Although I live in Vancouver, I've had many opportunities to tour in Europe.. I recorded two CDs with this touring band, The New Noakes Quartet, and this is the second one, made in Germany.

Peter Oxley wrote this piece for me as a bass feature, and it's one of my favorite NNQ pieces. The changes are lyrical, and it flows well enough that it doesn't seem at all jarring that it's in 7/4 time. The bridge drops into 4/4. At the bridge, there's a brief implied 3/4 feel, but it's still in 4/4 'til the last A begins.

It's an AABA form; the melody states itself twice and then there is a bridge with different material. After that, there is a return to the original melody. Then the improvised bass solo begins over the same form and harmonies. The AABA melody returns at the end; there is a brief bit of interplay between bass and drums and we're out.

I was thinking a lot about something John Abercrombie said in a master class that I'd accompanied a long time ago; he mentioned the idea of developing melodic "sweep", or larger phrases that span a significant portion of the instrument's range. I was trying out a few ideas like that on this solo. But to be honest, by that time I'd memorised the harmonies and I was playing less from thoughts of the changes than I was to more general thoughts: drama, phrasing, sweep, trying to use the range of the instrument, and making melodies that kept their integrity over changing harmonies.

Etienne Brachet, the drummer, is a true monster. I've heard him called "the French Dave Weckl" and although his playing on this track is delicate and understated, you can hear small hints of his mastery in the detail of the brushwork and the smoothness of the 7/4 groove.