SINGLE RELEASE! “From the Thames to the Pacific,” and My Process in its Creation

I’m so excited to have delivered this into the world. I’ve been working incredibly hard in the last few months to refine it. This piece had come to represent London and the Thames; yet when I flew home to California, the piece tied London to Long Beach, and the Thames to the Pacific…. Now, it’s about all of that and more: interconnectedness. I want it to bring that realization, along with movement, joy, and the gorgeous hope we have for better times ahead.

This is a solo-saxophone piece that is based in the spirit of EDM, in that repetition plays a key factor in both the piece’s identity and its development. Overall, though, improvisation is king when it comes to the evolution of the piece as a whole. Moreover it is structured improvisation; i.e. there is a main melodic idea that carries itself throughout the piece, used to signal both predesignated tonal centers and form. Transformations and variations happen, planned and unplanned, that grant an additional compositional element to the improvisation. Much of the unplanned improvisation happens from about 60% through, where there are several minutes dedicated to spontaneous creation. Though there are predetermined melodic and tonal centers, improvisation plays a role in “filling out” the rest of the details in the main melody, tonal centers, and especially the transitions between.

And I do this all while maintaining a groove in time. This was the biggest butt-kicker! My mental workouts with planned and unplanned material had to be in time, the whole time. I truly enjoy the challenge of putting pieces like this together, for they allow me to have fun, make music to move and groove to, and push my musicality, technique, and audiation ability to its limit.

Audiation? What is that? This term has become central to what I play and what I teach. Throughout this piece I’m remembering what I had played, and what I’m about to play, in the moment I’m playing. I’m giving meaning to the music in my inner ear and my memory, or in other words, audiating that music. Audiation is the process of mental music comprehension. It goes beyond merely thinking about a musical phrase or song. For example, just as we give meaning to words by forming sentences as we speak in context of a conversation, so we can give meaning to musical patterns, phrasing, and harmony in the context of tonality and meter as we perform. Of course, music is not language, and in the moment of performance and listening it is more multi-modal than language. Nevertheless, the more a musician can strengthen their inner ear and their memory through practice, the more able they are give meaning to the elements of music in their minds, whether in composition or performance.

Jazz musicians are professional audiaters. We audiate all the time when we improvise. In a musical performance, a musician both recalls and predicts the music that will come. This is an essential practice for any musician, but to recall and predict with understanding is an essential practice of audiation. Constant audiation is therefore a main feature of improvisation, as improvisers react both to the sounds physically present in the moment and to what they are audiating in the moment.

In this video, I am the only performer. Therefore, I am relying mainly upon my audiation ability, while maintaining a sense of time and groove.

It’s a shame that audiation is not spoken of much in the jazz world. A jazz musician who digs deep into audiation will realize a deeper, holistic understanding of everything they study, from feeling rhythmic complexities, to learning “licks,” to ear-training and harmony. So, besides making music I love, I want to bring audiation the attention it undoubtedly deserves in the jazz world.