Steve Newcomb

The music on this record evolved from playing with Sam Anning and Guilhem Flouzat during our attendance at the Manhattan School of Music. At this time, I began to realise a dream of developing music for trio and string quartet and soon enlisted Jonah Parzen-Johnson on bass clarinet to join a new piece I had written for this instrumentation. Mat Jodrell is someone who I've known for many years and I was determined to collaborate with him. The dream grew to include harp and winds. Kathryn Andrews assisted my learning with harp writing, and Alex Love and Jodie Rottle are other Manhattan School connections and they helped complete my dream wind section. Also at this school I met Kavita Shah and we developed a strong musical connection. While playing in Kavita's world music project I met Stephen Cellucci and asked that he also join SNO on tabla. Jonathan Ragonese came highly recommended as a conductor and enlisting him in this project was integral to the clarity and expression you hear in the music. I greatly admire the work of William Martina on cello (another aussie connection) and added Andrei Matorin, Amelia In, and Nora Krohn to round out the string section. One of my oldest and dearest friends from Brisbane is Laura Kahle (now Brooklyn based), and I was extremely delighted when she was able to attend the session, along with her husband Jeff. The whole team made the journey to Paul Antonell's clubhouse in upstate New York, in idyllic surroundings, and spent a full day making music.

Jonathan Goldberger is a great friend from early New York days and his guitar work and creative sound shaping is always what I love to hear. I was really glad that he and Shannon Barnett, a long time friend from Australia and incredible trombonist, were able to help complete my vision for the multi-movement 'Caterpillar Chronicles' piece. 'Caterpillar Chronicles' was a commission project instigated by Miroslav Bukovsky at ANU School of Music and originally created as a work for big band. I am thankful for this opportunity.

I'd like to give heart felt thanks to all the amazing people involved in this project. The music you hear was sculpted for and by the people on this record. A special thanks to Jodie. Thanks to Chris McNulty for friendship and wonderful lyrics. To Paul and the team at Clubhouse for the hospitality, great craft and many smiles. To Roseann Baker, for bringing such wonderful energy to SNO live performances through dance. To Paula, Brooke and Ava, mum and dad, and my family for all the encouragement and support. To the mentors who assisted me throughout my studies: Jim McNeely, Phil Markowitz and Garry Dial. To the musical mentors in my life: John Hoffman, Kenny Barron, Barney McAll, WIll Vinson, Sean Wayland, Ken Edie, James Sherlock, Oj Newcomb, Carl Harvoe, Katie and Zac. To Justin Dicciocio, Chris Rosenberg, Stephanie Crease and all the staff at Manhattan School of Music. To Huib Schippers and my colleagues at Queensland Conservatrorium, Griffith University. To David Glasser at Airshow Mastering, Cheryl Orsini for beautiful design, and Johannes, Mace and Andrew at Listen/Hear Collective for welcoming me to their label which supports and presents original independent music.

Music is a social activity, for the audience and the performers. The day we all had in the studio felt to me like a great celebration of something. Music has that mysterious quality to it. Above all, it was fun.

Steve Newcomb
December 2012