Art by Montreal mobile artist Mana Hemami, cover layout by Greg Williamson.
I’m happy that my new album In Lieu of Flowers is out and paying tribute to so many musical and personal influences. The new collection of songs pays homage to jazz luminaries Wayne Shorter and Maria Schneider, while also honoring the lasting influence of music teachers and personal inspirations. You can get the release from Bandcamp or your favorite digital channels.
The Quartet
On In Lieu of Flowers I play tenor and soprano saxophones, joined in a stellar quartet lineup by highly in-demand drummer Jimmy Macbride, versatile bassist Lorin Cohen on both acoustic and electric, and Chamber Music America grant-winning pianist Grant Richards. I’m psyched that together they have been able to create a cohesive modern quartet sound that propels music forward while staying in touch with the music’s roots. A special thanks to this great band!
Jimmy Macbride, Dave Anderson, Lorin Cohen, Grant Richards outside Samurai Hotel Recording Studios. Photo: Grady Bajorek.
How did an album of (mostly) tribute songs come about?
For me, people remain the most fruitful inspirations for writing songs. A person (or the sad loss of one), can create a strong feeling/impulse for a musical idea, and I will sit with a musical instrument (saxophone, piano or sometimes now guitar), jot down the original idea, and see if I can develop it into a song. This has produced original tribute songs on my prior recordings including Troubled Angel, The Aviator, Osby-An (for Greg Osby), Juror Number One/Two, Svetlana, Blue Innuendo (for Joey Defrancesco), The Phantom (for Joe Henderson), Querida and A Candle for Isaac. Person-al inspirations have been very productive for me!
I’ve also realized that paying tribute is becoming a family tradition. My father, Emmett, also believed in paying homage... After my mother, a dedicated geriatric nurse, passed away, he commissioned the design of a stained glass window for the facility she had worked (and died) in, depicting life’s journey through the seasons in a colorful composition. He also honored the aunts and uncles who had raised him with an engraved stone monument in their Wisconsin farm field.
River of Life stained glass at Minnesota hospital
Stone memorial to my great aunts & uncle in Wisconsin
Personal Tributes on this album:
More about the songs…
I had started writing a song for" late, great composer/saxophonist Wayne Shorter before he passed away, and finished “One for Wayne” afterward, which contains some nods to his tunes “Speak No Evil” and “Deluge.”
I wrote “Thilmany” in tribute to a family that was friends with mine growing up in Minnesota, including a peer who passed away as a young adult.
After losing my mother years ago, I created a small haven in my apartment to help process the loss, emerging from it one day to write the song “Sanctuary,” performed here as a duo on soprano sax with Grant.
I wrote “Lost City” the year I visited Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) on a student music tour, finding a beautiful city in decay from decades of totalitarian rule.
“Arms of Maria” honors active jazz composing legend Maria Schneider (a fellow graduate of the University of Minnesota). I was thinking about her graceful, ballerina-like conducting style when I wrote it.
“Stell” is dedicated to one-time National Association of Jazz Educators’ educator of the year James Stellmaker, whose reverent students secretly referred him by this nickname. “Stell” makes a musical pun out of “Stella by Starlight,” while honoring Mr. Stellmaker’s exemplary musical and family life.
A cyclist named James Gregg perished in an accident in my Brooklyn neighborhood; he is now memorialized by a white bicycle on the same corner. “Ghost Bikes” pays tribute to this type of memorial and the 33-year-old man who inspired it.
And finally, “Sandy’s Ladies” — originally written on guitar — is named for my friend and pandemic guitar teacher, Sandy Carter, a man whose life journey has taken him from West Coast guitarist, to hot rod aficionado, and now also a devoted attendant to his granddaughters.
Thanks for checking out In Lieu of Flowers!