| re:Visions - About the Music: |
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All music composed & arranged by Earl MacDonald unless otherwise indicated. Earl MacDonald Music, SOCAN.
1. Friday Night At The Cadillac Club 3:53
I wrote this chart while touring with Maynard Ferguson’s Big Bop Nouveau Band, back in 1998. MF band mates, Dave Throckmorton and Jim Brenan provided valuable input as we considered what would make a fun, energetic set-opener. In my memory, I can still hear Maynard's signature sound improvising in all the spots that now feature Pete McCann’s dazzling guitar playing. In 2002, Sammy Nestico selected this arrangement as the winner of the USAF sponsored award named in his honor. I framed and mounted the personal letter I received from Sammy which says “we arrangers have to stick together”. It was a thrill to work with the Airmen of Note as they prepared the piece for performance. This chart has since been performed by many professional and university jazz ensembles across the US and Canada.
2. Mr. Sunshine 7:10
Mr. Sunshine is the affectionate, "pet name" given to Connecticut bassist, Dave Santoro by saxophonist / jazz educator, John Mastroianni. I couldn’t resist composing a tribute to Dave, using this title. This is the follow-up commission for winning the Nestico Award. Jordan Perlson’s musical interpretation on the drums really gave the piece cohesion and life. Mags plays with such melodiousness and that fat, beautiful, even tone for which he is known. My good friend Jim Brenan demonstrates his authoritative command of the tenor saxophone. I hope people takes note of his incredible talent.
3. Measuring Up 6:54
Measuring Up was originally one of three movements in a larger work I wrote for the University of Connecticut Wind Ensemble, directed by Dr. Jeffrey Renshaw. When the deadline for completing the piece was looming, my wife was nine months pregnant with our first child. I remember being extremely nervous and apprehensive about my new paternal role and the life changes ahead. I believe that some of the uneasiness and trepidation I was feeling was captured in the music. “Measuring Up” incorporates the fast tempo broken beat drum style of the contemporary, underground, electronic dance music known as “drum and bass”. Jordan Perlson did an exceptional job. I am not aware of many drummers comparitively as versatile, musical, and well-schooled.
4. Bad Dream 6:58
The 32-bar melody for “Bad Dream” was written an hour before a jazz composition class lecture I gave at UConn on the topic of contrafact melodies. In addition to bringing in the typical, expected examples (Donna Lee, Prince Albert, Hot House, Ornithology, etc.), I wanted to show that this compositional practice was still alive and well today, by writing something new. The night before, I had a terrible nightmare that continued to haunt me the next morning. It occurred to me that I should write my contrafact melody over the harmonic progression of “You Stepped Out Of A Dream”. I recorded this piece with my sextet, and later developed it for full big band. The big band arrangement was premiered at the 2005 Music Educators National Conference in Baltimore by the MENC All-Eastern High School Jazz Ensemble. Night terrors are reproduced by creating "atypical sonic environments" achieved with unconventional notation practices drawn from contemporary classical composition techniques.
5. Joshua 6:44
This is another arrangement that I originally wrote for Maynard Ferguson. It is intentionally simple and leaves plenty of room for blowing. Ralph Bowen frightens me with his ability to effortlessly weave through transitions in and out of 3/4. Hearing Ralph, Michael Mossman and Kenny Davis all prominently featured on this one piece causes me to remember how influencial and inspiring their "Spiral Staircase" OTB recording was for me in my early 20s. Their musicianship was one of the reasons I selected Rutgers for my graduate studies in jazz performance.
6. Woody ‘n You 5:35
Dizzy Gillespie was a pioneer at fusing jazz harmonies and melodies with the rhythms of Latin America. I chose to give his tune “Woody ‘n You” a full-blown salsa treatment, complete with a Mambo at the end. Again, Ralph Bowen’s technical facility and musicality leaves me awe struck.
7. Character Defect 7:36
To work through personal challenges or times of frustration, some people go running, some talk on the telephone, others write in journals or blogs. I usually go to the piano and improvise. I try to allow both my thoughts and improvisations to develop organically. I find that improvisation / composition and problem solving are closely related. Ideas unfold and are shaped in the process of examining a situation from different angles. Following an especially frustrating meeting, I returned to my studio, sat at the piano keyboard, and tried to understand the stance, motivations and mindset of a seemingly adversarial colleague. As my improvisation and thoughts unfolded, I tried a more empathetic approach. While pretending to see the world through the other person’s eyes, I began to see my own flawed ways. Through this process, the piece “Character Defect” unfolded. When I eventually arranged the piece for full jazz orchestra, the two solos came to represent two ways of looking at the same problem, or perhaps the attitudes of two individuals in conflict who had never taken the time or effort to understand one another.
8. Bu Who 6:39
Bu Who is my tribute to the late, great jazz drummer, Art Blakey. In the 1940s, he adopted the name Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, which led to the nickname “Bu”. The title came to mind while teaching a jazz history class where the entire class admitted to having never heard of Art Blakey or the Jazz Messengers. This sad truth reminded me of the important role jazz educators play in teaching the rich history of the music we love, and introducing the next generation to the recorded legacies of the master musicians who are no longer with us. In writing this one, I tried to capture the flavor of hard-bop (reminiscent of the Jazz Messengers) by alternating a swinging shuffle and Afro-Cuban rhythms.
9. Jana’s Song 7:48 This gentle jazz waltz was written as a surprise for my wife on our wedding day. My groomsmen (including saxophonist Jim Brenan as best man) hid their instruments under the church pews and pulled them out on cue. I later developed this piece for full jazz orchestra within the BMI Jazz Composer’s Workshop. It was selected as a finalist for the Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Award in 2007. In “Jana’s Song”, I consciously wrote through the seams which link definable passages. In some cases, the ensemble continues to play well into a solo so as to guide the soloist’s improvisational approach and gradually relinquish my control as composer to the soloist. A highlight for me was Mark Patterson's inspired and truly unique solo work on trombone |