Man, this one was a blast. I was in a phase where I enjoyed putting odd limitations on realms of reality and imagining what would happen. This piece came out of wanting to experience thinking like a monophonic player. As a guitarist, I think vertically; chords and progressions. But, horn players are monophonic players, so they tend to think linearly. I was learning to write linearly without really regarding vertical structures, so I imagined what my writing would sound like if my instrument were monophonic, as well. It’s obviously still an extremely tonal piece, but I was trying to break myself out, and this was an early result.

One of the biggest compliments I’ve ever gotten came from this one. When it came time for the Commencement concert at the end of my degree program at NEC, students were invited to submit pieces for the concert. I’ve never thought my stuff was really worth that much, a terrible lie that plagues my life to this day (the main reason I’m just now putting this stuff up online up to 20 years after I wrote it), so I didn’t submit anything for the concert. Ken Schaphorst, one of my master professors at NEC and still the head of the Jazz Department up there ran into me in the hallway. He said, “Hey, I noticed you didn’t submit anything for the Commencement concert.” I responded that that was true and that I didn’t think I had much that would be good for that. He said, “I think you should do ‘Three Piece.’ I think that would be great for that concert.” I’m humbled by that conversation to this day. I’ve tried to do a studio recording a couple of times, but never quite got there. This recording is from the Commencement concert. It’s Josh Deustch on trumpet, Kendall Eddy on upright, and me on guitar.

By the way, if you’ve ever talked to Ken at all, I do a GREAT impersonation. Just sayin.