Bird's-Eye View

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		Bird's-Eye View	7:57	Play
2		AB Positive	5:08	Play
3		Lester Sleeps In	7:34	Play
4		Trail of Suds	6:16	Play
5		Maxine	5:06	Play
6		Live Wire	5:56	Play
7		Sin in Cincinnati	6:43	Play
8		Lullaby of Shumway	6:23	Play
9		Grand Slam	6:05	Play
10		One for Dad	7:03	Play

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Description

SAM CRAIN is a jazz guitarist and composer from Springfield, Illinois, with 12 CDs to his credit, all of them available on CD Baby. He has had over 30 years playing experience in virtually all styles of music, not only as guitarist but bassist and keyboardist as well, playing for audiences all over the US, Canada and Japan. Educated various places, he holds a degree in music composition from Peabody Conservatory of Music.
This new CD, with all original material, showcases Sam's talents as composer as well as player, as well as the playing of some of the finest musicians in the area.




Bird's-Eye View

This is my new CD. If you like straight-ahead jazz with a few twists and turns in there, then this one is likely for you. These are some of my best tunes and some of the best musicians I could get to play them. For more about me, or the players on here, visit my website- or better still, buy the CD!
For the moment you can sample any or all of the tunes. Happy listening.
Sam Crain



Players:

Sam Crain-guitar
Perry Rask-alto saxophone(all except 4 & 5)
Cassie Hart-alto saxophone(4)
Kevin Hart-piano(all except 8 & 10)
Andy Burtschi-bass
Darin Holthaus-drums(4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Brian Justison-drums(1, 2, 3, & 6)

Recorded September 25, 26 & 28, 2004
Third Stone Productions
Decatur, Illinois

Produced by Sam Crain
Recorded, mixed & mastered by Dave Burdick
Duplication by Eastern Standard Productions
Layout and design by Nathalie Breakstone



Here's a little something about the music you're listening to. This is stuff I didn't have room for on the actual CD, being as that I wanted to give everyone a bio with picture. For one thing, 3 of these tunes have been done before, on a CD of mine called "Spring into Swing"(also available here on CD Baby): Lester Sleeps In, Maxine and One for Dad. If you listen and compare, you'll hear that they're done quite differently here- which is part of what makes jazz jazz. Finding one's own particular way to say it-which is going to be at least somewhat different from last time out. Anyway, on to the tunes here:


Bird's-eye View, the CD's title and opener, is a sort of recombination affair in that the chord changes are very similar to the standard "On Green Dolphin St", and the melody borrows from 2 Charlie Parker tunes: Ornithology and Scrapple from the Apple(themselves takes on tunes of his day: How High the Moon and Honeysuckle Rose, respectively). So the full title, I guess, would be "A Bird's-Eye View of Green Dolphin St".

AB Positive is a bass feature, with a fairly sparse melody-just enough to punctuate the walking bass lines, and goes out to bassist Andy Burtschi, who's played on my last 2 CDs and got me going to get this one done. It was written back in maybe '89 or so, and originally titled "Mr Cool". But in this incarnation, I thought of John Coltrane's "Mr P.C.", a minor blues(kinda like this one) written for bassist Paul Chambers, and a new title was born.

Lester Sleeps In was written in '99, and recorded on a CD of mine called "Spring into Swing".Unlike the tune it's titled after, this 'Lester' is a blues, and a 16-bar blues at that, and the Lester it's named after is a 40-lb lab/spaniel who answers to--Lester. My dog. The original version was a bit slower and played on tenor sax(Doug Stone); this one is quicker and played on alto sax, so it may sound as if we're talking about a much smaller dog- or maybe, "Lester on Speed"..

Trail of Suds is a samba kinda thing. There is a group I've been subbing with of late-The Swing Daddies, which features Kevin Hart on piano and his wife Cassie on alto saxophone, and we've played 'Trail of Suds' on a few occasions. So I invited Cassie to join us on this one. It's maybe my most tuneful tune on here. Might remind you of the tune 'Laura' in one place.

Maxine is a 'moody ballad', and, like 'Lester', recorded in '99 on my CD Spring into Swing. And as with 'Lester', this one's done a bit differently. '99's version features Doug Stone on tenor sax, and on this one I carry the melody on guitar. Actually wrote this in '81 or '82, played once or twice, resurrected for '99 recording and titled 'Maxine'-which is the name of my cat, the other quadriped in the household. But it is the kind of tune I'd definitely write for a human female biped I was seeing, or wanted to be seeing anyway.

Live Wire was written in '78, during the famous Springfield Ice Storm. It's very Monk-ish, as in Thelonious, not by design but more by osmosis, having listened to him pretty heavily during that time(and for that matter many other times). One of my nuttier efforts as composer..

Sin in Cincinnati was also written in '78, back in Baltimore where I was going to school(Peabody Conservatory), and is quite different from Live Wire- much more tuneful and euphonious. It's one of the 'catchier' tunes on here. And as is usually the case with me, the title here has nothing to do with- anything, really.

Lullaby of Shumway was written this year, and as is usually NOT the case with me, the title actually makes sense! It's based, musically, on the changes to Lullaby of Birdland- a simple(but catchy)line we all play together- and the title refers to a place Perry Andy and I played a gig(One East Market, in Taylorville IL).which has featured jazz in a room they call the Shumway Room(named after a local developer). I wrote this the next day, pretty much with us 3 in mind playing it- and whaddya know, here we are. With drums, to boot.

Grand Slam dates back to '85. I was on the road at the time(though stationary during its actual composition)and even made a motel-room 4 track recording of it, which is on my iSound site. This one has more of a backbeat feel to it, quite different from anything else on this CD. Darin gets some time in here to go nutz. There's a pretty good story behind coming up with "Grand Slam" as a title, but I can't get into it here. If you really want to know, you can e-mail me...

One for Dad, like Lester and Maxine, was recorded on my '99 CD Spring into Swing. On that version I played the melody, accompanied by piano, bass and drums. This time I just sit back and play chords while Perry takes off on all that stuff. As well as the last selection on the CD,this was the last thing we recorded(for what that's worth), and I hope it makes a nice ending for you the listener. As you might figure, I wrote it for my Dad(John Crain 1927-92)who was a jazz trombonist.

Well that's the program this time out. Got some terrific musicians here, and I know you're going to enjoy listening to them. So, for Perry, Andy, Kevin, Darin, BJ and Cassie, we hope you like the playing. And I hope you like the writing. And Dave(along with the rest of us)hopes you like the sound of the recording. Bon appetit!
Sam Crain