For about 2 years, I have had this “opus” album idea that would combine all my favorite musical points (mostly instrumentation) into a single genre. I have wanted to do overdriven electric lead guitar paired with banjo for a long time, so that was the start, then I decided I needed to throw in marching band drums, slap bass, a french horn trio, an ocarina (which is just a flute for compositional purposes), and a reedy woodwind (in this case, the clarinet). The finally requirement was that all songs would have 5-beat phrasing.
The idea finally solidified as a 7-track instrumental album that chronicles the evolution of the universe through this new genre that I titled “Baz Hennessy.” About a year and a half ago, I discovered the Sibelius music composition software, and got underway.
The first track I wrote, “An Unexpected Rebuttal,” sat by itself for about 9 months, then over Christmas 2010 I finally got to work on “The Extraction,” and the last 5 tracks came about in the 4th week of January 2011.
As hard as it was, I sat on the compositions for a month — without even listening, then mixed down the midis as close as I could to get an ALMOST live sound.
I’m very pleased with the results, so please go check out the the lo-fi samples I’ve put on my website. The album is called “The Awakening of Baz Hennessy.”
The next stage is to find an ambitious musical entrepreneur to finance the live recording and possibly performance of these compositions. During that process, I want to add some tribal rhythms to the current blend of instrumentation. I am shooting for doing all this by Fall of 2012.
If you happen across this blog, have listened to the samples, and are interested or know someone who might be interested, please contact me and we can arrange a full demonstration of the current recordings.