The World In Which We Live
Commissioned by Saint Paul City Ballet (2006)
- George Maurer - Yamaha C7, Fender Rhodes 77, AbSynth
- Jeff Engholm - fretless bass
- Muggsy Lauer - slide guitar
- Paul "Stretch" Diethelm - lead guitar solo
- Pete Johnson - percussion
- Scott Chabot - drums
- Al Asmus - soprano, bari sax
- Pat Thorn - trumpet
- Richard Witteman - trumpet
- Lauren Vork - trombone
- Ken Vork - bass trombone
- Erin Vork - horn in F
- Gretchen Vork - horn in F
Every time I play this first cut, people keep telling me "you sound like Pink Floyd, dude...." and I always give them a quizzical look, because it certainly wasn't my conscious intent to be channeling one of my favorite "rock-bands-with-a-penchant-for-dark-themes" from my youth when trying to write a jazz fusion piece for Saint Paul City Ballet. Yet, oddly, the description fits. The World In Which We Live is one of 6 songs commissioned by Saint Paul City Ballet in 2006 for the production Enticed, and this was my reflection on the dark world we were all living in at that time: America- involved in an uncalled-for conflict in Iraq, our collective sense of freedom- challenged, and we faced the loss of many of our freedoms. It all made us feel like we had very little to breathe with.
And so, I desired to compose a wide-open piece, full of vast, expansive imagery and freedom, that had its moments of true (not fabricated) tension and release. I wanted The World In Which We Live to describe a world bigger and more real and true than than the one we were currently being told we were living in. Jazz fusion seemed to be the perfect vehicle for this fantasy of mine. The solid rock chops of Jeff Engholm on fretless bass, Scott Chabot on drums, Muggsy Lauer on slide guitar, Al Asmus on sax, and lead guitars by Paul Diethelm, judging from the Pink Floyd responses, helped pull it off. Yet, I didn't want to let the rock side of the song take too much limelight, so I channelled a little bit of my jazz heroes, Maynard Ferguson, into this song. Ferguson was quite adept at jazz fusion, and so the eruption of big band brass that that you hear towards the end of the piece is my nod to him; blazingly there...then gone. The piece was brilliantly choreographed by Christa Hill for Saint Paul City Ballet. The World In Which We Live fades, unresolved, after 8 minutes. Will our world, with its unresolved issues, do the same in its own time, or blaze onward into brighter days?
