I didn’t see Joel or hear from him for quite a while after Banff. He went his way and I went mine, but then I got a call from him asking if I’d like to write a bass quartet for us to play on a concert at the conservatory. The quartet would be Joel, Wolfgang Goetller, Roberto Occhipinti and me on pizzicato bass. I knew I couldn’t write a real “classical” piece, so I just tried to come up with something we could play that might be fun. I wrote a big part for myself with a solo intro, a solo in the middle plus a cadenza, and left it up to the rest of them to decide who played lead etc. It was pretty wild, but it was fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Joel had been telling people about this piece for years, and there were a few of them that had asked about getting the score so they might play it, so I was really pleased when Joel contacted me recently about getting it together and recording it for this project. I spent a bit of time re-writing some of it (most of it actually) and I think the recording came off amazingly well. It’s not an easy piece, but there are some parts that are really tricky. I couldn’t believe the dedication to the music and attention to detail that every player showed in the sessions.

I’d like to thank Travis Harrison for matching Joel’s sound and phrasing so beautifully on the second part, and Joe Phillips not only for his great playing, but for tuning his bass in fourths for the third part. I know that he normally tunes in fifths, and I can’t imagine being able to go from one tuning to another like that. Roberto Occhipinti had the bad luck to be stuck with the part I’d written for myself back in 1989. Along with the written part, which includes playing the melody at the beginning and again at the end, he gets to play a solo and a couple of cadenzas. The piece begins and ends with him and his solo introduction sets the mood for everything that follows. He also provided the rock-solid rhythmic foundation throughout the entire piece that was a huge factor in the success of the music. It was a great honor for me, hearing these four fantastic musicians playing my piece so beautifully, and I thank them a million times.