Resolve

This recording came about as a result of a couple of shows I played where I explored some of the boundaries of world music, jazz, and improvisation with a number of like-minded collaborators. I'd been playing this free-improv thing mixed with jazz, some Indian/Arabic stuff, and God knows all-else and hearing the sounds over and over again...and there were some wonderful musicians who helped it spring to life. We attempted to create an ideal balance between complete improvising freedom, improvising with some structure, and also 'playing through the changes' in much the way that a standard tune unfolds. The record continues this attempt, while also including expressive contours from different types of world music and other things that were interesting to me. 'Love' and 'West of the Nile', reflect my interest in Indian and Arabic music, reflected through jazz-improvisation's lens. When the low notes of the acoustic guitar on 'West of the Nile' are played with the building drums and upright bass furiously working away in the background, the effect is pretty different from what would be generally identified as 'Arabic' or 'North African'. 'If I Had Known' is a waltz-ballad that presented a real challenge to the group due to it's deliberate tempo, which allowed for many different 'builds' within the piece. 'Resolve' and 'Circumnavigation' build from very basic source materials into pretty free improvising, though with a completely different flavor (in the case of 'Resolve', a complete shift in feel from the melody to the improvising; and with 'Circumnavigation', a modal, very rapid waltz-time). 'Advent', which opens the record, is nothing more complicated than a melody that made me think of spring, hence the title... I hope you enjoy the music. Feel free to contact me about it (clintonsmith2001@yahoo.com). I'd like to hear what you think.