fugitive imagination

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York Sessions is Paul’s second independent release under his own name. Recorded in the spring of 2001, this CD reached #1 on the CHRW Radio Western jazz charts where it stayed for the whole of that following summer. Featuring some of Toronto’s finest young musicians, York Sessions is another collection of all original material. There are some re-workings of tunes heard on Live at the Jack Lyons Concert Hall, along with newer compositions. This time, the music is comprised of works in a slightly more traditional modern jazz framework: the swinging “One Up (One Down)” and “Two Moons” are evidence of that. There are tips of the hat to the funkier sounds of Keith Jarrett, and also some tunes influenced by Pat Metheny, one of Paul’s idols .

Recorded: April 2001
Toronto, Canada

Steve Macdonald — saxophones
Dan Austin — basses
Jamie Messum — drums

1. Two Moons 8.13 (mp3, 128kbps, 7.7MB)
2. Long Gone 6.15 (mp3, 128kbps, 5.8MB)
3. Padinam 7.34
4. Song Of Forgiving 7.45
5. Of Travellers And Thieves 6.04
6. One Up (One Down) 4.33
7. The Angels 4.43
8. Phase Two 7.27

Liner Notes…

“Two Moons”: The title was suggested to me by a friend who thought the alternating 4/4, 6/4 meters sounded like the phases of the moon, but what if there two moons? I wonder how tides would react, or lunatics for that matter.

“Long Gone”: I’ve spent a lot of my time travelling, sometimes for many months at a time. I never really feel homesick per se, but there are always certain things that I have to return home to indulge myself in. Be it friends, family, or just the surroundings that one grew up with, these are very powerful forces. The last eight bars make me think of the last 50 kilometres before home, or the moment the plane begins descending to land at Pearson airport in Toronto. This tune could have been called “Long Time Gone”.

“Padinam”: The title is phonetic for the French “pas de nom”, meaning without a name. It sounds better than “Untitled” I think. This is my homage to Keith Jarrett tunes from the 1970’s. It’s a simple chord progression with a very singable melody. After listening to the performance it also sounds like it would be a good “credit theme” for a late night talk show.

“Song of Forgiving”: I have always been attracted to the compositions of Miles Davis and those of his mid-sixties quintet (Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock). This tune is “circular” being 21 bars in length. The commonality of tones between seemingly unrelated chords makes the progression very ‘forgiving’ when soloing. Also, this is a song about letting go, about forgiving, be it yourself or someone else. The act of forgiveness requires a strong heart and can often involve a great deal of pain. In the end though, we all feel better when we have forgiven or been forgiven.

“Of Travellers and Thieves”: This was originally written for the text of Jonathan Lindsey Sheehan’s poem of the same name. Writing for poetry often necessitates some metric shifts, hence the bar of ¾ in the middle of the form. From the poem, a line which sums up small group performance: “To the crowd they speak aloud, all the four as one.”

“One Up (One Down)”: This tune is based for the most part on two intervals, a minor second (ascending or descending, hence the title), and a tritone. The form is AABA with each section six bars long. This was initially a tough one for us to get our heads around, but after a few rehearsals it felt quite natural.

“The Angels”: This song is written for a guardian angel who watches over a close friend of mine. Sometimes I think we all have one, how unlucky we would be to not.

“Phase Two”: The whole tune just popped out of my head one night, all twelve bars in one go. Do you ever feel that the events in your life never actually change but just enter different phases? Or do we just interpret them that way? There is a great line from the movie “Magnolia”: “We may think we’re finished with the past, but sometimes the past isn’t finished with us.”

Thanks to…Sean Dalton and Michael Coghlan at York University for co-ordination assistance, Wes Cheang and Scott McCutcheon for the Mini-disc recorders, Mike Tamasi for the effects processor, Theo Schachter for mastering software, Brad Vanderzanden at SOCAN, Kevin Greene, Jeff Floyd, AFM Local #279, The Bacchus Lounge, London, Brewery Bay, Orillia , The New PL, John Sharpe at SCENE, and Andreas Gripp at CHRW Radio Western.

Cover image by Paul Aitken
Designed by Paul Aitken
Recorded by Paul Aitken
Engineered by Paul Aitken

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