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Ray Zepeda, Tenor Saxophone
Mike Raney, Trumpet
Doug Davis, Piano/Composer
Glen Fong, Bass
Zanne Zarow, Drums

“Stones”, originally written for jazz fusion guitarist, Larry Coryell, who recorded it on his 1971 album, “Fairyland”, has an atonal sounding melody with vast intervallic leaps that give it an arc characteristic of 20th century concert music. This recording features a particularly effective piano solo by the composer whose motivic development and overall shaping and energy are notable.  Trumpeter, Mike Raney, takes things out on a Miles tip while Glen Fong and Zanne Zarow contribute engaging solos in a funkier vein.  This has emerged as a consensus favorite on the new Bakersfield New Music Collective album, “Re-Imagining Milton Babbitt: A Centennial Celebration for an Exceptional American”, and has received extensive nationwide airplay.

This track and the entire album are available on iTunes, Amazon, RayZepeda.com, and wherever music is sold!

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Congratulations to the Bakersfield New Music Collective and Special Guest Mash-Up Artist, D.j. Raully D!

#ForYourConsideration #beyoncestyledrop #rayzepedamusic#djmashups #serialism #electronicmusic #combinatoriality #hexachords#aggregates #twelvetone #atthemark #bjw #avantgarde #thirdstream#chambermusic #dougdavismusic #jaysmithgroup #jimscully #aumstudio

1. Philomel / Shattered Glass on the Beach [4:56]
(Milton Babbitt, music/John Hollander, lyrics) Associated Music Publishers, Inc. – BMI / (Ray Zepeda) Cambridge West Publishing – BMI

2. I Care If You Listen [10:52]
(Ray Zepeda) Cambridge West Publishing – BMI

3. None But the Lonely Flute (arr. Ray Zepeda) [8:37]
(Milton Babbitt) C.F. Peters Corp. [Edition Peters] – BMI

4. Stones [9:36]
(Doug Davis) Chappell & Co. – BMI

5. I Am That Person [6:59]
(Ray Zepeda) Cambridge West Publishing – BMI

6. Vision and Prayer [3:12]
(Milton Babbitt, music/Dylan Thomas, lyrics) Associated Music Publishers, Inc. – BMI

7. End Suite [15:43]
a. My Ends Are My Beginnings (Milton Babbitt) C.F. Peters Corp. [Edition Peters] – BMI [0:00 – 3:03]
b. The End (Jay Smith) Darrell Jay Smith, Jr. – BMI [3:03 – 11:59]
c. Vision and Prayer / An Encore (Milton Babbitt/Dylan Thomas) Associated Music Publishers, Inc. – BMI / (Milton Babbitt) C.F. Peters Corp. [Edition Peters] – BMI [11:59 -14:03]
d. The End [reprise] (Jay Smith) Darrell Jay Smith, Jr. – BMI [14:03 – 15:43]

BAKERSFIELD NEW MUSIC COLLECTIVE
Ray Zepeda, Artistic Director/Founder: Composer [1, 2, 5], Arranger [3, 7], Flute [2], Bb Clarinet [7a], Soprano Saxophone [5], Alto Saxophone [2], Tenor Saxophone [4, 7b, 7d]

Jim Scully: Conductor [2]
Doug Davis: Conductor [5], Piano [2, 3, 4], Composer [4]
Audrey Boyle: Flute [3, 5]
Chuck Degan: Bb Clarinet [2], Tenor Saxophone [2]
Jorge Santos: Bb Trumpet [2, 5], Flugelhorn [5]
Mike Raney(Michael C Raney): Bb Trumpet [2, 4, 5, 7b, 7d], Flugelhorn [2, 5]
Tom Keel: Trombone [2, 5]
Rebecca Spickler: Vibraphone [2]
Paul Cierley: Guitars [2, 5, 7b, 7d]
Tony Rinaldi: Piano [5]
Jay Smith: Synthesizer [5], Electric Piano [7b, 7d], Composer [7b, 7d]
Glen Fong: Double Bass [2, 3, 4], Electric Bass [5,7b, 7d]
Kyle Burnham: Drum Set [2]
Zanne Zarow: Drum Set [3, 4, 5]
Canaan McDuffie: Percussion [2, 5, 6], Drum Set [6, 7]
And Special Guest, DJ Raully D: Live DJ Mash-ups [1, 3, 6, 7c]

Producer: Ray Zepeda
Associate Producers: Laura Booker, Steve Eisen
Recorded at The Mark in Bakersfield, California, USA on 31 January 2017
Recording Engineer: Brian Boozer
Live Sound Engineer: Peter Wonderly
Mixed and Mastered by Brian Boozer at AUM Studio, Bakersfield, California, USA

Photography by Gulnara Khamatova (https://www.daugust.ru/) and Jim Scully (where noted)
Art Direction and Design: Lisa Konczal(www.VeriteCreative.com)

“Special thanks also to Nicole Russell and Kris Tiner of the BNMC, and to Gene Caprioglio, Erik Carlson, Steven Carlson, Micah (Nacita) Chancey, Zack Clark, Kelly Haggerty Joey Hubbard, Lisa Kahlden, Lydia Liebman, Mike Montano, Bob Palmer, James Russell, Leo Sakomoto, Bob West, Rosalinda Zepeda, and the Bakersfield Jazz Workshop for all your support and guidance. I am forever in your debt for your graciousness.” – RayZ

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While Zepeda’s arrangement of Stella By Starlight falls along traditional lines, it provides a perfect showcase for Rich Eames’s sinewy piano lines and Joe La Barbera’s spirited and crisp drumming during the exchange of eights with Zepeda and Eames. Zepeda’s title cut, Step By Step, by contrast, is a work of daunting complexity, the intricate inner workings of which all relate in some way to various melodic, intervallic, and harmonic elements of John Coltrane’s Giant Steps where excerpts from Coltrane’s melody are sometimes even presented in retrograde or inversion. While this would not be apparent at the beginning to most listeners without the benefit of detailed analysis of the score’s minutiae, step by step the piece does gradually become more and more like its model (hence the title) until the solo section is reached at which point it becomes obvious and things start to really burn. Zepeda, Eames, and Oles offer up masterful solos, effortlessly executed, even at this brisk tempo, over some of the most difficult changes in the jazz repertoire. La Barbera is flawless throughout this cut, driving its forward momentum at every juncture.

Zepeda’s Untitled #1, his arrangement of Frank Loesser’s Never Will I Marry, and his version of Midland by Grammy-winning composer and pianist, Billy Childs, are all perhaps a tip of the hat to what he calls the “ECM school” after Manfred Eicher’s label known for producing jazz albums that are more contemplative in nature. While Zepeda’s melodic sensibilities and heartwarming and resonant tone shine brightly throughout, Eames too effectively captures the whole ECM vibe especially in his Keith Jarrett-like gospel-influenced interpretation of Never Will I Marry.

While there is historic precedent for doing so (i.e., Billy Boy on Miles Davis’s Milestones album), Zepeda’s inclusion of his You Haven’t Changed sans composer /leader may seem a curious choice but not when you consider that he has Bill Evans’s old drummer, Joe La Barbera, in the group. Eames is nothing short of brilliant here, clearly evoking Evans with the sympathetic interplay with La Barbera and Oles who delivers his own soaring, melodic bass solo. Inspired by the composer’s high school reunion (hence the title) and seemingly fashioned along the lines of a standard straight out of the “Great American Songbook”, it was found to work perfectly in a trio setting and deemed too beautiful a tune to omit. To even the score, Zepeda’s Two Weeks’ Notice is performed here as a trio, this time without Eames. Given La Barbera’s and Oles’s association with former Ornette Coleman bassist, Charlie Haden, they are no strangers to the pianoless ensemble and the challenges posed by the lack of chordal support. Based on the chord changes of John Coltrane’s Moment’s Notice, Zepeda composed Two Weeks’ Notice for his departure from one of his employers, performing it a cappella through a speakerphone at home into the employer’s answering machine without further explanation. (The rumor that he even attached the sheet music to his formal resignation is untrue, however). After La Barbera’s introduction paraphrasing the melody on drums, Zepeda’s atonal angular melody featuring large intervallic leaps between adjacent pitch classes lays surprisingly comfortably atop Oles’s bass line and, with their judicious note choices, the chord progression is clearly heard throughout Zepeda’s and Oles’s solos which are followed by some group improvisation before a return to the melody.

While Two Weeks’ Notice may dance along the edge of the avant-garde, Zepeda’s tenor and drums duet with La Barbera on Body and Soul drives it straight over the cliff with reckless abandon. Amidst all the flurries, the simpatico is really quite amazing here with La Barbera responding perfectly to Zepeda’s every gesture and vice versa. This performance, haunting at times – vacillating freely between pointillistic episodes and active passages – is demonstrative of the range of expression and the richness of tapestry that can be achieved with just two non-chordal instrumentalists. Consummate artists both, they are still able to make the basic tune and progression discernible to the careful listener all the way through and they intuitively know when to leave space and when to force the issue which prevents the performance from degenerating into eccentricity, something that happens all too often in the experimental jazz world. While the textural variation, visceral gestures, and extended techniques may be what grab the listener on the first hearing, repeat study is guaranteed to reward the listener with more treasures with every subsequent hearing.

1. Stella By Starlight [7:33]
(Victor Young) Sony ATV/Harmony – ASCAP

2. Step By Step [10:20]
(Ray Zepeda) Cambridge West Publishing – BMI

3. Untitled #1 (Out of Love) [6:41]
(Ray Zepeda) Cambridge West Publishing – BMI

4. Body and Soul [10:09]
(Johnny Green) Quartet Music, Inc./Range Road Music, Inc./WB Music Corp. – ASCAP

5. Midland [7:42]
(Billy Childs) A Side Music LLC/Lunacy Music – BMI

6. You Haven’t Changed [7:05]
(Ray Zepeda) Cambridge West Publishing – BMI

7. Two Weeks’ Notice [9:55]
(Ray Zepeda) Cambridge West Publishing – BMI

8. Never Will I Marry [8:12]
(Frank Loesser) Frank Music Corp. – ASCAP

RAY ZEPEDA soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones
Joe La Barbera drums
Darek Oles bass
Rich Eames piano

Mr. Zepeda plays Selmer Mark VI soprano and tenor saxophones and a Buescher 400 “Top Hat and Cane” alto saxophone, all with Rovner ligatures and Vandoren reeds. Reeds: Vandoren #4 (sop.), Java #3 (alto), and V16 #2-1/2 (ten.). Mouthpieces: Selmer C* (sop.), Brillhart 5* (alto), and Peter Ponzol M2000 (ten.).

Producer: Ray Zepeda
Recorded in Los Angeles, California, USA
Recording Engineers: David Bondelevitch and Steve Kaplan
Mixed by David Bondelevitch

Mastering by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, Los Angeles, California, USA on 26 April 2012

Photography by Lynn Bly and David Frost
Art Direction and Design: Susie Graham

Information and Booking: MusicRayZ@yahoo.com

Soundsketch Records
© 2012 Ray Zepeda ℗ 2012 Soundsketch Records
2110 Artesia Boulevard, Suite B; Redondo Beach, California 90278; USA
All rights reserved.
Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. Made in U.S.A.

“Special thanks also to Shelly Berg, Doug Davis, Jamael Dana Dean and Family, Steve Eisen, Glen Fong, Connie Lim, Frank Maccioli, Mel Martin, Larry Sipes, Jay Smith, David Baron Stevens, Louis Taylor, Nunzio Urbina, Zanne Zarow, the Bakersfield Jazz Festival, and the Bakersfield Jazz Workshop for all your support and guidance.  I am forever in your debt for your graciousness.” – RayZ

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