Day 1 - Point of DepArture

/// Welcome to the guided tour for my album ‘Chicory Root’ … AKA ‘EXPEDITION’ ! ///

Our party, well equipped and in high spirits, embarks from the city into the unknown …

Jonesin’

Jazz is the music of the city. Our point of departure. Where the speed of life and pressures of modern living are reflected in the rhythms and improvisations of the jazz masters.

This song honors one of those masters, Hank Jones. One of my favorite pianists. Jonesin’ takes several of his licks from various solos and melds them into a blues form. I’ve always appreciated Jones’ clarity of line and elegance of touch and sought to capture some of that in this song.

Compositionally, it has a deceptively tricky melody, especially for horn-players, and a little shout-chorus style drum solo at the end. My band often starts concerts with this song, the blues form provides a solid foundation for both the band and the audience to get comfortable, find the right vibe, and then set off for distant shores.

‘Big Pharma’

Does the pressure of city and/or modern life ever get to you?

Entire industries have been established to alleviate the side-effects of modernity but often what we really need is to leave the modern world behind for a while and pursue the frontiers of nature.

This is the stage of the journey where we leave the city, its comforts and its pressures. Set off for distant shores, the cover of forests, or the elevation of the mountains. All is possibility, excitement, and wonder.

This song was written as a study of the great Billy Strayhorn tune ‘Upper Manhattan Medical Group’. It, like many of Strayhorn’s compositions, is very unlike the usual songs of its time.

It began as a study, a way for me to wrap my ears around Strayhorn’s masterpiece. However, after I wrote a new melody, did a slight re-harmonization, and added a little rhythmic hook at the end of the form, I realized that I had a new song that I liked.

Can you figure out what time signature the hook is? (without looking at the chart of course)

Bonus Material!

Below are a couple of live performance videos for you to check out. They were recorded at Chris’ Jazz Cafe in Philadelphia and the Lafayette Bar in Easton, PA, respectively. If you are ever in one of these places, I highly recommend catching a show there! The vibe is undeniable.

For me, over the years, both places have been monumental in my growth as a musician, composer, and band-leader. They have offered me not only a place to play and test new material, but also a place to go and listen to some of the masters.

Places like these are essential to the arts. They serve as a gathering place, a safe harbor, a point of departure.

Day 2 ->