B.H.F.J (Bringin' It Home for Joan)

There is a widely help belief, rumor, call it what you will, that the initials B.H.F.J stands for Bong Hits for Jasper. This is entirely untrue. It's not clear where this rumor started, but hopefully, we can start to put this unseemly gossip to rest. The initials actually stand for 'Bringin' It Home for Joan'.

So, to be clear,  B.H.F.J. is not the stoner anthem that many would have you believe. Instead, let's talk about what this song is. It's a song about love and devotion albeit with a slightly compulsive rhythmic urgency that mirrors the complexities of modern day life without bogging the listener down with an idealized notion of what a relationship could be or should be, but instead provides a realistic and insistent interpretation of what it is.  ...So clearly, this song is not about bong hits!

Despite the controversy, B.H.F.J. has played on more than 30 smooth jazz stations across the country.

Day After Day

I must have heard this Badfinger song once or twice a day during my 3 years in middle school. We had a juke box in the cafeteria, and that's where I kept up with the top 40 hits. I always liked Day After Day.  I went for the sentimental songs rather than the hard rock ones. In any case,  I took some liberties with the song form adding a few extra measures and a few extra chords.    


Giovanni et Paulo

This one is dedicated to miei due fratelli (my two brothers). They both loved rock when we were growing up. I, of course, was into Jazz, so I tried to strike a balance between the 2.

In December 2008, JazzLynx & Cafe Jazz Radio, out of Canada, featured Giovanni et Paulo calling it "a study in contrasts".

Interlude

This is one of several piano solo interludes on the CD. I used them to give the listener a different color from the ensemble pieces. They were all improvised and played at various times over the course of a year or so.

These Days

People often start a phrase with 'these days' and then go on to say how things are different now than all the 'other' days. It's ironic then, that with this song I was striving to do something that composers have done over and over in the past. That is, to write a 'simple' song. A tune that seems to be familiar even if you haven't heard it before. There is a bit of a twist in the melody. At one point I spin things out maybe one more time than you'd expect. But other than that, it should lull you into a sense of calm that may well put you to sleep! Well, no matter, as long as you have good dreams.

Gotta Do Something

I was looking for something that wasn't as smooth as some of the other songs on the CD, something with a bit of an edge. I thought a blues would be nice. I improvised a simple melody and then recorded a couple choruses and then a couple more until it was somewhere between 3-4 minutes. Besides the interludes it's probably the most spontaneous piece on the CD.

America the Beautiful

It was late at night and I had just been reading the paper. It was about a year or two into the Iraq war and every article was extremely discouraging. I was feeling a sense of loss and sadness but somehow this great melody by Samuel Ward transcended all that, and reminded me of beauty past and the possibilities of the future.