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©2009

©2009

          1989 was my 10th year as chair of the Carroll College music department (a small liberal arts college in Waukesha, WI). I earned a sabbatical and took 4 months to travel and study abroad. As a male academic, traveling the world, I was greeted and treated everywhere I went like a king. I travelled to Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Java, Bali, India and Greece. I returned to Java and Bali 8 times over the next 6 years. On three occasions I took students and interested adults on month long study trips.  In 1993 my relationship with the college ceased but I continued guiding independent study and business trips to Java and Bali. In my opinion field trips are simply the best way to learn.

          All that travel increased my exposure to new sites, new languages and new sounds. I thought more about the role pure sound plays in communicating ideas and feelings. I wondered why sounds such as a didjeridu, a sitar, a bronze gong or a tin whistle become important cultural symbols and what they say about the cultures they come to represent. Those thoughts guide my view of the sounds I create and my involvement as an educator.

          This album is an outpouring of creative activity that I have held back for too long. Although all my formal training is as a classical musician, I have chosen to improvise all the music on this album. It is uniquely me, yet is many others too. It is the result of instruments I have made and influences I have absorbed.  My good friend, musician and poet Harvey Taylor honors my music by including it with his poetry and I am grateful that he appears on this album. Let the sounds allow your spirit to take flight...and enjoy the field trip.