Steve Khan & Rob Mounsey: You Are Here (1998)

Steve Khan and Rob Mounsey released You Are Here on October 6, 1998 through SIAM Records, reuniting more than a decade after their Grammy-nominated album Local Color. Their second collaboration blends contemporary jazz with Latin, Brazilian, and West African influences, pairing Khan’s acoustic guitars with Mounsey’s electronic keyboards and orchestral textures.

Guest percussionist Marc Quiñones brought another dimension to the partnership. “That album didn’t have a Latin percussionist on it, so it was a little more dreamy,” Mounsey said of Local Color in the original promotional materials. On You Are Here, percussion became an integral part of the album’s rhythmic character.

Both musicians brought extensive experience to the project, including shared work on Steely Dan’s Gaucho. For Mounsey, the recording offered an opportunity to explore a question that had followed him through years of studio work: “For the past 20 years, with each technical step forward, I always ask myself, ‘What would it be like to take the sounds we use on pop hits, and use them in the jazz world?’”

At Mounsey’s Flying Monkey studio in New York, the pair developed compositions through extended improvisations, then used digital recording tools to shape their strongest passages into finished arrangements. Spontaneous playing and studio craftsmanship worked together.

The album’s international flavors even show up on the menu: “Clafouti,” “Platanos Maduros,” and “Peanut Soup” take their names from foods. Alongside them are the Brazilian-influenced “Fazendeiro” and Manolo Badrena’s “Viajar y Viajar.” Each partner also contributed a ballad: Mounsey’s “Still Life with Mockingbird” and Khan’s “Anhelante,” which shifts between free tempo and a steady pulse.

You Are Here captures two longtime collaborators finding fresh possibilities in their musical friendship, drawing on sounds and rhythms from around the world.