This little record was really hard to make. Like most creative people I know, I have found the act of creation to be especially challenging in recent months.

My dad passed away in April. He was my first trombone teacher and first musical inspiration. In the months leading up to his death and for several months after, I struggled to find a reason to play. I was able to keep composing, to arrange sound while escaping the ‘in the moment’ progression of time. Playing and improvising seemed too immediate, too much like moving from one point of no return to the next.

He would understand all of that.

He would want me to keep playing.

I knew that making myself record something like this would be therapeutic, even if it felt more like work than inspiration.

I set up a microphone in my attic “studio” and got to it.

I’m grateful to the teachers that turned me onto multiphonics, who encouraged this rather niche pursuit. So here we have four tunes, exploring various moods, concepts, and multiphonic techniques. I hope this music inspires you to keep creating.



Stand Up Eight
This the oldest tune in the set, one that’s been bouncing around in my head and heard on a few performances in recent years. The title is drawn from the Zen proverb “nana korobi ya oki” or “fall down seven times, get up eight.”

The intro is new, though. For the main section of the tune I wanted to experiment with a slow, egg-shaped ¾ and while creating the impression of bass line, accompaniment and melody happening together. The B section explores contrary motion and an extra beat in the phrases. A loose blues form for the improvisation and then we’re back to the tune.


Begin Again
Another title drawn from a meditation tradition. In the seated practice (and in every other part of life) one of our main challenges is to bring our attention back to what is actually happening. You can hear that reflected in the three or two note figure that starts each phrase. The interaction between the grounding Ab → Bb figure and the melody phrases symbolizes the fact that as the mind drifts further and further from the present, we must begin again more frequently and with more sincerity.

This was originally written for No BS! Brass but it’s been adapted for solo trombone here. In many ways, the tune is related to Stand Up Eight but up a half step and in 4/4. To save myself the journey of coming up with new ideas in Bb, the solo section moves to a D altered situation, or, as I called in my college band, Astrolab, D ∞.

That’s a Wrap
Also written for No BS!, this tune is inspired by Jacob Garchik’s album The Heavens (The Atheist Trombone Album) and my own journeys in faith and faithlessness, musical and otherwise. One day, we’ll play this one to close out a live performance. One day it will be safe for all of us to breathe together again.

The only time I’ve played outside my home since March 2020 was for my dad’s ash scattering ceremony on the James River. This is the tune I played.


Goodbye to everything
that stands in our way

Goodbye to crying to
trying to stay

Goodbye to everyone who
won’t hear the call

Goodbye to anyone who’s
afraid of standing tall

That’s
a wrap
on silence

That’s
a wrap
on hate

That’s
a wrap
on the bad moon
blocking out the sun

Light the way home, now
that’s a wrap.


Goodbye to every place
with welcome worn out

Goodbye to drowning
to dying
in doubt

One day you’re gonna hear
the heartbeats in our drums

Today we’re gonna fight
until tomorrow comes


That’s
a wrap
on silence

That’s
a wrap
on hate

That’s
a wrap
on the bad moon
blocking out the sun

Light the way home, now
that’s a wrap.


Isolation
This is the newest tune in the set. It speaks to what I imagine many of us are feeling in the midst of this pandemic. Navigating this reality as an immunocompromised person has been quite a challenge but the experience has provided the opportunity to go inward, to see and cultivate what is essential.

I wanted to explore the possibilities of holding a drone while singing a moving melody. In multiphonics as with traditional singing, one gets a different result from falsetto, head, or chest voice. The A sections are sung in falsetto while the B section is sung mostly in chest voice. The long notes provide the opportunity to hear additional overtones above the played and sung pitches. Perhaps the highest pitches symbolize what is possible when we can bring ourselves into harmony with our circumstances.