Later Is Now

Manteca: Later Is Now! (1992)

Later is Now was recorded in 1992 in Montreal at the old Studio Victor, which was the original RCA Victor Studio and one of the oldest recording studios in North America. I remember that we were recording during the day and Quebec rocker Marjo was recording at night. She was a huge star at the time, her releases sold north of 300,000 units. She cooked the meals for her band as did I for Manteca, so every night at 6:30 Marjo and I would meet in the studio kitchen to change shifts. I was always surprised that you could sell 300,000 units per release and not have a caterer. Marjo was lovely. Cooking for our respective band was nurturing and I guess you can hear it in the tracks. This record was released in the U.S. on the jazz label run by the son of Laurence Welk, called Soundwings. This release got us to the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. Our wife’s were less excited about us playing the “Playboy” Jazz Festival than we were. Funny that.