Album Notes

It was the eighties and fusion jazz was quickly morphing into Fuzac and Smooth Jazz two schools of “thought” I won’t waste the ink to disparage. I had the incredible good fortune to be exposed to the music, and complex harmonic theory of former Miles Davis sideman Dave Creamer who George Benson once called “absolutely the most fantastic guitar player alive in America.” As fortune would have it tenor sax king Larry Schneider had recently left New York after a stint recording with Bill Evans. I formed the band Quiet Fire adding Michael Wilcox on bass, Glenn Cronkhite on drums and percussion, Kenneth Nash on percussion and Paul Van Wageningen on drums. We went into the studio and in one day recorded the basic tracks of seven compositions of mine. Kenneth added his percussion at his studio, fleshing out the sound with his lyrical percussive palette of incredible sounds.

Some of the music is light and happy and very Latin, and some of it resonates at deeply introspective levels. I’ve found all of the music continues to inspire me today, twenty-two years later. I find all of it marked by the incredible musicianship of the seven players who played with such intensity and conviction. I probably paid them $100 each for the sessions which was very little back then. Looking at how well the music stands the time test, I’d call that a hell of an investment!