Making the album
In August 2024, over the course of three days, Matt recorded all 20 songs for the album plus many other songs to be released on later projects. He was joined by producer, Jeff Young, music engineer, Jeremiah Gowen, and wife, Tiffany Grinke. This was Matt’s first time recording his own project and he is looking forward to booking many more hours in the recording studio between cruise contracts.
The tracklist
“Songs in Walt’s time” is exactly as it sounds, each and every one of these pieces would have been heard by Walt Disney himself before being approved for use within Disney’s tv shows, movies, and parks. Below you will find anecdotes and stories about each song.
Mickey Mouse March
Funny story about this track… when we were originally deciding which tunes would be on the album, Mickey Mouse March wasn’t even on the list! On the 2nd day in the recording studio, I was warming up and just noodling around on the piano, and the “M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E” melody came out of my fingers. ALL of us in the studio in that moment decided that this instantly recognizable melody needed to be a part of the album. We hit record, and I tried a couple different renditions. Our producer, Jeff Young, said that I should try slowing it down into almost a kick-line for the end of the track. In the moment, my brain also decided that the slow-down needed a key change to go with it. That take is what appears on the album! In other words, this tune went from not even being considered for the album to being the opening track in about 15 minutes.
chim chim cher-ee
The Sherman Brothers’ Oscar winning tune from Mary Poppins! I think that any great tune has the inherent ability to be adaptable. Irwin Kostal’s brilliant arrangements of the songs in Mary Poppins allow this tune to shift from mysterious to joyful and carefree to somber, all while keeping the melody and chord progression exactly the same. Like Remember Me in the Pixar film Coco, the tempo and intention behind a really solid melody drastically changes how it is emotionally perceived. While the Sherman Brothers undoubtably created dozens of memorable melodies, I believe that Chim Chim Cher-ee absolutely deserves the honour of being their only Oscar winning song.
Bella Notte
Now, going into the studio to record this album, many of the arrangements were improvised. Some tracks took a few takes to get the style I was going for just right. This is one of those tunes that I absolutely love playing and have played hundreds of times, so playing it always feels like saying hi to an old friend. It also represents one of the most famous scenes in all of animation, where the two ends of a piece of spaghetti are being passively consumed at the same time by two shy dogs, until at last their noses meet in the middle, pause briefly, and pull apart as the spaghetti turns to butterflies in their puppy tummies. Picturing that scene while playing this tune, I always try to capture that particular moment through faster rhythms, modulations, crescendos, and some big ole sweeping romantic chords. After the first take of this song in the studio, we all thought (as Lady and Tramp did for each other) “that’s the one”!
Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo
This track, unlike Bella Notte, was hardly formed in any kind of coherent way before the recording session. This is one of those tunes where the arrangement is different every time that I play it, which is really the joy and terror of recording. The joy of “oh right, I really liked how I played it that time. I’m glad it was recorded”, and the terror of “oh, but I play this song differently every time, and now there’s a ‘permanent’ version that exists, oh no”. However, I was reminded in the studio that when folks go to see their favourite band, for example, they are both delighted with “they sound exactly like they do on their album” and also “wow that’s not how they played it on their album, cool!”, and to not be afraid of the permanence of recording an album, but to embrace it! The motif of the open fourths on this particular version of Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo were very “in the moment”, and not really how I’d ever played it before… but I thought “wow, that was kind of cool”, so we kept it on the album… PERMANENTLY!
You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!
Never growing up is something that I take very seriously. I just think it’s so important to keep that childlike curiosity and wonder about the world at the forefront of the often monotonous day-to-day of adulthood. There have been many times in my life when people have questioned how and why I know so much about Disney, and if it’s “useful”. I believe happiness is useful, and whatever your passion is, you shouldn’t let anyone tell you if you should or shouldn’t be pursuing it. If it makes you happy, do it! I just happen to also be passionate about a company that creates and encourages happiness itself! As the story goes, Peter Pan was the first piece of theatre that Walt ever saw, and ignited his lifelong belief that there’s a child in every grown-up. Naturally, there needed to be a tune from Walt’s version of Peter Pan on this album, as a gentle reminder to never grow up!
SOME DAY MY PRINCE WILL COME
This is the oldest song on the album! It is also, in some ways, the most popular song on the album. When Snow White came to the silver screen in 1937, it was an absolute phenomenon. Everyone saw this film. This was also the era when jazz music WAS pop music. Nearly every jazz artist under the sun covered Some Day My Prince Will Come during that era, and in every era of music after it! It’s a mainstay in almost every sheet music compilation book; books like “1000 Best Songs Of All Time”, “The Real Book”, “Favourite Disney Classics”, the list goes on. All from an animation of a girl singing about a fella she met once by her wishing well. Funny how time works, eh?
JOLLY HOLLIDAY
Yet another great Sherman Brothers tune! This was another arrangement that came into the studio fully formed. It’s one of my favourite songs to play, and I play it often for the guests. A question I get a lot is “how do you memorize so many songs”, and the honest answer is I’m not really sure. However for this song, I sing it in my head as I play, and then almost in-the-moment transcribe it. I can literally hear Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrew’s singing in my head, and I’m just accompanying them. Then when I take a solo, I’m picturing what the choreography may be, or how they’re dancing to it. It’s really bizarre, but a LOT of fun.
SO THIS IS LOVE
Of all the songs on “Songs In Walt’s Time”, this might actually be the song that I’ve played the most! It just happens to come up in many of the sets I play: “Walt’s Time” (of course), “Disney Love Songs”, “Princess Night”, plus every wedding that I’ve played on board. It’s also a very malleable tune that can be fast or slow, soft or loud, so I’ll often play it a couple times a night depending on the crowd's energy. Plus it’s one of those Disney tunes that everybody knows, and I love hearing people hum along during the “call and response” (So this is love… hm-mm-mm-mm… so this is love). In terms of that sweet nostalgic feeling, this one hits in all the right spots, and I just love playing it!
BABY MINE
There’s a little bit of a rather embarrassing story about this particular recording! There were a couple times in the studio where I would refresh myself on the chords of some tunes, just to quickly brush up and make sure I wasn’t completely off the mark. While brushing up on this tune, I discovered that there was a B section! A whole “middle 8” that I had not been playing for YEARS! So I quickly sat down with the “Disney Fake Book” and learned a new section of this song that I’d played probably over a thousand times (incompletely), and then we hit record. Luckily, it was one of those “first time’s a charm” moments, because after the first take, I went back into the booth and everyone had tears in their eyes, so I suppose the middle 8 sounded okay.
A DREAM IS A WISH YOUR HEART MAKES
Yet another Cinderella tune on the album! The music in Cinderella is so good, we couldn’t have just one, or even two. Originally, we were planning for this album to only have 12 tracks, but the further along we went in planning and development, the more we thought that this first album should be a big one. There is so much good Disney music from Walt’s time, many of the tracks that we planned to put on the album didn’t even make it. We’re reserving those for future albums though, don’t worry! A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes was actually the opening track of my grad recital at jazz school, and that recital has an archival recording around somewhere, so I think that this may actually be the first Disney tune that I ever recorded! That was a long time ago now though, and the arrangement is totally different now, as it is pretty much every time I play it. Even today, the chords still catch me off guard! This one is a blast to play.
THE BARE NECESSITIES
Okay now, I know what you’re thinking, “Matt, the Jungle Book came out in 1967, and Walt passed in ‘66, so how is this a song in Walt’s time?!”. So, in The Jungle Book’s development, it started off as a much darker film (more strictly based on Rudyard Kipling’s book) than the one we know and love today. In development, Walt had hired composer Terry Gilkyson to compose for the film, but his songs were too ominous, so Walt brought in the Sherman Brothers. The one song of Terry’s that survived development though was the Bare Necessities, which was ultimately nominated for an Oscar, and remains one of the most beloved Disney tunes of all time. So, while Walt may not have been around to see the success of the Jungle Book, he would have definitely heard the songs during production, and therefor, I most definitely consider the songs from the Jungle Book as songs in Walt’s time. Like the film though, I also had a heck of a time getting the music right. I tried so many takes on the first day of recording that just weren’t landing, so I said look, I’ll just sleep on it and come back tomorrow and try again. The take that made it onto the album was the very first one I played on day 2 of recording!
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
This is another one of those cheeky tunes that the jazz folks of the world have claimed as their own. Definitely one of the most famous versions of this song was performed by Bill Evans on his Village Vanguard album, where he performs it as a waltz, which has 3 quarter notes for every measure. The original song in the 1951 Disney film has 4 quarter notes for every measure, so I went back to the song’s roots for this recording. It’s strange, because the jazz real book claims that this song is a waltz, but like, come on Jazz folks, just watch the opening titles for the movie! The song is in 4! I do wonder, at what point down the line did sheet music publishers decide that this song needed to be permanently available as a waltz, when it literally goes against the original artistic intent of the composer, Sammy Fain. Shoutout to Dave Brubeck, who in fact did record this song in 4 on his album Dave Digs Disney (though the intro is in 3, the solo section is in 4. Again, shoutout to Mr Brubeck for pleasing both sides of the coin). Anyways, thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
TRUST IN ME
I think this song is super underrated, ESPECIALLY in the category of Disney Villains. Plus, the Sherman Brothers absolutely nailed the alliteration in the lyrics for Sterling Holloway to interpret as the hissssing villain Kaa the snake. “Slip into silent slumber, sail on a silver mist. Slowly and surely your senses will cease to exist”. It’s so deliciously creepy and slithery, and it is absolutely another one of those tunes where I can hear Kaa singing in my head. I also tend to play this song quite often, as it fits into “Heroes and Villains”, “Sherman Brothers”, and of course “Walt’s Time”. Every time, I discover something new about this piece or a different way to interpret the chords and melody. It’s fun to get into character with the performance of this one and really milk it.
ONCE UPON A DREAM
Had to get some Sleeping Beauty on the album! Heck, the castle in Disneyland is called Sleeping Beauty’s castle, and Disneyland is the most “Walt’s Time” thing ever! Side note, it’s kind of wild that Disneyland (and its castle) opened in 1955, but Sleeping Beauty wasn’t released until 1959. Walt must have been pretty darn sure that Sleeping Beauty was going to be a success. Anyways! This song was actually written in 1889 by Tchaikovsky, the same guy who wrote the Nutcracker. The animation studio wanted a very classical feeling for this movie, so they took a lot of musical inspiration from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty ballet. However, Tchaikovsky was so musicaly ahead of his time, that the chords for this tune actually translate really well into the jazz idiom, with all of its chromatic movement and secondary dominants.
THE LEGEND OF THE SWORD IN THE STONE
So, the Sherman Brothers had been writing for Disney for a couple years on films like the Parent Trap and Summer Magic before they were assigned to their first animated picture, the Sword In the Stone. This tune, being the first one of the movie, would have been the first Sherman Brothers tune ever heard on an animated film, giving it a special place in the “Walt’s Time” catalogue. Plus, my favourite chord progression EVER is a dominant 3 chord landing on a minor 6 (my brother Joel and I lovingly refer to this as a “Chordo Ultimo”). This particular tune has a brilliant lead up to an absolute banger of a chordo ultimo that I very vividly recall Joel and I “rocking out” to in many a car ride. I don’t often play this tune in a regular “Walt’s Time” set due to its relative obscurity to the rest of the tunes, but it needed a spot on the album. I hope you also find yourself “rocking out” to the slightly chord-substituted chordo ultimo on this track!
CRUELLA DA VIL
The villain that needs no introduction! This was one of the very first arrangements that I wrote for my Disney big band (the Happiest Big Band On Earth). Every time I play this song is an adventure into bombast and recklessness. For some reason it feels particularity good to smash on the piano during the final chorus of this tune. For this recording, I pretty closely followed the arrangement that I did for the big band. I think about that band, and the wonderful musicians in it, often, and tried to channel the feeling of all 17 of them playing their faces off into this recording. In the solo, I attempted to emulate the sporadic prickliness and sarcasm of Cruella herself. I remember meeting her in Disneyland and asking her to sign my sheet music for this tune, and her reaction was “UGH, what a DREADFUL piece of music!”, but she still signed it of course!
I WAN’NA BE LIKE YOU (THE MONKEY SONG)
Much like every other Sherman Brothers tune, this one is an absolutely blast to play. It’s such a swinging bop, that it’s often overlooked that it’s a villain song! Like, King Louie is singing about kidnapping Mowgli and forcing him to make fire for some dastardly purpose! I do appreciate the Sherman Brothers reasoning for making this villain song upbeat and jazzy… “what do monkeys do? They swing on trees! They swing!”. They suggested getting Louie Prima, one of the most swinginist hip cats of the time, to play the part of King Louie, and when they approached him with the offer, Prima responded with, “you wanna make a monkey outta me?”. Brief pause. “…ya got me!”.
FEED THE BIRDS
“Songs In Walt’s Time” simply would not be complete without Feed the Birds. As the legend goes, this was Walt’s favourite song. Walt would call Richard Sherman into his office and simply say “play it”, and Mr Sherman would go to the office piano and play Feed the Birds. With a tear in his eye, Walt would pause at the end of the song and respond with “that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”. Now of course on the surface, the song is literally about feeding birds. But dig slightly beneath the surface, and you will find that this song is about the simple, everyday things that we can do for each other to make the world a better place. THAT, as Walt said, is what it’s all about. It is an absolutely joy playing this tune for Disney guests. All ages from different walks of life still connect with this tune 60 years after it was written. Almost everyone has a story of “this my favourite song”, or “I remember seeing Mary Poppins in theatres”, and I think just by people sharing their stories and love of music with strangers, this song is still continuing to live out its timeless message.
WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR
There are some songs that feel like they have always existed. I mean, how could there have ever been a time in history that didn’t have When You Wish Upon A Star? The melody is flawless, while being SO chromatic and filled with tension and release. For some reason, this melody just FEELS like Disney. The company thought so too, when in 1954 (14 years after the songs release), it became the theme song for the Walt Disney anthology, and continues to introduce most of its films To this day. We can talk all day about how perfect the melody is, but it’s truly the original vocal performance of Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket that makes this song an all-time classic. To me, playing this song feels like taking a step back in time. I ALWAYS get goosebumps after playing the first 7 notes of the melody; there’s true magic in this piece. No doubt, it’s most definitely one of those tunes that when Walt heard it for the first time, he probably offered his highest praise to composer Leigh Harline: “That’ll work”.
MICKEY MOUSE MARCH (REPRISE)
After deciding that the Mickey Mouse March was going to be the opening track, it was a split second decision that the reprise would be the closer to the album. It feels like putting a sweet little bow on top of a nicely wrapped gift. I often like to end my set at the end of the night with this short tune, usually no matter which set it is, and I invite people to sing along if they know the words. “Now it’s time to say goodbye” will often make me a little misty eyed, but it’s the smiles on people’s faces when they sing “M-I-C” and I respond with “see ya real soon”, “K-E-Y”, “Why? Because we like you”, that really tends to get the waterworks flowing. It’s amazing how music connects us all, but it’s truly spectacular how the music of Disney has a way of connecting us through nostalgia and hope, and the reassurance that everything is going to be okay. I truly feel very lucky that I get to do what I do, but none of it would be possible without people to interact with, and the support of listeners and guests who enjoy what I do. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for listening. It’s never goodbye, only “see ya real soon”!