Between Two Oceans
3/3/98 for jazz ensemble
In 1998 my good friend & fellow musician Steve Kettley was forming a new band 'Odd Times', and he was kind enough to ask me to join. I immediately felt compelled to rush off and write something for the group. It is a suite of three pieces (or a three-piece suite);
- Good Hope
- Copernicus
- Ninety Mile Beach
The inspiration for the piece was my mother's visit to Ninety Mile Beach in New Zealand, which is one of the places in the world where one can see two oceans at once. From the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa (which I have myself visited) one can see both the Indian and Atlantic oceans; Copernicus is a crater on the moon lying between Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Tranquility, and Oceanus Procellarus, the Ocean of Storms. Neither my mother nor I have been to the moon.
Notes
Unfortunately, by the time Steve got the band off the ground several years later, I wasn't really playing jazz anymore. The last movement 'Ninety Mile Beach' was rearranged at one point for Invention Ensemble, and performed by them on a number of occasions.
Duration ~15'
Midi demo
ninetymilebeach.mp3 ) (1'17, 1.5 MB)