Description

by Eric Bolvin

Listen

1) Three Thing

2) Hey Jude

3) Tribute 2001

4) Pindrop

5) Places

6) Bridge By Candlelight

7) Chelsea Bridge

8) The Fly

9) Ballad Of Bear

10) Circles

11) Faded Duck

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Album Notes

1. “Three Thing” is just that; a thing in ¾ time. I wrote the head of this tune as an uninterrupted flow of ideas, with one melody flowing seamlessly into the next. The melody is also atonal, but is not dissonant or “out there”. I always try to make my tunes accessible, even the modern jazz ones. The changes are also very difficult so I decided for blowing over minor blues.Tom Politzer gets the first solo followed by Joe Heinemann on piano. Tom is currently solo tenor with Tower Of Power and Joe is living in San Francisco. Peter Booras takes us home with a drum solo.
2. “Hey Jude”. People wonder why I called this tune “Hey Jude”? Because you can’t copyright song titles! Kind of a silly idea actually. I play the Donald Byrd role on this tune; I don’t play the melody or take a chorus, just fill in where needed. Ken Harrill plays a nice guitar solo during the interlude which features some cool modal changes which have become known as “Bolvin changes”.
3. “Tribute 2001” was written the day after the tragic passing of pianist Smith Dobson. I woke up and heard the news and went to the piano and this song was “waiting there” for me.
4. “Pindrop” was originally written for just bass and trumpet. I then recorded the tune with the entire band but settled on the “Ornette” trio of trumpet, bass and drums.
5. “Places”. I originally wrote this as a piano feature for myself when I was playing piano in a local band. I have used this tune to open many shows. This one features the whole band.
6. “Bridge By Candlelight”. I had this cool head with a pedal point but had no bridge. One night I came home from a gig and the power was out, so I lit a candle and got my flugel out and started noodling around. Joe Heinemann takes an excellent ride on this one. One take Jake!
7. “Chelsea Bridge” is the beautiful Billy Strayhorn ballad and is our only cover. This was the first recording I did with my Conn Vintage One flugel. I did change the key to make it nicer on the flugel.
8. “The Fly”. This is a crazy blues that I wrote one day on a break from teaching lessons. There was a fly buzzing around and he actually flew into my mouth! So I dedicated the song to him. This features Ken on guitar and then Dan Robbins takes it solo on 7 string bass.
9. “Ballad Of Bear”. Bear was an old cocker spaniel that was mostly deaf and blind. Practically the only thing he could hear was me practicing trumpet. This features some nice work from Ken on guitar and Tom on tenor over some tough changes.
10. “Circles” was originally released on my four song EP but I thought it deserved a wider audience so I remastered it for this cd. This tune features a whole different group of cats.
11. “Faded Duck” is the “secret track”. This is a big band tune I wrote and recorded back in 1984. I really wanted to release it someday so hear it is remastered for cd.