Bill Mays discusses his different roles as performer and producer

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Bill Mays discusses the importance of an audience

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Bill Mays talks about performing solo

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Q: “You have produced records yourself; what do you try to do differently as a producer than you do as a performer? Is there anything?”

A: “The records that I produced I've been the performer on, and/or the arranger and the composer. Two that I think of immediately are with Mark Murphy, the one called 'Bop for Kerouac' and another that we have coming on in April as yet unnamed and what I try to do, first of all, was to make Mark feel as comfortable as possible while … in trying to move the session and get it done in eight hours, which is sheer madness to try to do a record that fast when there’s tricky arrangements involved like we had. I tried to make the performer, the artist, as in Mark's case, as relaxed as possible, so that he'll sing his best and feel comfortable. And I tried to arrange the small band that we had, which was just six pieces, in such a way that it would sound as big and full and rich as possible.”