Trace Evidence

Esoteric Music, is my 2nd solo percussion CD. I feel as though it's more cohesive than my debut disc, Percussion Discussion. This is not to say it's better, or terribly different; it's mainly that it was recorded in the same studio by the same engineer using the same mics and barely includes any non-drumset Classical music.

Fans of Frank Zappa, Mike Keneally, Bill Bruford, Steve Smith, marimba, percussion ensemble and odd-meter will most likely enjoy this music. I carefully craft my compositions to where the common layperson can be drawn in by the rhythms and percussive timbres, all the while feeling a connection to the fun coming out of their speakers; and at the same time, to the serious music scholar, who can listen intensely to these pieces several times and still hear something new, be it a time signature, tonal center, melody, harmony, dissonant chord, difficult drum technique or compositional tool.

Esoteric Music is comprised of a dozen tracks, that clock in just under 41 minutes. Even though there are a lot of complex music ideas interwoven through the pieces, it's quite an easy record to digest. If one chooses to delve deeper into the many musical aspects that make up the individual works, it's there for your digging; otherwise, the music can still be enjoyed by the casual listener.

The disc begins with a short, rhythmically adventurous piece in the "Black Page" vein of Frank Zappa and ends with a short, original 4-mallet solo marimba piece in tribute to my Grandpa, that invokes images of Debussy, Bach and Musser, the marimba mogul. In between, many genres, styles, techniques and time signatures are explored. There's linear funk, improvised jazz, drum solos, mallet solos, 1/16th note based time signatures, shifting meters, beat displacements, Latin/Afro-Cuban/West African music, double bass drums, fusion and lots of auxiliary percussion.

You can read more about each specific piece at the Directed Listening section of my website.

Thank you for taking the time to check out my music and I sincerely hope you enjoy it!