'The Broken Saints Concert' and its bonus disc 'The Cathedral Concert' are long-form improvised solo piano concerts drawing on jazz, classical and other forms; the main disc uses themes used in the 'Broken Saints' online series.

3 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Contemporary, JAZZ: Free Jazz



Details:
Late in 1999, I was asked by my cousin Brooke if I would be willing to contribute some music to a project he had begun, called 'Broken Saints'. It was planned as a 24-part series, presented online, combining his writing and direction with the artistic and programming talents of two other collaborators. At the time I was in the process of moving to Europe to pursue other musical goals, and could not work on the project full-time, so I offered him my back-catalogue of instrumental compositions; these subsequently became the core soundtrack for the first third or so of the series. After a year or so, two things became clear to us: first, that Broken Saints had touched a nerve with a growing internet community, obviously more than ready for storytelling of the depth and scope that Brooke and company were creating; and second, that they were going to need some more music.

So began a period of compositional activity which, although I was unaware of it at the time, would dominate the next few years of my creative life. When we were at the end of this rather intense process, I thought it would be interesting to take some of the themes which had become important in the series, and put them into a different and more intimate musical setting: as a solo piano concert. Thus I have selected four themes - two from previously extant material, two composed specifically for the series - and used them as 'springboards' for the extended improvisations on this album. The resulting journeys, almost 78 minutes in total, took me quite far from the source material, but I hope I have not lost its essential spirit...

A second concert from the same period but with an entirely different character is presented on a bonus disc, entitled 'The Cathedral Concert'.