The first song I wrote was “When We Dance”. I remember spending a lot of time on the melody for this song, trying on quite a few approaches until I found the one which you hear on the finished album. Once my studio demo of keyboards, drums, bass and my guitar was more or less completed, I kept hearing something else, an element that you wouldn’t think would normally be a part of a contemporary jazz song. I realized that what I was hearing was a string quartet (!) and I began to come up with a string quartet arrangement that would be vital to the song’s vibe but at that same time would give it an element that made it unique within my catalog of songs and in the contemporary jazz genre as well. Once the song felt finished, I could not imagine it without the string quartet. Among other things, the quartet played a melodic hook which happened in all of the choruses that just had to be there. I put the song and my demo away for the time being - making a mental note to call my most trusted rhythm section of Greg Grainger on drums, Gary Grainger on bass and keyboardist Jay Rowe to play on this song - and moved on to the next piece.

When I first begin composing, particularly after a long break since last writing, it feels a bit like rubbing two sticks together as I try to get my creative fire going. So the next song was still coming out of that early phase of the process. I had an idea for a “latinish” groove which went back and forth between a measure of 7/4 and a measure of 6/4 (13/4 when you add them together) and so I started working with some great sampled percussion and built a rhythmic bed for the song that would end up as “Dancing Waters”. Little by little the sparks started to fly in me as I built a new song on top of this percussion bed. I found composing this way to be very inspiring and challenging. When the demo for this song was more or less completed - the percussion, acoustic bass, cello, keyboards, electric guitar and my acoustic guitar - I realized that I needed a great drummer to complete this picture. I also wanted to replace my sampled acoustic bass part with the real deal. I got in touch with a drummer whom I had worked with back in the 1990s, the virtuoso Nashville drummer Bruce Guttridge and he delivered a fantastic drum track. Then my old friend, the storied bassist Steve Zerlin, came to my recording studio and replaced my demo bass part. I could not be happier with how the final version of “Dancing Waters” turned out.

Now the composing process was starting to really flow and one song came out of me after another - an upbeat song called “Into The Light”, a funky driving song for my electric guitar I called “Green Chile Stew”, a groovin’ song that felt to me like it should be called “Walking Each Other Home” featuring an R&B horn section, a piece for 12 string and classical guitar (I did both) called “Ancient Faces” and some pieces with direct connections to my “Music For Guitar & Orchestra” experience including a poignant song for String Quintet and my guitar called “Forevermore” and a piece for String Quartet “The Marginal Way” which was inspired by a trip to Ogunquit, Maine in June of 2019. 

Another experience I had during the recording of “Music For Guitar & Orchestra” was writing for the harp, a complex and challenging instrument to properly compose for but so worth the effort. And I had found the perfect harpist for my music, a jazz harpist who had a beautiful touch and sound but also had a great groove! Lori Andrews did all of the harp work on “Music For Guitar & Orchestra” and yet I felt like I had only scratched the surface of the possibilities there. So I began to write a duo piece for my guitar and Lori’s harp. I finished a song and even sent it to Lori for her to record her harp in Los Angeles where she lives. But just before she began, I wrote yet another piece for harp & guitar and I knew it was a much better piece for this new album. We shelved the first piece and she began recording this new one which became “The Elegance of You”. It came out so beautifully and this tribute to my wife Kristin is something I am particularly proud of.

I still had room on the new album for a couple more songs. Though I loved how my song “The Grace of Summer Light” had come out on “Music For Guitar & Orchestra”, I had mixed it with the emphasis on the orchestra and guitar with my all star rhythm section of Dave Weckl on drums, John Patitucci on acoustic bass and Lori Andrews on harp, mixed somewhat behind the orchestra. I still think that was the correct mix for that album.  But I had been wondering what it would sound like if that stellar rhythm section was placed more out front - especially the virtuoso drumming of Dave Weckl - and so I created a mix where the listener feels like they are “inside” the rhythm section. The result was a more powerful and driving version of “The Grace of Summer Light”, one in which you can really feel and appreciate the detail of Weckl’s drums, Patitucci’s bass and Lori’s harp.

Finally, I felt that there had not been enough music written for the Brass Quintet in the contemporary jazz or the modern classical style. A brass quintet is typically made up of 2 trumpets, a french horn, a trombone and a tuba. Having been influenced over the years by composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass, I set out to write something from this more modern place than most brass quintet music seemed to be coming from. I wrote approximately 10 minutes of new music. There was a lot of good and interesting stuff which I came up with but I didn’t love it. I always say, if a comedian doesn’t think a joke is hilarious, how do they expect to “sell” it to an audience? And so if a composer doesn’t think what they have written is exceptional, why do you think an audience will love it? So, I decided to revisit a piece I had written and recorded for string quartet back in 2014 on my “Ruby Lane” album called “When The Spirit Speaks”. I wanted to see if I could rearrange it successfully for a brass quintet. It was a tremendous amount of work but so worth it because it worked out great for the brass quintet plus 2 of my steel string guitars. It closes out the new album and I came up with a variation on the original title: “And The Spirits Spoke”.

— Ken Navarro
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