Louis Durra – piano, Jerry Kalaf – drums
Domenic Genova – bass 1-6, 8-10
Barry Coates – guitar 07, 11
Sam Riney – flute 07

At home we all heard each other’s music. My mother liked a radio station that played orchestral versions of pop songs – “Mood Music” was one of the names for the genre. There was a willingness to let simple chords ring out, warm and direct. I think it expressed something about her. The album was inspired by her music tastes and a few things she said.

01 About The Same (Durra) //

The title is from the phrase, “How’re things”? “Oh, about the same”. An evening-walk-on-a-warm-beach quality to the playing.

02 Mood Music (Durra) //

The notes of the chords are displaced – a couple of notes here, a couple there. Bass and drums come in slowly. Domenic playing roots with “lyrical asides”. The elements melt together – sounds cinematic.

We’re playing with phrase lengths. The playing goes across the lines, reacting to, commenting on the melody.

The album was recorded in Los Angeles with old friends. We recorded in Jerry’s studio. We could rehearse, leave everything set up for the next day, listen back just a few feet from where we played.

03 Hold Fast To Dreams (Durra) //

This is a nice group for … everyone disappearing into the music. Three minutes in, bass and drums “got out of the water” rather elegantly for a few bars of solo piano.

Each song found its own style of accompaniment. There wasn’t much said, the sounds just developed through playing.

04 Strangers in the Night (Kaempfert / Singleton / Snyder) //

My mother’s favorite song. She often asked me to play it. Hearing her songs now is like remembering dreams.

The plan was to do an album of her songs, and this was the first one chosen. but I started writing music and let the project develop another way. If I make decisions, I try to stay open, let other things happen.

Many musicians have disliked this song, including Frank Sinatra, who had a hit with it. Simple songs have their own challenges.

At some point in life I figured out that resonating with other instruments, disappearing into the collective sound was part of my job as a pianist.

05 You-Know-What (Durra) //

It’s nice having different recources to draw on. This melody sounds like a clarinet line from the big band era, but the harmonies are something else.

I used to want to “be unique“. Reacting, absorbing sounds, and saying something through all of that are more interesting now.

I’ve played half my life with Jerry and Domenic. We know where each one might go.
On this song Jerry does an interesting-rain-falling-steadily-on-an-interesting-skylight thing …
“what should I do when you play like that?”
“whatever sounds good to you.”

The solos tend to develop out of the melodies.
Affects how we accompany. The accompaniment evolves slowly – there aren’t “away they go!” moments.

The bass solo comes first … chromatic and tuneful both. Nice swing feel during the bass solo. Jerry’s playing … A lot of thought and nuance goes into his “ding ding-a ding” 🙂

06 The Tide (Durra) //

I really like how this came out. Sounds like water moving, like rippling water.

Motivic playing. Phrases start before or after the chord, not with. I see pictures listening to this. Duxbury Reef, north of San Francisco, a place from my childhood with beautiful tide pools.

A recording can mark the end of one phase, the beginning of another … the end of a perspective soon to be left behind, the beginning of something from “tomorrow’s house”.

07 Tidal River, Mendocino (Coates, Durra, Kalaf, Riney) //

Tracks 07 and 11 were recorded for another music project with Jerry,
a band called “Looper Colony”. Sam Riney plays tenor flute on this track.
The sustaining sounds are from Barry Coates’ guitar. Everything floating.
Barry passed away not long after. I miss him.

I used to make hard decisions about melodic rhythms. Now I play ’em differently every time.

A simple impulse repeating. Everyone playing so little, reacting. They’ve spent years … practicing recording, like learning another instrument.

08 Gewitter /(Durra) //

The German word for a thunderstorm. I was picturing clouds darkening, the air pressure changing.

There are a few inversions, chords with different bass notes underneath. Gives an unsettled feeling. The bass becomes important. I love how Domenic supports the track. Jerry is letting so much space go by – seems like a difficult way to play.

They’ve played on hundreds of recordings, many tours … The music benefits from their experiences. Jerry has been like a mentor, we’ve done a lot of recording together.

What does each song want to say? What can be expressed with each song ?

09 Ned (Durra) //

Written thinking about author Ned Vizinni’s writing … vivid characters with observations, feelings, instability, some wisdom.

I have the necessary disrespect for recording my own music. Even so, the freedom I’d like to have with my own music can be … difficult to attain.

Slow and simple. Seems like Jerry never plays a downbeat. He just answers, like really-interesting-falling-leaves. Introverted music, thick.

The chords repeat, the number of bars keeps changing. No “bridge” in this piece.

10 Can’t Decide (Durra) //

The chords move between major and minor, like film where you feel the camera jump. Jerry sounds great. The song slackens nicely at the end, dropping down.

I have an essential tremor. Have to think about steadying my hands when playing. A terrible thing to happen to a musician, of course. But it does give something. I’m thinking about my movements when playing. It connects me to myself, to my body.

Challenging to solo over. Five-bar phrases, chords erasing the last ones, tension in the harmonies. Jerry takes a long time to enter.

11 Still Awake (Coates, Durra, Kalaf, Riney) //

Barry on guitar again. Sounds like a loop, but we were playing live. Feels like lying still, hearing the sounds of the woods outside at night.

This is an excerpt from a longer “Looper Colony” piece. 🙂 I like what’s going on with the guitar echo – probably need headphones to really hear it.

An album is like a snapshot of the players and where we were at. A year later, everything can change.
I like hearing how we were playing together at that time.