I'm BAAAACCCK.

Happy New Year, everyone! I've been on self-imposed maternity leave for almost three months and I've missed you people! I'm going to ease my way back into this blogging thing and am hoping that 2010 brings me many exciting things to write about.

First of all, yes, she's here, and her name is Susannah. For the privacy of my family I'm trying not to print too many details about either of my kids this year, but I will give you this one photo. (Proud momma can't resist.) She's almost ten weeks old and we're just getting into the new rhythms of our larger family. I may not be sleeping much but I'm having a most wonderful time. Molly is a dream of a big sister. I know I'm gonna have a hard time when they're both teenagers, but for now, I'm in pink heaven.

So. Back to it. Professionally, I realize there are a lot of things I missed in the time when I was hibernating. The biggest, most important thing I want to tell you about is the release of my friend Kate Baldwin's album, Let's See What Happens (PS Classics). It came out in late October (I was kind of busy with other things that week), and it's a dreamy collection of golden-era songs written by Yip Harburg and Burton Lane, separately and together. I mention this album for two reasons. 1. I wrote the orchestration to one of the songs, a tune called "Moments Like This." It's track #3, a torchy ballad that I scored for four saxophones, piano, bass, and drums. The band said it sounded like Lawrence Welk and I took that as a compliment. Also, 2. Kate Baldwin is the singer on the recording of my "Alphabet City Cycle" and I think she can do no wrong. Beautiful woman, beautiful voice, beautiful spirit. You should check out her website (www.kate-baldwin.com), order or download her record, and keep your fingers crossed that you get to see her on stage. (You've got about two weeks to catch her in the Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow before it closes.)

Okay, that's enough for tonight. Thanks for reading! Woo-hoo -- I got a whole thing completed without a peep from that sleeping baby. Will wonders never cease?