Eye In The Sky – a bonus track

There’s a bonus track to Community Immunity; it’s a tune called “Eye In The Sky” and is part of the ‘director’s cut’ if you will.

Curtis Macdonald – Alto Sax
Jeremy Viner – Tenor Sax
Michal Vaňouček – Piano
Chris Tordini – Bass
Greg Ritchie – Drums

© 2011 Curtis Robert Macdonald (SOCAN)
Published by CMACSOUND (SOCAN)

Community Immunity | credits & thank yous

Community: A group of interacting species sharing a common environment.
Immunity: A condition that permits natural or acquired resistance.

All compositions composed by Curtis Robert Macdonald (SOCAN)
Published by CMACSOUND (SOCAN)

Engineered by Dae Bennett and Travis Stefl
Mixed by Tyler McDiarmid
Mastered by A.T. Michael MacDonald
Additional Engineering by: Rob Murray, Jake Leckie & Curtis Macdonald

Produced by Curtis Macdonald

Photography, Artwork and Design by Matthew Macdonald of Syndrome Design.
Recorded on October 13 & 14, 2009 at Bennett Studios, NJ

Thank you

Mom & Dad for unconditionally supporting my creative endeavors.

To the musicians who constantly inspire:
David Virelles, Chris Tordini, Jeremy Viner, Travis Reuter, Greg Ritchie, Michal Vaňouček,
Becca Stevens, Andréa Tyniec

To the sound engineers who labored over the details:
Tyler McDiarmid, Dae Bennett, Travis Stefl, Michael MacDonald, Rob Murray, Jake Leckie

For the unfathomable support and endless resource:
The Banff Centre Music & Sound Department
Theresa Leonard, Barry Schiffman, Steve Bellamy, John D.S. Adams, Geoff Shoesmith

Parsons, The New School for Design, Department of Art, Media & Technology
Charlie Pizzarello, Julia Salerni, Jane Pirone

The New School For Jazz & Contemporary Music
Martin Mueller, Pam Sabrin, Dan Greenblatt, Jane Ira Bloom, Brenda Barlow, Bethany Ryker

Greenleaf Music
Dave Douglas, Benjamin Levin, Jim Tuerk

To all those who aided either directly or indirectly, to the creation and realization of this album:
Chern-Hwei Fung, Meredith Bates, Katelyn Clark, Michael Culler, Meining Cheung, Terri Hron, Dan Porter, Audrey Arbeeny, Michael Sweet, Frank Vogt, Bobby Avey, Cody Brown, Kyle Wilson, Adam Jackson, Tobia Neufeld, Maurice Hogue, Franco Rinaldi, Matt Macdonald, Chris DiGirolamo, Scott Stickland

what does music sound like?

Sound recording has only been around for about 150 years, which makes one ask:  What did the music sound like before?

Since there was no means of recording back in Bach’s day, no one actually knows what his music actually sounded like.  Today we are guided by manuscripts, historical contexts and academic analysis to inform us of Bach’s compositions, but before Bach’s time there were no conventional notation systems.  Music was taught by ear, it was exclusively an oral tradition passed down to each succeeding generation.  This works when everybody is getting along quite well, but as soon as conflict arises, foreign interpretation begins to influence, sometimes overwriting tradition.  Thanks to the rulings of Empires, conquests and maybe even natural disasters, the further we go back in the history of music, the less we know about what it was like, how it was created and in what context it existed in performance.

Western music history classes in conservatories tend to go back about 600 years, but that is only a small window of human history, and usually targets only a few continents.

In science, there has not been a Standard Model in effect since 1957.  So then, if there is no agreed upon baseline from which to compare and measure, what becomes the “objective”?  This leads to the idea that there is no ‘standard model’ to which one can objectify music.  Perhaps we need to look into the subatomic structure of music in order to unlock its “standards”.  The study of sound and the study of vibration are as synonymous as the attraction-repulsion forces of nature.  We can deduce that there is a universality inherent in music making that is an ageless characteristic of our planet.  After all, this is the common ground upon which all our music is based.

immunity and the harpsichord

At the time of my  most recent residency at the Banff Centre, I was exploring all sorts of timbres and sonic possibilities, seeing if I could add any more color to a recording I was in the process of mixing.  I recruited a fellow resident and prized harpsichordist Katelyn Clark who demonstrated to me the countless sonic possibilities of the harpsichord and amazing collection toy pianos, which I just had to record, being the sound junkie that I am.

The Banff Centre is one of those magical places that if you can imagine it, you can find a way to make it happen.  Before I knew it, we were recording my tune “Community Immunity” on harpsichord in the gorgeous Rolston Recital Hall using 8 mics with a team of 3 engineers!  Ultimately these takes were not used on the record, but the scratch edits from the session reveal how incredible this sound is, loaded with such a rich history.   Needless to say, I will be mindful of this sound for future compositional material.

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Be sure to check out Katelyn’s affiliations:
Contemporary Keyboard Society
Cantos Music Foundation

Thank you:
Katelyn Clark
Theresa Leonard
Steve Bellamy
Michael Culler
Meining Cheung

angels & satellites

We hear Sourikova as a pianist maturing in her own style that is fluid, sensual and refreshingly different from so many jazz pianists of today. Drummer Ivan Bamford emerges as a highly creative percussive force, creating an unexpected but very successful counterpoint to the piano. Alto saxophonist Curtis Macdonald takes groundwork he laid in “Steps in the Snow” (an earlier duo album recorded with Sourikova), one step further. Previously described as Sourikova’s psychic musical partner, here he lifts the whole group to a new level with soaring lines and exquisite phrasing.

-Weave Records