Liner Notes
Bob Sneider & Paul
Hofmann: Escapade
(Sons of Sound SSPCD030)
A few weeks after Interconnection’s
release in April 2004, Bob and I returned to
the stage of Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall to
record this, our follow-up duo album. Escapade continues
our emphasis on performing original material — and
on interspersing improvisations with precise
ensembles. While I have again structured our
arrangements with these considerations, we also
allow ourselves some ‘freer’ playing.
Indeed, a couple of tunes conclude quite unexpectedly!
We also had fun inserting occasional nods to
earlier keyboard music, notably Claude Debussy
(a bit of “Jimbo’s Lullaby” is
heard in “Bob’s Bossa”) and
J. S. Bach (snippets of Bach’s “Invention
No. 13” find their way into “The
Great Escape”). During the final number,
after playing Alexander Scriabin’s gorgeous Prelude note-for-note,
Bob and I improvise sections culminating in solo
cadenzas; we then conclude our performance — and
this program — by restating the 1896 “Prelude” verbatim.
Of the other non-originals, Rodgers and Hart’s “My
Funny Valentine” begins and ends in a somewhat ‘baroque’ style
that sets it apart from the many popular versions.
Bob Stata’s “Mañana Time” is
a wonderfully catchy Calypso tune reminiscent
of the Sonny Rollins classic “St. Thomas.” The “King
Cole Trio Medley” features three inspiring
pieces from the 1940s, all originally recorded
before Cole’s wonderful singing made him
a household name. Many casual listeners are unaware
that Cole began his career as a jazz pianist,
composer and arranger. Oscar Moore was the Trio’s
distinguished guitarist; he is an accomplished
composer in his own right.
While Bob’s great guitar playing is appreciated
by a growing number of listeners (and deservedly
so), it has always been my hope that he find
more time outside of his busy Eastman teaching
schedule to write more music. His exhilarating “Roller
Coaster” suggests ‘Chick Corea meets
Bud Powell’ — especially given the
obvious references to Powell’s masterpiece “Un
Poco Loco” — and is written for our
good friend Bob Stata, a wonderful bass player
and composer whose recent illness and untimely
passing has profoundly saddened us all. “Bob’s
Bossa” is a relaxed Latin tune featuring
an engaging Sneider melody. “A Lullaby” is
another lovely piece of music, affectionately
dedicated to Bob’s newborn daughter, Emily.
The two brief “New Inventions” (“No.
21” highly influenced by Powell’s “Bouncing
With Bud”) are dedicated to my daughter,
Sarah; both appear on a solo piano disc of the
same name that serves as the basis of a composition
class I teach at Eastman. “Blues Palindrome,” dedicated
to Bob, darts through three related blues keys
(C-F-G) while featuring alternating eight-bar
sections of ensembles and ad-libs, even as the
twelve-measure circular blues form remains. The
notes and rhythms of the melodic line appear
both times in retrograde (we play it the final
time a tritone apart!), the last six measures
being an inversion of the first six; hence the
title —from the Greek palindromos,
meaning “running back again.”
“Touching the Sky” is a five-part
suite suggesting the grace and beauty of flight
(birds? gliders? airplanes?) and is dedicated
to my good friends and fellow composers Bill
and Forest. “Celestial Visions” is
my take on the standard “Star Eyes,” which
explains the title’s astral allusion. Here
I enjoyed reworking the original melody into
two new contrapuntal lines (one played in retrograde
above the other) before moving into a straight-eighth
pop feel and finally into a more traditional
bebop rendition (while ending with the counterpoint). “The
Great Escape” is a wild and woolly excursion
into differing time feels and is emblematic of
the sense of spirit and adventure Bob and I set
out to achieve with Escapade — one
meaning of which is ‘adventure.’ We
hope you enjoy.
— Paul Hofmann
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