1. CHANCES ARE – I had the idea to have Johnny Mathis’ original vocal sung down an octave on the bridge by Alvin Chea. There is no other voice in the business like Alvin’s, unmistakable and compelling. No wonder he has been the solid foundation of Take 6 all these years. He likes to sing with us because he gets to croon. All our parts are written above Alvin’s bass solo on this, an unusual alignment in a cappella. Five voices with both Julie and Shelby on soprano. We recorded without a click to keep the pulses right. 2. (I’D LIKE TO BE) BABY TO YOU – My ears have been heavily influenced by Bill Evans and this arrangement makes me think of the interplay between Bill and Miles Davis on “Blue in Green." That’s the sound I wanted with the background vocals relative to the keyboard part behind my vocal solo. Some of our songs have five parts. This has four. As for the lyric, vulnerable, but I survived it and a lot more. 3. COME ON BACK WHERE YOU BELONG – Dave Grusin and I wrote this for a film called “Midnight Man” starring Burt Lancaster. It was sung by the wonderful Yvonne Elliman. In this new version, Julie’s round, warm soprano is perfect. 4. CLOSE ENOUGH FOR LOVE – A friend says when he hears this version, he sees Elliott Gould as Phillip Marlowe in “The Long Goodbye” or maybe Denzel Washington in “Devil in a Blue Dress,” some murder mystery in vintage Los Angeles, black and white. It’s another Johnny Mandel song with a jewel of a lyric by Paul Williams. I worked on this arrangement for years. 5. O CANTADOR – By Dori Caymmi, my favorite Brazilian and maybe my favorite musician period. He plays guitar and sings here. I call him Water from the Well. I meant to sing the song in English but fell in love with the Portuguese. It was a bear to learn phonetically. Dori recorded the guitar with no click. We followed him. To maintain the intimacy, we did not double our parts. It feels like we’re in a coffee house, fragrant with espresso. 6. QUIETLY THERE – By Johnny Mandel and me from a murder mystery starring Paul Newman called “Harper.” A lyric of regret: why didn’t I treat you better? Now I lurk around town all night, the wandering Jew, hoping you’ll be here when I get home. I was young and good at victim love songs. It’s me singing and playing keyboards. 7. MY FUNNY VALENTINE – I had some nerve arranging yet another version of this classic, but what could I do? The album is titled “Valentine.” We found that singing to a click track, which helps you stay together, took the soul out of it, so once again we recorded by Braille you might say, that is, without a click. Shelby manages to make the soprano lead feel like a solo and a group part at the same time. I don’t know how she does that. 8. PAPER BOAT – An exquisite ballad written by Shelby Flint for Al and Susan Jarreau’s wedding. “We went out to sea on a small paper boat; nobody thought we could keep it afloat.” They did, though. Alvin Chea not only sings the bass part but adds a layer of vocal adlibs that make me sigh every time. Plus beautiful duet lines with Shelby and Michael. The lovely sax lines are played by Gerry Peterson. Shelby plays keyboards. 9. 50 WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVER – My fantasy scenario: Michael is sitting in the park watching his dog run around, New York, humid sunset. He is ruminating about love, as his best girlfriend comforts him. When we sang, Julie put a gospel spin on the choruses, so we went there too. 10. I AM HIS LADY – A love song, deep and shallow like a river. “Faster than a flood in spring, slower than a sparrow with a broken wing, but a song to sing, I’m his lady.” Love’s not perfect. Shelby basically is when she sings. 11. TIME AFTER TIME – We sang this at my wedding. The song has that kind of sweetness and juice. 12. I DON’T GO SHOPPING -- A big ballad by our friend David Lasley and the late, great Peter Allen. Michael sings the you-know-what off this one and adds a synth bass part to the bluesy keyboard part played by Bill Cantos. (Have you noticed that just about everyone in our group plays keyboards and writes? Because I have.) Only four voices on this one, with Julie singing soprano. 13. TOO YOUNG TO GO STEADY – Or as Michael once said on stage, “Too broke to go steady.” Now why did I want us to sing this teenage song of the 60’s? I just love the melody. I wove in a lot of ridiculously hot chords and key changes. The arrangement put itself into 6/8 the second time through. I was just sitting there. Four voices with Shelby on very soulful soprano. 14. BELLEVILLE RENDEZVOUS – My husband and I became obsessed with the Oscar-nominated, animated French film “Triplets of Belleville.” He suggested this song for Inner Voices. I asked guitarist John Goux to play like Django Reinhardt in a club in Paris in the 20’s. He brought his special “Django” guitar and blew us all away. This song is athletic and fast, and you have to keep your wits about you to sing it at all. Big fun. Both Julie and Shelby sang the soprano part. 15. LITTLE DID I DREAM – By Johnny Mandel and Dave Frishberg. A perfect little up tempo out-of-the-blue love song with wonderful solos on the bridges by our tenor Sheri Izzard, who sometimes reminds me of Karen Carpenter for a moment. Four voices with Shelby on lead. 16. GLAD WE THREW IN TOGETHER – I see it as a backyard love song, lying “with my eyelids to the sun,” grateful for a good man lying next to you. Sheri sings the solo and you know she means it. All five of us sang, with Julie contributing the very sweet “together oh yeah’s.” 17. UNLESS IT’S YOU –There are Johnny Mandel songs all over this album. Can’t help it. Nobody else writes like that. He has been a powerful influence and great friend since we met in Big Sur when he was scoring “The Sandpiper” and I was working with John Derek on some X-rated script. Johnny wrote this all in four note phrases. I took up the gauntlet and wrote not only rhymes but also inner rhymes. It’s probably the hardest song of the bunch to sing, but satisfying. And as the odd numbered 17th song, it lets us land on one foot, which takes some skill and humor. I like that. Morgan Ames