Tales From The Underground

Program Notes

Tales From The Underground takes listeners on a journey through themes and ideas tied to 19th century slavery in the Americas. This set of compositions were written between May and December of 2022 and heavily influenced by modal, blues, and gospel ideas. The name Sunday Best comes from the practice of wearing elaborate clothing to church, which originated in the plantation houses of worship. The main influences for this composition came from Kenny Garrett’s Backyard Groove and 2 Down & 1 Across. In Perspective was written after hearing Kenny Kirkland’s composition, Chance. The melodic and harmonic material paint a haunting image which I aimed to emulate in my tune. King Cotton takes inspiration from the dark and reckless nature of Kenny Kirkland’s composition, Mr. JC. What makes this tune unique is the manipulation of a simple blues form and the alternation between a second line groove and swing. Untold is a tender and haunting ballad. The opening idea came to me fairly quickly but navigating a tune around this idea perplexed me. Listening to Rouge by Roy Hargrove and Before It’s Time to Say Goodbye by Kenny Garrett gave me a clear idea for expanding my initial idea into a full composition. Underground was written to be an intersection between hip-hop, funk/soul and jazz music. Maiden Voyage, arranged by Robert Glasper and Footprints, arranged by Terence Blanchard served as my guiding posts for this composition.