Bob Sneider & Paul Hofmann: Escapade (Sons of Sound SSPCD030) A few weeks after Interconnection’s release in April 2004, Bob and I returned to the stage of Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall to record this, our follow-up duo album. Escapade continues our emphasis on performing original material — and on interspersing improvisations with precise ensembles. While I have again structured our arrangements with these considerations, we also allow ourselves some ‘freer’ playing. Indeed, a couple of tunes conclude quite unexpectedly! We also had fun inserting occasional nods to earlier keyboard music, notably Claude Debussy (a bit of “Jimbo’s Lullaby” is heard in “Bob’s Bossa”) and J. S. Bach (snippets of Bach’s “Invention No. 13” find their way into “The Great Escape”). During the final number, after playing Alexander Scriabin’s gorgeous Prelude note-for-note, Bob and I improvise sections culminating in solo cadenzas; we then conclude our performance — and this program — by restating the 1896 “Prelude” verbatim. Of the other non-originals, Rodgers and Hart’s “My Funny Valentine” begins and ends in a somewhat ‘baroque’ style that sets it apart from the many popular versions. Bob Stata’s “Mañana Time” is a wonderfully catchy Calypso tune reminiscent of the Sonny Rollins classic “St. Thomas.” The “King Cole Trio Medley” features three inspiring pieces from the 1940s, all originally recorded before Cole’s wonderful singing made him a household name. Many casual listeners are unaware that Cole began his career as a jazz pianist, composer and arranger. Oscar Moore was the Trio’s distinguished guitarist; he is an accomplished composer in his own right. While Bob’s great guitar playing is appreciated by a growing number of listeners (and deservedly so), it has always been my hope that he find more time outside of his busy Eastman teaching schedule to write more music. His exhilarating “Roller Coaster” suggests ‘Chick Corea meets Bud Powell’ — especially given the obvious references to Powell’s masterpiece “Un Poco Loco” — and is written for our good friend Bob Stata, a wonderful bass player and composer whose recent illness and untimely passing has profoundly saddened us all. “Bob’s Bossa” is a relaxed Latin tune featuring an engaging Sneider melody. “A Lullaby” is another lovely piece of music, affectionately dedicated to Bob’s newborn daughter, Emily. The two brief “New Inventions” (“No. 21” highly influenced by Powell’s “Bouncing With Bud”) are dedicated to my daughter, Sarah; both appear on a solo piano disc of the same name that serves as the basis of a composition class I teach at Eastman. “Blues Palindrome,” dedicated to Bob, darts through three related blues keys (C-F-G) while featuring alternating eight-bar sections of ensembles and ad-libs, even as the twelve-measure circular blues form remains. The notes and rhythms of the melodic line appear both times in retrograde (we play it the final time a tritone apart!), the last six measures being an inversion of the first six; hence the title —from the Greek palindromos, meaning “running back again.” “Touching the Sky” is a five-part suite suggesting the grace and beauty of flight (birds? gliders? airplanes?) and is dedicated to my good friends and fellow composers Bill and Forest. “Celestial Visions” is my take on the standard “Star Eyes,” which explains the title’s astral allusion. Here I enjoyed reworking the original melody into two new contrapuntal lines (one played in retrograde above the other) before moving into a straight-eighth pop feel and finally into a more traditional bebop rendition (while ending with the counterpoint). “The Great Escape” is a wild and woolly excursion into differing time feels and is emblematic of the sense of spirit and adventure Bob and I set out to achieve with Escapade — one meaning of which is ‘adventure.’ We hope you enjoy. — Paul Hofmann