handmade -- conga jazz!
I named this album
handmade because all the rhythms were performed using hand percussion instruments: three conga drums, two maracas, and a cowbell. Against this background I have highly melodic improvisation, jazzy chords, and of course a groovin bass line.
I play every instrument you hear on this album--guitar, bass, Hammond organ, keys, and drums.
If you want to know more about the music, have a look at my
Wordpress blog. From February 3 to March 7, 2007, I wrote detailed “liner notes” for each of the songs on this album. Here they are, indexed according to track number:
- Patterns in the Sky: part 1, part 2
- Abandon in Place: part 1, part 2, part 3
- Like the Ocean Needs the Moon: part 1, part 2
- The Outer Banks of Love: part 1, part 2
- Nothing Left but the Sea: part 1, part 2
- City in Flight: part 1, part 2, part 3
- Night’s Bridge: part 1, part 2
- Volcanology: part 1, part 2
- A Dream of Flying: part 1, part 2
- In Search of Forgotten Names: part 1, part 2
- Pinelands
- Harriet Tubman Lives: part 1, part 2
- A Spy in the House of Pancakes
- Rafting Down the Lethe
The Album Cover
My wife gave me a wonderful present for Christmas this year:
a quilt she had made for me. Each of the sections of the quilt is a pattern that tells something about me--musical notes, chili peppers, stars and planets, mad scientist cats doing chemistry.
When I saw it, I knew it was the perfect symbol for this album--it was, literally, handmade. It was something
put together with care, performed with love, given with joy. I feel the same way about this album, and I hope you enjoy listening to it.