Skipping Over the Lily Pads

It's a lazy waltz from a lazy day. I was intending it to form a different piece but one melody flowed to the next and, before I knew it, what I had intended to be a dance piece became this melodically progressive waltz. I had fun with it, I hope you do too.

San Francisco is a great walking town. I took a lot of long walks at pretty much any time of day or night, this piece came about through these walks.

This one is actually part of a larger suite that I call Parlor Passages. It is intended to recall the frenetic energy energy of a children's playground. It is quite short, just over a minute a bit of brightness to be inserted in a longer ensemble.

You know how it is.... you have one of those weeks. You slog to work on a cold and dismal Monday; The office bully pins you down and steals your lunch money...

The gentle tones of an evening breeze leads into a lively 6/4 waltz.

Though I thought of this originally as a piano piece, The Nouveau Guinea Wind Ensemble kinda takes over and turns this into a lively piano-ensemble piece... Just can't keep those birds out of anything...

I like Antonin Dvorak, he's OK in my book. His Serenade for Strings OP 22. is one of my faves.

I guess I was a weird kid. While other adolescents were listening to Pop music of the late-60s and early-70s, I was captivated by Scott Joplin, George Gershwin, Spike Jones, the Korn Kobblers and anything on a 78 that I could scrabble from the neighbors.

It was late September 2005. I was walking through Monticello, Idaho. Small town, warm evening. Almost no traffic sound. I could hear kids playing a few blocks away... dogs barking on the other side of town.It really sounded great, so I recorded it. A number of years later....

It is a serious business piloting these steam ferries around the San Francisco Bay... shoveling coal, watching gages & twiddling valves... the fellows have to hustle to makes sure everything runs on time.

Ah, Teddy's Tango... Exciting, dynamic... People seem to like it.... and you an dance to it! There is a softer interlude in the middle where you can make closer passes with your partner. Like all Tangos this one entangles the passion, romance and mixed messages that are love.