‘2048 (feat. Andy Snitzer)’ – The Time Thief blog #2

The title of this track might seem a random number and probably evokes the question: “Why this number?”

As the theme of this album is ‘time’ and timelines I thought about my personal timeline.
A somewhat very average life expectancy for men in the UK is about 80. Taking this number and adding it to 1968 – the year I was born – indicates my average live span expiring in 2048. I’m not doing this to be morose in any way – it is just an interesting marker to put things into an interesting perspective. Anomalies aside, I have about 30 years to time manage;)

It was always my intention to write a tune featuring one of my most beloved instruments – the tenor saxophone.

Andy Snitzer, an incredible musician, producer and tenor saxophonist surfaced on my radar thanks to Mike Sturgis. Both Andy Snitzer and Rick Margitza were peers of his at the University of Miami (I believe they had their own amazing buddy rich as a teacher in Whit Sidener – so on many levels it made sense to invite them both to record on the album. A musical reunion in a sense.

[photo from Andy’s website]

Andy has a busy schedule but I managed to catch him whilst he was on tour with Billy Joel, visiting London. I was really impressed with his unbelievable energy and zest to get the very best take possible. You can get a glimpse of this in this video by Andy Brush.

Watch Andy Snitzer close-up in the studio recording ‘2048’here. If you enjoy the video please like the video and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Musically 2048 is stretching out a little – possible a less standard form arrangement than other of my tunes. My collaboration with Michael B Nelson resulted in some – in my opinion – exciting horn section work.

Another friend and master musician that I invited to play on the album is guitarist Tony Remy. Tony invited me to his lovely studio and layed down some awesome guitar riffs to 2048. The arrangement is pretty tense as it is but Tony, with years of experience managed to find some super cool ‘statement’ parts which have formed an integral part of the tune – particularity in the opening section. I really want to do some more with him – recording with him was a fun, relaxing and inspiring experience.

[photo by Monica Dart, courtesy of David Fitzsimons]

Playing this tune live has also developed into a fun venture for the band. It is an exciting challenge to pull it off including all the up and downs of the dynamics and the occasional odd meter.

It is particularly fun when Karl Vanden Bossche – a master percussionist – joins the live band – as the tune jumps to yet another level of excitement. It was such good fun too to record the percussion in Karl’s studio – his love for groove and percussion sounds is just so infectious.

Get ?The Time Thief? here:

Funkestra store (download + CD)
Apple iTunes UK (sample + download)
Bandcamp (streaming + download)
Amazon US (sample, download + CD)
CD Baby (sample, download + CD)