The story behind this song begins back in the 1970s when I was in college. I was a fan of the jazz band weather report. (I still am.) Recently I was watching an Amazon prime biography on the life of composer and saxophone player Wayne Shorter, a key member of the band. Of course it was about the music; but it was also a story about a human being finding their way through life, a consistent theme throughout all of my work. This particular composition was written in response to that stimulation.
While it has elements in it that follow my general trend in composition, including an eccentric component installed by a fragment of Frank Zappa DNA, the horn arrangements are certainly inspired by Wayne Shorter, although of course no one can equal his skill as a player or composer.
If you listen carefully you’ll note the timpani in it, certainly not typical of a weather report composition, which introduce an suggestion of thunder rolling through parts of the song.
The photograph here is of the phragmites reeds on Piermont Pier, taken yesterday after two days of heavy rain just as the storm was clearing up. We have been getting rain every weekend for the last seven weeks, more than an inch every weekend, no doubt a consequence of the increased evaporation that takes place on a warming planet.
Nonetheless, life goes on, and above the clouds the sun keeps shining.
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