Saturday 22 January 2011

2011 release - Sound Check


Sleeve Notes by Clark Tracey, December 2010

Disc One - Duet

This session was evocative of some of my earliest childhood memories of playing duets with my dad on piano and myself on vibes. We've never performed in public in a duet format since I took up drums and the album title is a clue as to when we do get the opportunity.
My mum, ever an influence on dad's musical output, first proposed that we should record this album. She was emphatic that our soundchecking duets should reach fruition in a recording one day so, in her honour, this is it.
We began without a plan, other than a vague mood or a style, and almost segued between the freely improvised pieces, so it felt more like a performance. The running order is the way we recorded the pieces and the finished version is unedited.
What comes through strongly to me are the many musical influences we've shared, sounds I grew up with and flavours of places we've visited. In this sense, it was a unique experience for us and one that we've ended up happy with, extracting from us both places hitherto unexplored.

Disc Two - Trio
The session continued the same afternoon once Andrew Cleyndert joined us. A trio album was overdue and we'd prepared some material already, including "Angelica" and "Goodbye", both outside our normal repertoire. The trio has been together for about 15 years and also forms the nucleus of Stan's other line ups so, again, the mutual empathy is well founded. Andy has always found a way of comfortably sliding into the dialogue that Stan and I share, complementing both musicians equally while retaining his strong, virtuosic individuality.

Sound Check is available from ReSteamed Records