Before - After are creations for piano and saxophone (tenor/soprano), selected from among dozens and dozens of pieces. Rich Pellegrin and I met on 3 separate occasions on Whidbey Island to record.

From the saxophone side of this duo, I found myself recording a document of pure improvisation, or at least acting on pure sonic and emotional impulse. But for the piano, in what Rich brought, it is something quite different. Rich played what I would describe as 'prepared improvisation,' meaning the overarching sound concepts such as tempo, general dynamic range, and rhythm sets seemed to be worked out ahead of time. But how the pieces twist and turn in their phrasing, subtle dynamics, orchestration, keys, attack, etc. are left up to chance. From my end, I had absolutely no idea whatsoever what was about to come out of the piano. I replied on impulse, instinct, and core ability. This is a rare kind of immersive composition and improvisation. These pieces are unedited in the content, meaning no splicing together sections or omitting phrases. Significant work was done in post-production sonically, such as adding reverb and manipulating eq to maximize certain qualities in the sound. However, these were used as tools to enhance the core material.

Cheers, and thank you for listening.