C-Funk was written quite some time ago. At the time, I was living with 3 roommates in a large house which had become known as the "House of Substance". Basically, if you came into the house, you were gonna get fucked up - if that's what you wanted to do. In any case, one particular morning I was sitting downstairs goofing off with my Korg M1, and there was this girl named Carol who was crashed out on the couch. She woke up and asked me what I was doing ... I told her that I was just screwing around, writing music. Now, she was pretty attractive, and I was a much younger man, much more dictated by my hormones, so when she batted her eyelashes and said, "ooo ... write a song for me" I, of course, started to make something up. This is what happened.

I think it's a pretty good song, really. It has kind of a nice, easy feeling to it, and a good WX-11 sax solo in the middle.

(I know what you're wondering ... the answer is, unfortunately, no)

While I was playing with the CWU Jazz Band I, we'd occasionally play a samba. For me, these events were WAY too few and far between. I fell in love with the whole samba feel. One day, I set out to write a samba. I knew the drum pattern, having heard it beaten into the heads of the CWU drummers, so I had a good place to start. Basically, I sequenced the underlying drum feel, smoked a whole bunch of pot, and then sat down to write and came up with this.

This is one of the better things I've written. While it's simple - basically C | Db, repeat, the feel is good, and the contrapuntal center section turned out to be pretty intense. I also like the WX-11 trumpet solo before the last time through.

This is probably the most drug-induced song I've written. It's almost a tone poem of sorts. There was a time in my life when I was eating a LOT of acid ... this came about during one of those periods. It's kind of eerie and really makes no sense as far as the progression and theory of the song are concerned. This was all about creating a FEEL and an almost ambient sense of dread in places. There are points when it starts to seem like the song is going to take a decidedly happy, major twist .. and then pow! here come the tritones!

Eclectic has great potential to be used as some interstitial music in a film ... we may use some or all of it in Bob Scepter. If we do, it'll have to be re-recorded with MUCH better voices!

Now THIS song is a kick. This is nothing more, really, than an excuse for me to take an extended WX-11 sax solo over changes that I really like soloing over. Still, it's a pretty catchy little pop tune. The name comes from the fact that there are 3 separate melodic "hooks" within the song ... a treble hook! I lived in Alaska for 4 years, and during that time, we fished for halibut quite a lot. The way one fishes for halibut is simple. Halibut are extremely stupid. All that is required is for the fisherman to drop a line with nothing but a treble hook (a hook with 3 prongs) down to the bottom, then reel it up about 3 turns. At this point, the line is jigged up and down. The flashing motion attracts the stupid fish, who bites the hook. The fisherman can then reel the fish in, filet it, beer batter it, and have some tasty halibut cheeks!

Again, this is nothing more than an excuse for a lengthy WX-11 sax solo in the middle. It's a simple I-IV-V form with a bridge. All I can say about the solo is ... Kenny G can blow me!

This is nothing more than an experiment in off-time. I was remembering songs that I'd played in Wind Ensemble in high school and college by such composers as Elliot Del Borgo, Karel Husa, and Paul Hindemith. This is nothing like those composers, of course - just what was inspiring me at the time.

This is one of my better works. Good time changes, good WX-11 sax solo in the middle over the top of a rippin' 5/8 part where the accents are 3-2-2-3. Good stuff!

Baker Street is one of my favorite songs, and probably the only reason Gerry Rafferty's name ever gets mentioned anymore :). This was actually a triumph for me since it's the only cover song I've done where I started entirely from scratch, just using the actual recording and figuring out all the parts by ear. It took me FOREVER, but it turned out pretty well, I think. My voice actually sounds halfway decent, too.

This was also the only song I ever recorded using my Tascam 488MKII 8-track cassette studio. I was also using a PPS-2 synchronizer, and once I had it set up correctly, it worked great!

Staring At Mars was written way back in college, on a very cheap Casio keyboard. The lyrics were written by my friend Stuart, who basically gave me a set of lyrics and kinda challenged me to write something ... this is like the 8,000th version of this song.

Again, this is a simple pop song. If you listen to a lot of my stuff you'll hear that I use this form a lot. Even some of the new Bob Scepter stuff uses it!