Music and Imagery This collection of songs touch upon a forty-year journey of jazz composing for Keith Vreeland. His passion for visual imagery embodies the idea that a jazz piece, like all images, is created only once; the moment it happens. It also influenced his choice of the musicians he asked to record these selected original pieces. These are some of Detroit’s finest creative musicians. Joocie, composed in the 70’s, is a classic 32 bar Detroit bebop jazz tune played by a quintet. The rhythm section keeps it bubbling as alto, tenor, piano and bass take solos. It’s a medium bright tempo, kind of saucy and brash. Cerulean, a waltz played by a quartet, suggests a cerulean ocean side with clear sky and rhythmic rolling waves washing over a beach. The harmony, based on alternating major and minor chords suspended over a pedal tone, is a metaphor of rolling waves, “an eternal rhythm of Earth.” Sounding a bit like a bird dancing over the waves, a flute . The Traveler. featuring soprano sax, evokes an image of a traveler passing through a deserted landscape. Coming upon an oasis, a change of harmony and phrasing suggests entering a new environment. The traveler then returns to once again walking through the desert, watchful for that next oasis. Bad Dog is up-tempo blues, outlined by jumping steps, quick lines and unexpected turns. A quartet featuring alto sax expresses the mood of Keith’s dogs playfully running around the studio. The whole quartet is happy about this. Air Varie Keith describes this piece as “free, improvised, nuance, ensemble music.” All of the musicians play over the changes continuously, while allowing each voice to rise above for a solo.” Alto saxophone, flute and rhythm section join together to create a soft, open natural sound space. F-Spot, also called “addicted to a note,” combines electronic keyboards with alto clarinet for this spontaneously composed piece. Notes, Phrases and progressions repeatedly lead to a fixed tonal center and, like a moth to a flame, always return to the F-spot. Get Sirius A rhythmic pattern assembled from odd and even-metered chunks creates a slightly lop-sided rhythm, a metaphor of “zombies on drugs”. Guitar gives an especially nasty solo with a unique blend of earthy jazz and witty remarks and the back beat of a drum solo underpins shifting, stumbling rhythms of the relentless zombies. Beauty is a medium tempo waltz Influenced by classical Greek philosophy, balancing form, it balances theme, proportion and unity. Played by a quartet, the tripartite song form employs three different endings: a return to the theme, a lead-in to the bridge, and a final resolution. The solos combine translucent harmonies, rising and falling cadences, and shifting center points and counter points. Thinking of You features guitar to a simple melody layered over a series of shifting piano harmonies. A refined guitar sensitivity lends itself well to the poignant qualities of this dreamy sequence. This piece possesses the sense of all that has passed yet remembered fondly.