It’s different, and i’m pretty excited about it!
here’s why..
It’s the first full scale album in which I play EXCLUSIVELY the EWI (Electric Wind Instrument).
This musical ‘mission’, in my opinion, is not to be taken lightly.
Leaving the saxophone aside in this band means that the EWI has to come to the front as the main character.
I owe a lot to the EWI. The decision to pick it up and dive into its endless possibilities has gotten me some wonderful musical experiences and opportunities along the years. Maybe it’s out of respect to the instrument, or to its legacy (especially the amazing work of the legendary Michael Brecker), that I felt an urge to push forward and try to do something very different and personal.
While in most of my current bands and projects I play the EWI as a kind of ‘exotic’ addition to the sound spectrum, in this band I felt a special need to try and give it a ‘heart’ – a certain character and liveliness that exists almost only in acoustic instruments. It required me to take a dive deeper into sound synthesis, multi timbre layering (LOTS of filter envelopes) and sound production.
To add to that – it’s a trio record (with an incredible bassist and drummer), which means that aside for playing the melodies I also bear the harmonic responsibility 🫣
You know.. being a saxophonist is pretty much a monophonic universe.. so naturally my first thought was – how the hell am I gonna do that???
This made me practice a whole new thing – playing very quickly two notes at the same time (tricky, but possible on EWI) and then running them through harmonizer pedals to create almost any 4 or 6 note chord at will. My personal goal was to be able to harmonically comp a complex jazz ballad. When this was achieved (which i’m quite proud of), I thought i’m ready to go and after about 2964278 tries I managed to kinda get the heck of it and do it in real time with the band 😂
With bass virtuoso Roberto Badoglio playing some tasteful harmonies on his 6 & 7 string basses, the result is a kind of special harmonic symbiosis that is unique to this instrumentation, formation and personas.
Marcel van Cleef , with his mad versatility and ability to play drums and percussion in such high level, is the perfect match for that combination. I still remember our first rehearsal, where I was blown away by how many SPD and electronic layers he is able to incorporate WHILE holding a killer intense groove.
I can safely say that it might be the most ambitious and eclectic thing all 3 of us ever had to perform. We are all constantly trying to extend our musical reach in this band, searching for something new, exciting and inspiring.
Pretty ironic that the band’s name is NOT INSPIRED TRY TOMORROW , but that’s for another story 😉
Album drops tomorrow, we put our hearts into it, so give it a spin and feel free to share your thoughts 🙏🏻