When Snarky Puppy won a Grammy in January of 2014, the question I was asked most was, Was this on your bucket list of things to do before you die? And my answer to each of them was, actually, no. I have only one thing on my list. The only thing I want to do before I die is make an album with an orchestra.

It had been a topic of discussion for three months at that time. During the October 2013 recording sessions for We Like It Here in Utrecht, our good friend Friederike Darius had invited two of the Metropole Orkest s managers to join us as guests. Within ten minutes of the performance s end, we had already crafted a plan to make a record together. Sometimes life is that easy. Not always, not most of time, but every once in a while, it is.