Utopia - “a perfect world” can take on different meanings for different people. For myself, a jazz musician, Utopia is a state of mind - a blissful consciousness I experience when playing with the sensitive, interactive musicians that comprise my Spacetet. Our philosophy, in the studio making this recording, is to explore as we play together, much like we do at rehearsals. We rarely do more than one take of each piece, preserving freshness and the “in the moment” spirit. So, the paradox of Utopia lies not in a perfect musical world of a predetermined, controlled music, but a perfect musical world of egoless sensitivity that transcends each musician into new musical places only possible through interaction. For me, the art of jazz is perfecting the process, not the improvisation. Much like life, jazz music lives in the moment - striving for perfection while ever growing in our experiences. Utopia is our sincere effort to share with the listener, interactive creations incased within a variety of original compositions. The composed parts of each piece were written on paper, but the manifestation of time interpretation, harmonic choices, the usage of space, and melodic improvisations are not written nor should they be. They are a product of sensitive, interactive playing, striving for a pseudo perfection found only in that moment.
Utopia is the second Spacetet CD, the first being Sea Dreams. This time we did a mixture of spacey impressionistic music combined with progressive straight ahead. The only non-original composition on this CD is Egberto Gizmonti’s “Parque Laje” - a beautiful moody Brazilian piece. We hope you enjoy listening to the music as much as we enjoyed making it.
credits
released February 13, 2014
Steve Giordano - Guitar
Peter Cobb - Alto Sax
Bob Meashey - Trumpet
John Mosemann - Drums
Brian Howell - Bass
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