I just uploaded my newest album “A New Season” and it will be appearing in stores soon! Like many of my other releases, this album features a lot of different styles of music and a number of inspirations. This album kind of tells a story about this past year in my life, but more than that it was just a lot of fun to produce. This features 3 songs that were recorded on an Apple eMac G4 which was fun to produce with. It incorporates a number of different instruments, and marks the first recording with flute for me, which is in the background of “The Fondness of Heart.” I also use the Yamaha Portasound keyboards a few times on this album as well as a Buffet E11 Clarinet in A on “Come Back To Me”, which is an instrument that is mostly used in orchestra and doesn’t really appear in jazz; but any instrument can be a jazz instrument if the player wants it to be. I also used a very rare Bundy Mazzeo Model Clarinet on “Bossa Nova Clarinet” and “Childhood Memories.” Of course the Kohlert and the Buffet 1193 from my school held down the bass clarinet work on this album, and the Yamaha YTS-23 on the tenor sax stuff. One other thing is that this album marks the last album that has my schools Selmer Mark VI Bari Sax, as I had to return it this past semester and that was very sad, so enjoy its beautiful low notes one more time.
This album represents the roller coaster of emotions that I experienced this semester, both the good times and the not so good, and a longing for the way things were and a looking back to the past. It also represents a future of teaching music and playing music and expression though new and different styles of music, while not abandoning the old things that I have always had in my music. My goal is to incorporate other styles into my music and be inspired by other musicians, but not become a clone who sounds like and plays like everyone else. Music is expressive and individual and we as musicians should have the right to freely play and write the way we want without having someone tell us that our style is wrong or bad or “traditionally incorrect.” Music is an expression of ones self, and that means different things for different people. There is no such thing as a right or wrong way to play music. ” Take the traditional principles and twist them to make your own style, music is an art after all!
You may notice that of the instruments I list that I used, only one of them is a “professional model” instrument. That was intentional. Most of the horns I own are “student model” instruments and I use them quite a bit. In fact, very note you hear played by a clarinet or a tenor sax on this album was played on some old student model instrument and all of the Bb clarinets used were plastic. I do this on purpose to prove that equipment doesn’t make you a good musician. I enjoy using instruments and equipment that are seen in most people’s eyes as useless or are considered to be not standard, and taking it and doing something really cool with it. Sure it takes more work, and of course people are critical of it, but it’s worth it to make something really unique and special. To add to that, this whole album was produced on a 2008 Mac Pro and a 2004 eMac G4 using Garageband from the iLife 11 and 06 suites respectively. Again, this was done intentionally to prove that you can make good music that people can enjoy on equipment that is not the industry standard. There is so much more to music than what brand or model of instrument you play or what recording equipment you use, and its your right as a musician to make those decisions for yourself. Play what you works best for you and enjoy making music, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. With all of the inspiration stuff out of the way, I hope you can enjoy this album!