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DEEP BREATHING

1999

I first met JARO CZERWINEC at the recording of COWBOY JUNKIES' legendary TRINITY SESSION album. We finished playing the first take of Misguided Angel and Jaro ran over to me, very excited. "Who are you man? It's like your my long lost brother"

I had a house gig in a hotel in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, for about nine years. It is a very functional gig, led by a fabulous singer named Doreen Smith. Many great players performed there, and this was one of its attractions for me. One evening WITOLD GRABOWIECKI showed up as the piano player. At the end of evening when we were saying goodbye he laughed and called me "his brother."

I am always looking for excuses to bring all my long lost brothers and sisters together so when the Guelph Arts Festival approached me to see if I wanted to put together a performance, I naturally thought of a family reunion. I knew that Witold was very much into meditation; he attends week-long retreats of silence in Brooklin, New York. And when I spoke to Jaro he said, "that he really liked droning on his accordian these days."

For the performance we decided to use long deep breaths as our guiding rhythmic principle, and then adopt very simple harmonic ideas upon which we would improvise. These four pieces are the result. pure magic!!!

ONE. uses the five note scale D, F#, G, A, C#.

TWO. is A minor.

THREE. is based on the F lydian scale.

ON A GROUND. features Jaro and Witold improvising over a constantly repeated bass line adapted from the music of the 13th Century mystic, Hildegard von Bingen.

Recorded live in Chalmer's United Church by Nik Tjelios Musicians:

JEFF BIRD octave mandolin, double bass, melodica, harmonica,

JARO CZERWINEC accordion

WITOLD GRABOWIECKI piano