From Out Of My Music Box

With the exception of Waltz for Matilda, the pieces which make up this album were all composed during the 1980s and early 1990s. However, although some were performed occasionally during this period, they remained unpublished as manuscript notes and were largely forgotten about for some 20 years until Neil rediscovered them in the autumn of 2014, while idly sorting through a box of old manuscripts and musical notes. Their discovery came as a pleasant surprise, and the idea for the album, along with the title, quickly followed.

The pieces finally selected for the album are rather eclectic in style, showing the influence of Latin, blues, classical, folk and gospel, as well as more mainstream jazz. They have been organized into two sets, partly on mood and feel, and partly on instrumentation. The first set of five pieces have a quite upfront feel and are all performed with jazz quartet, made up of tenor sax, piano, bass and drums. The two sets are separated by a musical interlude in the form of a (little) big-band piece for septet where we were joined by three guest musicians. The second set of five pieces is more intimate in feel: three of the tracks are performed by trio (without drums), and feature a number of duet passages, either just piano and saxophone or piano and bass. In the remaining two quartet pieces the drums play a gentler supportive role.