Private Recordings

In this section I will feature some tapes of live gigs that are from my collection. For the most part they are meant for the hard core listener and are a good reflection of the way I like to deal when I am playing live.

Note: Buffering time for audio selections may vary depending on the speed of your internet connection.

“Dickies Dream”

Preparing with Lee Konitz to record, he handed me the Lester Young solo from “Dickie’s Dream,” one of the landmark tracks from Prez’ early recordings with Count Basie. On the record date for fun, Richie (Beirach) and me recorded the solo and played on it. This harkens back to my lessons wtih Lennie Tristano when I was 17 when I had to sing along with Lester-full circle.

Sax Quartet playing “A Moody Time”

This is one of my saxophone quartets, in fact this has been played a lot over the years. Beginning as a piano piece, this comes from a particular personal period of my life which is obvious from the title. I think what musicians like most about this piece is the ending 15/8 vamp which is a lot of fun to play on as I am doing here. These are some of the saxophonists from the WDR in Koln , Germany where I did many wonderful performances in the 90s.

Tender Mercies – From a cassette recording of a gig in Champaign, IL

This features me on flute in a post Eric Dolphy, contemporary style. In fact, it reawakened my interest in performing on C-flute again after nearly 20 years. The other musicians are Joel Spencer (drums), Kelly Sils (bass), and John Campbell (piano).

Part One:

Part Two:

Reve d’Amour – Duo with Bobby Avey

From a live performance of Gabriel Faure’s “Reve d’Amour” done at Purchase College in Westchester, NY., this gig was in preparation for the recording “Vienna Dialogues” (Zoho) featuring pianist Bobby Avey and myself playing classical songs,. We chose most of the repertoire from from the Romantic era. This music is all about melody and harmony, and attempting to musically be oneself THROUGH the composer’s language.

“Picture Show”

These tracks are from a record I did called “Picture Show” (available from P.M .Music) on which I play all the instruments. This was rather early in the synthesizer and multi tracking overdub days (mid 80s). The record (at that time LP) was reflections of various idioms and moods I enjoy playing in from jazz to rock to classical, and “world music.”

Drums and Tenor Duo:

Ethnic Suite – Indian Summer:

Elvin

This is a recording of a solo soprano saxophone piece which is published and available through Caris Music Services. It is titled “Elvin,” obviously for Mr. Jones, and based on thematic aspects from Elvin’s original composition which I recorded in 1971, “Three Card Molly.” The soprano saxophonist is Jean Charles Richard, a former student from Paris who obviously excels in both classical and jazz, as is the case in many European musicians. Though the music was written for solo soprano, as it is dedicated to Elvin Jones, it can be accompanied by drums in a free form style, incorporating mallets, brushes and sticks both in and out of pulse. On this track, I am playing drums.