Peter Erskine – “Behind Closed Doors”

Description

From the CD liner notes by Peter Erskine

“I count myself as extremely fortunate to have been able to work alongside such incredible musicians as Mike Mainieri, Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Bob Mintzer, Randy Brecker, Marc Johnson, John Patitucci, Kenny Werner, Alan Pasqua, Alex Acuna, Zakir Hussain, The WDR Big Band (Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, Germany), Bill Dobbins, Vince Mendoza, and the others whose work appears on this CD collection of previously unreleased tracks, spanning a time period between March, 1991 and March of 1996. I thank everyone for their superlative contributions to the music, and I thank you for listening!

While I was assembling the music for this CD, it occurred to me that something like “Around The World in Seventy Minutes” would make for an appropriate title. We start in “Bulgaria” via Koln, Germany (recorded with the great WDR Big Band and Mike Mainieri), followed by my German lieder-inspired ballad “If Only I Had Known,” and then make our way to New York City (Kenny Werner’s “Herbie Nichols, ” featuring Joe Lovano), heading down south for some “Sweet Soul” with John Scofield, and then we scoot out to New Mexico for Alan Pasqua’s “Milagro” (miracle); going further south and back east to “Caribe,” all of a sudden we are in Madras and Cuba simultaneously with “A to Z” (Acuna on bata, Zakir on tabla), and after that we check out the stars from a vantage point in the far north of Scotland (“Northern Cross”); my solo, “Sub Dude,” is a sort of global drum anthem, and we finish up in Europe at the cold Danish castle of Prince Hamlet (“To Be Or Not To Be”).

Track Listing

1. Bulgaria  (P. Erskine 10:27)
2. If Only I Had Known  (P. Erskine 7:44)
3. Herbie Nichols  (K. Werner 5:59)
4. Sweet Soul  (P. Erskine 9:59)
5. Milagro  (A. Pasqua 5:34)
6. Caribe  (A. Pasqua 7:15)
7. A to Z  (A. Bennett 6:01)
8. Northern Cross  (P. Erskine 6:19)
9. Sub Dude  (P. Erskine 3:33)
10. To Be Or Not To Be  (P. Erskine 6:46)