Album Notes

The fifteen eclectic pieces on this CD, BLUE SOLILOQUY, not only explore the many sonic possibilities of the soprano, they also take listeners on a blues-inspired, cross-cultural journey from West Africa to the Far East, from Western Europe to the jazz clubs of New York, then all the way down south to the Mississippi Delta.

This project is a follow up to my 2007 solo saxophone release Monk Abstractions. Whereas Monk Abstractions was about using Thelonious Monk's music to showcase my discoveries of sounds and textures on the soprano, this CD, however, follows the same concept, now with the blues being at its core.

Many people see playing solo saxophone as some type of novelty, but I take it much more seriously. I see it as one of the least developed formats in jazz, worthy of further study and exploration--the body of solo work of Lacy and Braxton being the exception. I foresee a day of when solo saxophone will as viable a format as solo piano. I want people to see this CD not just as a virtuosic display of extended techniques, but as the second installment of a body of work that I plan to record in which I hope will shine a new light on the possibilities of the soprano and on the concept of solo saxophone."