“Give me a name for this tune!”
I’ll often call Kurt and ask him this question. Sometimes I just call and when he answers, I’ll play the tune without saying anything. Kurt has a name for everything. His style and mine differ, of course. I’m a bit more whimsical and he’s, well, a bit more cynical, I guess.
Ziggurat Palms is one of my names. For some reason, the improvisations in this collection suggested a desert feeling for me. We seem to end up in middle eastern modes a fair bit of the time. Perhaps that’s because those modes are really good for working through despair. That’s one of the major reasons Sonic Sandbox got together in the first place: to give us respite from despair. Our workshops can teach others the musical games they can play to help them cope with despair, too.
Adeste Fidelis just ended up with music that reminded me of the song, so why not name it that way?
The tune doesn’t start like Christmas, but does end that way. It’s a wistful tune. I like jamming so much, but when I hear the recordings, I wish there was a way to go back and fix the recordings and re-record them with a fuller arrangement. We’re not professionals, but we do have inventive energy. We don’t always hit the notes we’re going for, like towards the end when I start trying to do Adeste and I can’t hit the notes. Then I pick up the horn and noodle around trying to find it. Bob picks up the melody and we intertwine around each other. I bring back the opening melody and mix it in with the Adeste tune, hoping to find an end. But as usual, it’s always hard for us to end.
Sonic Sandbox 