Album Notes

Growing up in the 70's I was exposed as much to non jazz sources as I was to jazz. These compositions represent my love of the music of Burt Bacharach, Paul McCartney, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.

I never have consciously copied these people; however, the shapes of their beautiful melodies were in the air for me when I was just getting started. The combination of beautiful melodies with somewhat astringent, piquant harmonies along with phrasing that is sometimes asymmetrical is a feature especially of Bacharach, Bernstein and Sondheim and perhaps best describes the compositions on this album.

These people were well known for writing "show tunes". Many great jazz performances are based either directly on "show tunes" or compositionally derived from "show tunes". I believe therefore adopting a similar approach for these contemporary compositions is well within the jazz tradition, even as I try to incrementally move things forward.