Album Notes

You don't have to be a jazz aficionado to truly enjoy this CD, but if you are, you will appreciate the varied and historic performance styles on "mosaic". The selections bridge periods from the early days of jazz to the semi-contemporary work of Leonard Bernstein, Jimmy Webb, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. As such, it showcases the range of musicianship still present in Kansas City's performing artists. Noel Scott (tenor, alto Sax) and Don Warner (piano, guitar, B-3) have performed in Kansas City's best clubs, including EBT where they have worked three nights a week for several years. The ensemble includes drums, bass, and vibes. Adding strings (from the Kansas City Symphony) and a horn section (including Lonnie McFadden on trumpet/flugelhorn) enlarges the arrangements and enhances the fullness of the performance.

Gretg Richter's unique arrangements with exquisite chord substitutions, voicings, and solo beds allow the performers to stretch out. Yet, strong traditional elements retain the mainstream jazz sound. Even the more contemporary solo treatments of Venus, Didn?t We, Wave (and others) retain a lyricism that does not require an advanced music degree to appreciate!

The MOSAIC OVERTURE is a concept of Scott's to unify the cuts that follow into a single body of work. In this context it foreshadows and is not to be taken as a stand-alone cut. It translates us to "some other time" where the ensuing mosaic progresses and regresses in period to the conclusion of the CD. The lyrics of SOME OTHER TIME whimsically return us to the present as we wonder, "Where has the time all gone to?"

One of the final recordings of Steve Peters, , KILLER JOE, was edited as a tribute to Steve. (During this project, he was killed in his home during a burglary.) At the song's conclusion the other members of the ensemble fade out, leaving the walking bass of Steve to carry on into the distance.

"mosaic" is, in fact, a collection of jazz components which have been arranged in such a way as to create art.