Recording session post-mortem

I was in the studio last weekend, recording some very challenging, highly arranged, often counter-intuitive music for a 6-piece quasi-jazz outfit, and had a few random thoughts about it:

• Recording easy music for your own record is harder than recording hard music for someone else's. 
• Preparing by playing easy stuff in the feel and tempo of the pieces you're recording is a great idea. 
• So is clearly segregating the parts of the arrangement where you need to play functionally from those where you need to play creatively. 
• Hey, simple stuff played solidly in time and with authority sounds great. 
• This music involved some difficult reading, with lots of rhythm section stops, which made it prone to dragging. Using a click both removed any second guessing about tempo and insured that it would be possible to borrow sections or parts from various takes if necessary. 
• A little emotion goes a long way. Just play the notes in time with a good sound. 
• And finally: My 22" Paiste 602 Dark Ride does indeed rule. Making a fortissimo crash on the thing makes you feel like McCoy Tyner. Powerful.