as children. Later when I was in high school, I played in the orchestra for a production of Loesser's Guys and Dolls and that has remained my favorite Broadway musical. It occurred to me when I was 16, that the songs from Guys And Dolls would work very well played in a swinging jazz setting. Of course icons Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerard and many more had played these classic Loesser tunes with great artistic success. I've since embraced these songs as staples of my own repertoire. It's also been wonderful to explore Loesser's early work where he contributed lyrics to some now classic American tunes. Two I've recorded recently are, " I wish I Were Twins", famously sung by Fats Waller and "I Hear Music".

"From Louis Armstrong on, virtually all jazz musicians have embraced the compositions of Harold Arlen. This is certainly a natural musical marriage, considering Arlen began as a piano player and was influenced by many Harlem musicians, which explains the genuine blues feeling and jazz sensibility liberally infused in his songs. Personally, I became passionate about playing his music, beyond "Rainbow", after hearing Ella's Harold Arlen Songbook recording and through the great pianist and Tommy Flanagan's Music of Harold Arlen recordings. Tommy is a hero of mine and I had the honor of working with him."

Chuck is joined by Todd Strait on drums, Tyler Abbott on bass, and special guest Larry Fuller on piano.