Dreams

Liner Notes

I’ve been composing music for the past fifty years and have recorded dozens of my own compositions. This is how it works for me, and I suspect most composers have had this experience. I write music with a perfect aural image in my head, and when it’s finished, I know exactly what it’s going to sound like. However, somehow, when the music is recorded, it’s never quite what I had in mind. It’s always good, but there are always little things that aren’t quite perfect. Often, it’s about the feeling of the music.

I’ll spend many hours writing one of my tunes, and by the time it’s finished, it has become a part of me. Every single note means something to me. It’s unfair to expect any musician to be able to understand, at first glance, something I’ve been working on for weeks. Nobody could ever do that. Those notes that I love are just dots on a piece of paper to anyone else.

This recording was the result of events too numerous to talk about here. During a series of emails back and forth between Daniela and me, I sent her the lead sheets for these ten tunes. She didn’t want recordings of them; she just learned them from the sheet music and wrote lyrics, in Italian, for five of them. She didn’t have a lot of time to do this. I sent one of them to her just the day before she flew to Toronto to do the recording. This would be the first time we met face to face.

Keeping all this in mind, try to imagine the way I felt on the rehearsal when she began to sing the first tune. Her voice, her phrasing, everything she did was exactly what I’d been hearing in my head ever since I’d written it. It was so perfect and beautiful that I just couldn’t believe it. It was like a dream. It was the same for every tune. It was as though she could read my mind, understand the music completely, and feel exactly what I was feeling.

She sang my music with so much love that it was as though she’d written it herself. I couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful.
I believe Daniela is one of the greatest singers in the world right now, and I’m honoured by her friendship. I’m forever grateful to her for bringing my music to life. Before closing, I want to share one more thing about her.

Daniela is also a great composer and arranger, and has written some of the most original and beautiful music I’ve heard in recent years. I strongly urge you to check out her own recordings.

I want to thank Chad Irschick for his dedication to the music during the mixing and mastering of this CD. He’s like a member of the band, and I wouldn’t want to do this without him. He truly is a one-of-a-kind miracle. Thanks to Reg for his consistently great playing, and to Roberto, without whom this CD would never have happened.

Musicians

Don Thompson –  Piano
Daniela Spalletta – Voice
Reg Schwager – Guitar
Roberto Occhipinti – Bass

Credits

All Compositions By Don Thompson
*Lyrics by Daniela Spalletta

Recorded at RHC Studios 04/08/2025
Ross Hayes – Citrullo Engineer
Mixed and mastered by Chad Irshick
Cover Photo by Camille Cheskey Norrsken

Thanks to the Italian Cultural Institute of Toronto
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