Album Notes

Now based in Vancouver, British Columbia, baritone saxophonist Chad Makela attended the University of North Texas on a scholarship, obtained a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies and played with the renowned One O’Clock Lab Band for three years, working with Randy Brecker, Joe Lovano, Slide Hampton and Peter Erskine. After leaving the Dallas-Fort Worth area he lived in Washington, DC, arranging, writing and playing with R&B artists Percy Sledge, Jerry Butler and Lloyd Price. He also began playing bari and clarinet for the Doc Severinsen Orchestra; Makela still tours with them several times a year.

Reading this capsule résumé doesn’t prepare one fully for the pliant creativity of the original compositions and edgy improvisations on Flicker. The quartet with trumpeter Brad Turner, bassist Paul Rushka and drummer Jesse Cahill was recorded live at the Cellar Restaurant/Jazz Club in Vancouver on May 8, 2004.

Turner won the National Jazz Award for Musician of the Year in 2005, plus awards for Jazz Trumpeter of the Year in 1999 and Jazz Composer of the Year in both 2000 and 2002. Widely respected as a composer in addition to his talents as a trumpeter, pianist and drummer, his own quartet's critically acclaimed debut release Long Story Short was followed in 1998 by There and Back. Also in that year