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Stomps Pieces & Variations |
The compositions represent a diverse cross section of Ben's writing with influences ranging from Herbie Hancock to Jelly Roll Morton, Brazilian music, gospel and Bartok. The title reflects the influence of pre-modern jazz styles, re-interpreted in a contemporary setting.
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Trio Piece In Seconds And Thirds |
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Bananeiro |
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Maxine's Stomp |
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No Tengo Un Puto Duro |
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The Game With Mirrors |
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The Deadly Vice Of Nostalgia |
Track Listing
1. Trio Piece In Seconds And Thirds (3.13)
2. Bananeiro (4.49)
3. Maxine's Stomp (3.27)
4. Scumbag Blues (2.58)
5. I Sold You And You Sold Me (5.54)
6. No Tengo Un Puto Duro (4.26)
7. The Tomasa Variations (7.42)
8. Pearls Before Swine (3.47)
9. The Game With Mirrors (6.51)
10. Study In Seconds And Thirds (1.23)
11. The Deadly Vice Of Nostalgia (4.10)
12. Spring (5.42)
13. Stand A Little Taller At Yom Kippur (5.41)
14. Five Note Rag (5:50)
About the tunes
The pieces on this album were written over a period of 14 years, so some of them have been around for a long time. It feels good to have recorded them so I can move on.
Big thanks to Rod and Danny for their creativity and musicianship, and all their hard work bringing these ideas of mine to life. I couldn't have done it without you, fellas!
Trio Piece In Seconds and Thirds is a stride influenced composition a bit reminiscent of Ellington's Money Jungle. The melody is harmonized entirely in seconds and thirds. I was very excited when Danny agreed to bring his temple blocks.
Bananeiro is a tribute to the late great Brazilian drummer Milton Banana, who set the standard for samba kit drumming in the 60s with his energetic arrangements of bossas filled with kooky breaks. I've done my best to create a piece in the spirit of his trio. I was hoping "Bananeiro" would mean "Banana-ish" in Portuguese but a Brazilian friend thought it would probably be understood as someone who sells bananas. Oh well.
Maxine's Stomp is dedicated to my cat, Maxine, who died a few years ago. During the period I wrote it I was listening to and checking out a lot of pre-bop jazz and it started to dawn on me that I too could have as much fun with jazz as these people. I may come from a more "modern" background but I thought I could include stride in my repertory of styles to draw on.
Scumbag Blues - an up tempo blues - the head is more of a short arrangement for jazz trio than a melody, and I realised too late that it bears an uncanny similarity to a certain Herbie Hancock tune.
I Sold You And You Sold Me - The title is borrowed from a song in the novel 1984 by George Orwell:
Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me:
There lie they, and here lie we
Under the spreading chestnut tree.
No Tengo Un Puto Duro - In Spain a duro is five cents, so this means "I don't have a fucking cent", something I heard people saying a lot there. This was close to being true at the time; I had run out of money in Barcelona but was determined to make a go of it there anyway, and for a little while I did.
The Tomasa Variations - Another modern take on the 1930s, we become a mini big band for one tune. The chord progression of the A section is similar to that of a salsa standard called La Negra Tomasa, hence the name.
Pearls Before Swine is a boppish tour of a few unrelated minor keys.
The Game With Mirrors - a ballad that features the album's only drum solo - Danny is definitely a lateral thinker. I wrote this piece in 1993. The title came from the phrase I used at the time to mentally sum up a whole raft of my vague quasi-philosophical musings.
Study In Seconds And Thirds - When I was 17, I had a teacher who was determined that I would learn to sight read better; he did this by making me sight read pieces from Mikrokosmos, Bartok's collection of short piano pieces. I wrote this piece at that time, and I think the influence is apparent. I remember being taken with Bartok's pieces that were based on one or two intervals; I tried something similar myself with this one, restricting myself to seconds and thirds. Including a piece from my adolescence could be seen as a bit of shameless sentimentality. Maybe it is.
The Deadly Vice of Nostalgia - Young men are supposed to look bravely forward towards the future, but I'm still trying to throw away love letters I received when I was 12, and all the awful poetry I wrote as a teenager.
Spring - It's a bossa. I wrote it in spring.
Stand A Little Taller At Yom Kippur is actually a very serious ballad piece, it must be a mark of my immaturity at the time I wrote it that I had to give it a joke title (and one that isn't even funny). I was quite down when I was finishing music school, I felt like I'd wasted three years of my life (according to me then, going to class was stopping me from practising Cherokee and Bud Powell licks - now I'm glad I did the course). I said to a friend "Oh well, I've wasted three years but now that I've got a degree at least I can stand a little taller at Yom Kippur" (ie have some adult credibility with relatives etc). I don't even go to Yom Kippur, and if I did I wouldn't see my extended family there. I am Jewish though.
Five Note Rag - The melody contains only 5 notes. It's a rag.