Song Notes: Many thanks go to saxophonist and friend Woody Mankowski for his restrained and elegant playing on this track. His soprano sax floats like a lone bluebird above the hundreds of notes I'm playing, simple wings above the rainbow. This is not meant to be a cover of "Over The Rainbow" (Arlen). It is meant to be one part fantasy, one part original composition. I hope Harold Arlen would enjoy it as much as we have.
The "Over The Rainbow" inspired opening was the first thing I played on my new baby grand piano when it arrived in my living room. For some reason, it led directly into that rhythmic New Age chord progression, loosely based on the Circle of Fifths. So I spent the next 10 days working in this improvisation into a more cohesive arrangement. I hope you like the uplifting quality.
My favorite part is the piano solo in the middle. I try to capture freedom of the sky, of air, of weightlessness. Of flight.
I had a hard to compressing this track so that it would match the others in volume. It was also very diffucult to balance the upper range of the soprano sax with my intense pounding during the louder sections. I wish you all could hear the actual performace, the original unmastered version. Perhaps you could drop me an email?
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