Last fall, saxophonist Evan Smith commissioned a new work for solo alto saxophone. He debuted it in March at the North American Saxophone Association convention in Eugene, Oregon, and on Friday, April 12th he'll be playing it here in Seattle at The Chapel. After the offer from Evan came last fall, I thought for a while about what I wanted to write, but didn't come to any solid conclusions for the structure. Then, one evening I awoke from a dream at 3am with these insane screeching and endlessly running sax lines reminiscent of Albert Ayler or Ornette Coleman. As in, it was so loud and present in my dream that the sound woke me up, and continued running in my head after I'd awoken. I have no idea where these sounds came from, but I tried to get it out of my head and get back to sleep. As sat in bed listening to the rain on the laurels outside my window I could hear a train whistling and rocking in the distance; I eventually fell back to sleep. Exactly one week later I woke up at exactly the same time with the same Ayler/Coleman sax lines running in my head, same type of rain - everything. As I settled back into my slumber, the trains whistled in the distance once again. The piece began to take shape from there...it seemed to be about travel, about these strange ghosts that had woken me up with their screeching sound, and about the eternal sound of our everyday lives.

Besides Evan Smith playing this piece on Friday, April 12th, saxophonist and composer Brenna Noonan will be playing it in Santa Fe in May, and Smith will play Two Old Ghosts again in Seattle in June. The details for these performances are below - I hope you can make it to one of them!

April 12th - Seattle, WA - 8pm at The Chapel: saxophonist Evan Smith plays Two Old Ghosts as part of his The Box is Empty Solo Series recital

May 9th - Santa Fe, NM - 7pm at High Mayhem Emerging Arts:  Saxophonist Brenna Noonan plays Two Old Ghosts  and other contemporary works

June 5th - Seattle, WA - 7:30pm at The Chapel: saxophonist Evan Smith plays Two Old Ghosts as part of a degree recital for his PhD