Is this a ‘jazz’ album? Jazz is a reductive term for a music art form that stretches back to the turn of the last century, and includes a huge variety of styles - a common denominator though, is improvisation, and there's quite a lot in these tunes. So for me, yeah, this is a jazz collection (but don't let that put you off).

About the originals of the cover versions:
Follow Your Heart was written by John McLaughlin. I first heard it on his album, Extrapolation, recorded for the Marmalade label just before he left for NYC to play for Miles Davis. If you don't know this recording I really recommend it. It's unlike anything he's done since - raw, emotional and inspiring.

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. The original is on Mingus Ah Um - which is...ah um...totally awesome.

Naima - This beautiful ballad by John Coltrane is from Giant Steps.

Strange Meeting. Bill Frisell wrote this and has recorded it a number of times. The first that I'm aware of is on Rambler (1984). He recorded it again on This Land (1992) - there are other versions. A lovely tune, a surreal tango in C minor from Bill's ECM time. There's an ECM sensibility - great cover art and great music art - that inspired the younger me in East Kilbride and kept me going. I tried to bring something of this feeling to Lloyd Cole and the Commotions - honestly, it's there if you listen.

Sweet Rain, by Michael Gibbs who taught Bill Frisell at Berklee. Gary Burton - on whose Berklee course I first heard this - has recorded a number of his compositions. All, I believe, also recorded for ECM.


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