Moments In and Out of Time
Thank You for visiting. Below are reminiscences, sometimes explications of music I have composed over the years. Occasional photographs of a moment here, a moment there.
The small being at the top of the page matured in the presence of music and a piano. His first professional instrument was electric bass (see the oddball not wearing a tux in the photograph below) although he established some miniscule notoriety as a popular music pianist and Hammond B-3 organist. At college there were no “pop” pianists to speak of so hence, he was called. Graduate school followed college and music performance such as it was went into hibernation, although he retained and practiced a core set of “jazz” tunes from high school days that acted as a sort of lifeline to the past.
The stars did not align for an academic career, and at first with some college acquaintances likewise at loose ends, then with others there followed various associations and relocations until one day when the stars realigned, and music took a back seat to physics for the next 25 years.
New Mexico
Immediately below are links to works under contract, Circa late 1970s-1990s. Many of the versions below were rendered in the latter stages of my MIDI studio and printed to DAT even if composed/recorded many years earlier. Some were put to lyrics by others and recorded. All were submitted to and contracted with Lowery Music in Atlanta whose catalog was bought by SONY ATV; later sold to Bicycle/Concord.
((Please note — files that open and play in the site can only be stopped by clicking on the pause button. Not helpful if you scroll down and want to open another file while the one is playing. I am in process of embedding links to audio.com for most files which will open in new tab/window (file underlined). Making it easy to keep your place in the thrilling narrative. For now if the site player is present then I have not yet linked the file to audio.com.))
Below are fIVE songs BMI/Concord. (Songs have lyrics. I compose primarily tunes without words.) At one point in my education I was told there are only two types of songs: love won and love lost. I have written “non-love” songs too, but not in the group below.
Almost Over You (vocal by Terry T)
If We Could Go Back in Time (vocal by Kathy Mac)
Dig A Little Bit Deeper in my Heart (vocal by Terry T)
CASABLANCA (the Bertie Higgins recording. Co-written with Bert and Sonny Limbo. Discussion further down the page…)
Precious Love (Love Won. Digitized B side of 45rpm. Lowery/Southern Tracks project. Yours truly with Cheryl Wilson. Cheryl is a real vocalist. Was in the Lowery orbit in Atlanta but she was destined for greater things.)
Concord-contracted tunes continue below. Recorded and re-done numerous times in the evolution of my home studio. I recorded a few at Lowery’s Southern Tracks studio.
Key West (Bertie Higgins recording)
Etude Japonnais (The Breath of God: Song version recorded by Bertie Higgins)
Berlin Recent minimalist sketch:
Berlin Bertie Higgins recording. Kept pretty close to my original demo:
Brasilia As above, first a recent sketch followed by the Bertie Higgins recording. My demo to Bert had slightly different chord colors at various moments than my latest revision.
Brasilia (Bertie Higgins recording.)
Blue Never Looked Good On You (Bertie Higgins recording)
Papillon Bertie also recorded this.
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Miami FL.
Recent Works
A group of Havana FL historians used it over the credits in a state-funded video-oral-history of Havana residents during the Second World War:
https://www.voicesofhavana.org/voices-ii.html
Blues for the 21st Century Part 1.
Blues for the 21st Century Part 2.
Blues for the 21st Century Part 3
Celestial Things Collection 2026
The Christmas Project
Three Ways to Look at Three Ships
Blue Silent Night (theme)
A Blue Silence (variation)
Late 1970s
The Batman Ballet
When my studio was wired I could save unfinished items that were not really “final” recordings, such as Sunrise.
Bolero Jam. My DX7 patch. Right Hand harmonic template supported by Left Hand bass over simple drum track. My various band mates from days gone by would recognize the style.
Bwana. Similar to Bolero but not my drum programming. Just having fun.
Tensions 1 which was never quite finished but it’s close enough for jazz, as they say.
In the New Year’s Eve 1967 photograph up above near the top showing The Classics performing at New Year’s my BPI (Baltimore Polytechnic Institute) and musical colleague Frank Dalzell is shown on guitar, I to his left, both of us studiously reading the charts. Around 2014 or so we got back in touch through the magic of social media. It happened that the moment he found me I had just found a file by accident while searching for something else and that file became Frank’s Tune.
Boston Ma
Darkness From the version of my MIDI studio in Boston MA, circa 1988-1993. The non-fade concluding with a closing hi-hat is intentional. I put it here only because on an archival playlist it followed Jobim by chance and I like the contrast. The concept of Darkness referred to life events involving corporate treachery and betrayal which signaled an end to the Boston experience. Nothing to do with the city. Boston is a great place — a real city where people live and work downtown. In fact it was there I walked with my bag the quarter mile to to Islington MTA rail changed to subway at South station and maybe there were more changes on the way to Logan airport (too far back to recall), boarded a flight to Tokyo and emerged from public transport at the hotel. That in my view is damn civilized.
Rebels Without a Cause. Flush with the fame a major hit song brings, in Japan at least, a request came to write another Casablanca. So Bill Lowery arranged for Sonny and Bertie and me to go do it. I could be wrong, but my recollection is that we flew into Gainesville FL, rented a Fender Rhodes piano, and drove to Cedar Key staying at an historic old hotel in need of renovation. This would have been 1982 maybe…. I believe Rebels was the only fruit of that labor, although I remember playing alone in my room and exploring what later became Thief of Hearts with Bert. Rebels was part of a Japanese movie soundtrack, produced in Japan and frankly, very good and better than what we were doing in Atlanta/Lookout Mountain. They sampled the sound of an analog camera shutter opening and closing which is that odd sound placed in the instrumental figure.
At this point I should explain the association with Bertie Higgins. Bert came to Atlanta in 1980-81. He had previously met Bill Lowery through the Lowery Group artist Tommy Roe and the West Pasco County FL band The Roemans, touring with the Roemans as drummer. Sonny Limbo and Bertie linked up and radio-perfected the lyrics to what became Key Largo, submitting to Bill who offered his recording studio.
Sonny, Bill, and Tommy Roe
Meanwhile in Atlanta a band coalesced that included me, Bert and friends from Tarpon Springs and other local musicians. Arch Pearson bassist. Had worked with bluegrass artist Vassar Clements, who lives on as the origin of the turn of phrase: “Boys, that was Damn Adequate”. Bill Marshall drums, who went on to work with Hank Williams Jr. Ed Higgins, percussion/congas, and Jeff Pinkham, guitar/mandolin had been part of a famous local trio with Bert at a bar in Tarpon. Our Atlanta band managed to get bookings locally and elsewhere in Georgia. I recall one road gig in Augusta I think (20 East from Atlanta… drove back during the Taurid meteor shower… Bert’s Chevy Malibu station wagon, which I think got repo-ed during the dark days before fortune arrived). Anyway we played various original material including Key Largo and it resonated with audiences. This band ended up putting down the rhythm tracks at Lowery’s studio (maybe a few overdubs too); subsequently Joel Katz and Kat Family records (CBS group) had become involved as label. They used their machinery to promote to local radio and dang if it didn’t hit. Then the rush was on to create the album. This occurred at Lowery’s and at Scott MacLellan’s studio on Lookout Mountain TN. Sonny was in charge of production and brought in session players from Shoals. In the meanwhile the band had dissolved, there was a falling out between Pinkham and Lowery, and Bertie and I were working as a duo. Given that first the band and then he and I essentially worked out the song arrangements and feel, I was part of the Lookout Mtn sessions. These were players on the map and I was in their skeptical eyes just another bar musician but the attitude was positive and the tracks went well. Between Key Largo just getting out of the starting gate and the Album sessions and release Bill Lowery arranged for Sonny to accompany Bert and me to a gig I had booked in Winter Haven FL through a family relative of Larry Schulz of the BDM days. We each had rooms at a local motel and I guess I must have lugged my Rhodes piano back and forth to have an instrument to work with. Anyway, at one of these writing sessions I played the melody on a song of mine from way way back (titled “When Your Love is Gone”… ugh… spare me) that was never realized/finished and the magic clicked. Bert and Sonny had been riffing on old movies and Casablanca resonated with the mood of the music and the lyrics fell into place. To complete the pop music form Bert provided a II-V-I-VIx etc chorus. The music and lyrics were a true collaboration. Bill Lowery proclaimed that we had come up with “A Beaut.”
CASABLANCA. A significant hit song in Asia. Began in Japan, thanks to Columbia records New York A&R dept who pitched to Sony artist Go Hiromi (search Go Hiromi Aishuu No Casablanca) and ultimately China, India, Korea, et al. But not in the USA. The story ran approximately thus: The “Starmaker Machinery Behind the Popular Song” (per Joni Mitchell) following Key Largo and then Just Another Day in Paradise, was not in agreement as to the third single release. Bill Lowery was adamant regarding Casablanca; the record co. execs decided on a sightly more raw, more rock image, away from Julio Iglesias in sandals. (The Starmaker Machinery must create a brand.) The song Port-O-Call was their candidate and was insisted upon by a radio guru whose name I cannot recall. This in brief described the unknowing meet-up of a prostitute and customer between a young man and his mother; I guess an unconscious take on the Oedipus complex from the minds of Sonny Limbo and Bertie. Bill was outvoted, Port-O-Call was released and Bertie’s older, adult contemporary radio audience was shocked and scandalized. At that point the record was finished. There may have been a half-hearted attempt at resuscitating Casablanca in the US but I don’t specifically recall and the damage was done. Despite losing its shot in the US Casablanca has done phenomenally well in Asia and elsewhere internationally. Artists as varied as Nancy Wilson and Richard Clayderman recorded it, along with a small army of Asian YouTubers.
During the early 20-oughts -teens Bertie was performing in China often. According to him Casablanca was voted as one of the 10 most important songs of all time. Not sure what Chinese entity did the voting but I’ll accept my share of the honor. After my retirement from the Electrical Power world I was hoping to go on one of these tours not as band leader or even pianist but as a guest. An honorarium for my contribution from long ago in Winter Haven Florida. Unfortunately it appears relations with China have become strained. Such is life. Anyway around 2011 Bert got in touch asking my input on how to execute a key change in Casablanca to accommodate the difference between his range and that of a very young boy who was apparently a Chinese singing star. I offered my thoughts and the resulting rendition Casablanca (China) was released.
mid-80s to mid-90s
Best Yet (recent rerecord)
Personal Star (lyrics by Deborah Hoch. Vocal by Terry T)
Sugar Daddy (re-recorded as instrumental only in 1990s)
(Dear Reader please note I have been editing out text and adding music files. Site is always under construction.)
While in Virginia I had been submitting demos to Bill Lowery and Bertie (such as Berlin and Brasilia up above in the Concord Collection). A composition that was a bit different became with Bert’s lyrics Blue Never Looked Good On You. Appropriately named and conceived. Bill released it as a Southern Tracks single and it was a random “pick” by a reviewer in Billboard. I don’t think Lowery had quite the horsepower at that point to make the necessary investment in the radio world. Regardless, it remains musically valid to me and followed my demo in every detail, including not only an arranged ending but — gasp — a modulation!
The ZONE Series.
Speed Zone. End Zone. School Zone. And Battle Zone (kind of the satellite member of the group not sharing the same signature figure; see further down). Speed Zone was a Desperate Men jam offering for a while; it has devolved to a piano exercise as of this writing. School Zone never made it to performance; it was preserved for posterity in an early incarnation of the Virginia studio around 85 or 86. What sounds like the trusty old DX7, RX11, Korg Poly800, and maybe a TX81Z for the “jazz” guitar all rendered to the TEAC 4-track. Except for drum machine it’s all live.
End Zone (a recent revision with very brief solo flute; better expression of harmonies; concise and to the point.). Prior to this produced version I was exploring a different, quasi-classical approach: EndZoneEtude.
End Zone as it turned out landed on the Airtite playlist (96-97). Robert Wawoe, the virtuoso bassist of that Jazz/New Jazz ensemble (Marc Clermont vocals and drums, Paul Buzine guitar) recorded it at a club on W. Kennedy in Tampa and to my somewhat surprise I found it in my BMI catalog of clearances with Robert as 50% publisher. Hey, that’s fine with me. Paul has provided me a copy which is on his soundclick page linked here: https://www.soundclick.com/pbuzine. Marc and Paul and Robert were/are exceptional and fun to be with. Sometimes the music takes a back seat to “the hang” — as in who you’re hanging with.
In the photograph above Marc, Paul, Yours Truly, and Nancy Crockford, a legit violinist whose gig it was are captured performing at the Gasparilla for one of the races during the weekend festivities in Tampa. As the runners went by on Bayshore Blvd we were supposed to play energizing music to keep the spirits high. All basically ad lib. Robert must have had a better gig that day (not outside in the sun and heat).
I did write a piece called Airtite near the end of my sojourn with them. Not sure what I was after sonically. The structure and harmonies were in a new jazzish vein, maybe a little dark, with patches of lightness.
Sweet Suite/Jamaica Blue/Autumn/Brave New World
These were realized in the 97-98-99 range, the final days of the MIDI studio period. The Praying Mantis March conceived at the very end of the MIDI studio days represented pretty much the pinnacle of my cynical ennui at that time.
BraveNew World, Juan Valdez (and to an extentRenaissance) share an emotive architecture, with coda headed off to another dimension.
Battle Zone — title derived from last name (Battle) of vocalist Bertie took to Japan for a couple of gigs one weekend, main gig being a wedding where the host requested Beatles music, which Bert would not play.
We lived in New Haven CT (Woodbridge) between 93 and 96 during which time my MIDI studio evolved close to its final form: MOTU Performer sequencing program, MAC IIci (which I still have), various synth modules, outboard effects, Kurzweil 88 key controller, and the legacy stuff from yore (TEAC 4 track 10″ reel to reel). Still no digital audio capability. I produced/engineered a dramatic spoken word recording for a Research Publications series on American History. And traded tracks back and forth with others in Florida: Terry T Almost Over You for example, and Bertie, with whom I did a session in Tarpon Springs at a small local studio. I prepared rhythm tracks (still trying to recall how I got my sounds/mix onto the 1/2″ tape there) and flew out of Tweed airport in New Haven with the files and I guess various synth modules.
I guess Bill Lowery must have paid for the flight. Anyway, another of the tracks fared better. Bert did include it on one of his CDs as The Breath of God, which by the way incorporates elements from my original tracks such as the repeating sequenced line and the solo note for note. I own it as Etude Japonnais.
Yeah the coda goes on for a while and no fade but I like it. Not sure why the chorus and solo sound angry (this version is built from the original rhythm tracks and was recorded in the late 90s.). I think the session master may have ended up at Lowery’s. Other titles from the session never finally realized were Thief of Hearts and Dancing with The Devil, both derived from melodies I had written in the early 80s (Thief of Hearts was from a riff I developed at the Hotel in Cedar Key where Bert, Sonny and I went to create the next Casablanca). One title that did make it to one of Bert’s CD releases is Papillon, which is one of his favorite collaborations. I recorded it about the same time as Etude Japonnais again building from the original rhythm tracks. I don’t have a copy of Bert’s recording.
Dan O’brien worked with Bertie as guitarist/leader in Florida during the years I was living in the North. I met him shortly after moving to Florida when their keyboardist could not make the gig and I of course knew Bert’s book. He had a studio on the top of his house in Dunedin and once developed a client from the Middle East (Munir?) who, under the influence of Yanni the New Age phenom, was seeking to realize his own compositions in actual recordings. Dan brought me into the project but it was not a good fit for me temperamentally and I bowed out. I guess as a reaction to the experience I composed a piece named, appropriately, New Age.
It owes a bit to looping sections, a technique that midi sequencing makes easy. With Miles (recorded in the Connecticut studio) I looped a bass line and invented parts that play off it at different moments not related to whether the bass line was at its beginning, middle, or end. Anyway, I offer with nothing but reverence for its namesake. The quintet with Tony Williams, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter remains for me an amazing moment in Jazz; I had the pleasure of hearing them at a Jazz Festival at Towson State near Baltimore I guess in the late 60s. Yes, Miles played with his back to the audience.
Midi Studio Anomalies
Older Blues Project
End Of The Line, Live recording warts and all.
Tallahassee 2019
Recent Works-In-Progress. (not improvs; revisions continue…)
Hymn 2
Wistful Thinking
Trois Sauvages Future spoken word project. Eliot’s The Dry Salvages.
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Miscellaneous and etc.
Dirge I hear this scored for New Orleans marching funeral band.
El Gato. In Memoriam.
CODA: TSE
We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
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APPENDIX: music not 100% mine.
The Vertex T Sampler:
Talking in Africa Derived from onsite recordings of actual African group songs and The Talking Heads, per my memory… Just a snippet. Vertex did all drum programming. This and Brotherland I did in the earliest Virginia studio. Pre Midi.
Brotherland I cannot definitely recall from whence the melody and bass line came. I kinda remember Rush (bass line) and Pat Metheny, but…
Cool It Cool Breeze Band opening for Average White Band at Capri Ballroom in Atlanta 1979-80 ish. Presented here in the sprit of warts and all. Rushed tempo, overplaying, too long arrangement etc. But it was live and everybody was having a good time. Co-Writer Richy the K playing the strat lick; Hal Berry on a 335 playing IV chord melody line and first solo.
Terry T is a vocalist I have mentioned above (Personal Star; Almost Over You; Dig A Little Bit Deeper in my Heart) . We moved to Tampa Bay in 96 and I gigged in Terry’s band for a brief stint. I arranged and produced in my studio a song she sang that for whatever reason appealed to me titled I’ll Lie Myself to Sleep (lyrics and music by Haselden/Mensy). It’s an example sonically of what I was doing in the midi studio in the final days…
I can be emailed at john@simplymelodic.com. Or healyjm51@gmail.com.
