CLAVE CLIMATE liner notes

WELCOME HOME kicks off this new collection with perhaps the most quintessentially straight-up Latin Jazz cut on the album. The energetic full band arrangement is inspired by the later work of keyboard masters Chick Corea and Eddie Palmieri. Dedicated to my wife, Susan.

The title cut, CLAVE CLIMATE, is a relaxed Cuban groove with a clear emphasis on the clave. Apart from being a percussion instrument, the clave beat really is the essence of syncopation in all Latin music, much like the swing of traditional jazz. Latin music listeners insitnctively know where the clave is at all times.

IN SUSPENSE really is something new and innovative for me, particularly in it's use of double-tracked flute. For the music theorists, the harmony is rendered in fifths, which gives the melody a rather ancient feel...played on top of a modern jazz rhythm, the result is something not easy to pigeonhole, but definitely funky and even danceable!

FROZZENOVA BOSSANOVA takes it's title from a cold day a few Februarys ago, when I simply needed something to warm up with. It's been a popular staple in my live Re:Groove shows and solo piano gigs ever since.

I first heard IT'S YOUR WORLD as it was being recorded in Boston many years ago for the live album of the same title by Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson. Gil's powerful message married to Brian's electrifying musical arrangement just knocked me out, and has stayed with me ever since. As the only cover tune and the only vocal tune on "Clave Climate", this was an important inclusion for me...songs like this one are timeless reminders of the truth, which has no expiration date.

STEP INTO THE SHADE for me conjures a hot Havana afternoon, when the time has come to get out of the sun and sip on a rum cocktail while watching the world spin slowly by. Make your own shade and chill out however works best for you.

NEW YEAR SAMBA has been sitting "in the can" since it was first recorded on New Year's Day several years ago. The tempo is pretty slow for a samba, but just right for the use of the virtual soprano sax treatment I coaxed from my Casio DH-100 Digital Horn. I love it when I can get this kind of organic sound from electronics!

Many years ago, I composed a tune called "Solatino" which was in the setlist of every show with The Roger Ebacher Quintet. Originally titled "Son of Solatino", the new title of AFROSO is a better fit for the feel of this improvisation, which calls to mind some of simple elegance heard in the work of one of my inspirations, African piano legend Abdullah Ibrahim (a.k.a. Dollar Brand).

The album's closer, THAT NIGHT IN TIJUCA, is my love letter to the people of Brasil. On the last night of a trip to Rio in the 80's, I was taken to hear some live music at a large open-air venue in Tijuca, a few miles outside the city proper. The music started in the early evening, about sunset, and continued non-stop until the wee hours of the next morning. Every conceivable genre of Brasilian music was played that night, but it was the samba that was most memorable. Every person present regardless of age knew the words to every samba, and all sang together in harmony...reducing me to tears. That night in Tijuca is one I will never forget.