Sea Breeze Jazz SB-3039

"impressive trio interplay" - Cadence Magazine

Hear short audio excerpts

(In most excerpts only the chord progression is pre-determined; everything else is improvised.)

Pow (36 seconds)

Circle (42 seconds)

Groove Tune (31 seconds)

Mind of Easy Tripper (41 seconds)

To order (all proceeds go to support jazz scholarships at Cal Poly):

Send $15 to Active Listening CD, Music Dept., Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407

Active listening is a special way of listening to someone that is used in conflict resolution, among other areas. It tries to ensure that what another has said is truly understood. The collective improvisation on this recording similarly depends upon everyone in the trio actively listening to what the others are spontaneously playing, and then responding creatively.

What may sound like composed arrangements came about spontaneously, in most cases, during recording as a result of the trio actively listening. While the chord progressions for most of the tunes were pre-determined, nearly everything else was collectively improvised.

While active listening and spontaneous interaction is a hallmark of jazz, these pieces allow a very broad range of creative freedom and responsibility. Most of the pieces permitted any type of spontaneous interaction, including all kinds of musical textures.

What was improvised:

Pow - the accents in the piano solo, the bass solo, and the second chorus of the drum solo

Circle - the fragments and variations of the melody, and the starting and ending points for playing the melody without variation

Pyre - everything but the main melody and chord progression

Groove Tune - everything but the chord progression

For You, For Me - everything but the short opening melody

No Decision Is Final - After the initial main melody, the trio rotated through a series of duet improvisations over a pre-determined chord progression, with the third person accompanying the duet. The sequence of duets was pre-determined, but the timing of the change to the next duet was improvised.

Everyone Is Right - everything but the chord progression

It's Nice to Be Nice to the Nice - everything but thechord progression

Mind of Easy Tripper - the solo section except the straight-ahead swing section and the preceeding accents