Final Project - Jet Black - A Collaboration with Nomi Ruiz

I first "met" Nomi Ruiz in the Spring of 2011. I say "met" because we had already worked together. Nomi had recorded two songs, "Someone to Hold" and "Your Company" prior to us actually meeting in person. Up until then it had just been email exchanges. This was the beginning of our journey to creating our album, "Jet Black." This album not only represents who Nomi is, but who I am as a producer. I am proud of this project and believe that people will relate to it and am happy to give Nomi a forum to speak as a transgender artist.

All of the music for this album was done by myself before Nomi and I got together in the studio (although we did have someone play live bass on a few songs.) I sent tracks to Nomi that I thought she would like. She would then pick her favorites and write to them. After the writing was finished, Nomi and I went to The End recording studio in Brooklyn to record the album. We booked four sessions for five hours each and recorded ten songs. Nomi is very fast in the studio, which is a pleasure for me as a producer. She is such a great writer and harmonizer. She had told me that many of these songs helped her get through a tough time in her life, that the writing was an outlet for her. That hit home for me because many of the "beats" that I produced did the same for me. It was truly an honor for me to work with her on this project.

This album took us 4 years to complete. It was tough to get in the studio because of Nomi's busy touring and appearance schedule. The reason that I have not posted the entire album is because we are still shopping it around to labels, trying to find someone who will distribute it for us. This is a tough process, and although there has been much progress in society accepting transgender people, there is still a ways to go. I think that Nomi can be a voice for that community and show people that transgender individuals are just like you and me. I came into this project having never met someone like Nomi and left with a greater understanding of who she is and what she represents. On this album, she puts her feelings on display and reveals the person that she is, and I give her a lot of credit for having the courage to do so. I'm hoping that this album gets an official release before the end of 2015, but you never know. The one thing that I do know is that we have something special and unique that I cannot wait to share with the world.


Listen to "Sailing" from the album Jet Black.