Through The Glass, Dimly

When I began my obsession with Jazz in the early 90s as a young teenager in Austin, TX I had a great resource of musical friends: my Dad’s record collection. He was a saxophonist and machinist who taught me everything I knew about music up until that point. However figures like John Coltrane were conspicuously absent from his library. Instead it was filled with people like Eddie Harris, Stan Getz, Hugh Masakela, and Oliver Nelson. These records that I considered the most fascinating and challenging mountain to climb on my musical journey were actually kind of “pop” for their time. These 60’s records were meant to sell in their day. They featured relatively short tracks and focused on the songwriting, rather than the sprawling abstract solos that I came to appreciate later. This record is a tribute to those wonderful musical statements of my Dad’s collection. Sadly Dad passed away a couple years ago, but I imagine he’d be jamming these and casually offering the kind of criticism that he probably didn’t realize I took deeply to heart whenever offered. The titles of the songs reflect memories of my hometown. I hope you enjoy this little autobiography of my early teen years and I hope that the wonder of music never stops magically animating our childlike imagination.