CP504

Faithful followers of this blog–both of you–will know that I’ve been writing a new jazz tune every week for my Thursday night gig at Euro Bistro. It has been great fun, and though I have no immediate need for a stack of jazz songs, it has reaffirmed love affair with notes. There are just 12 notes, but they combine in so many interesting ways that I find it endlessly fascinating. After 40 years of composing, I’m still discovering new things!

The downside of this weekly output is that I run out of titles. I can only write so many songs named for my fellow musicians (“Waltz for Ed,” “Susan’s Blues”) without it becoming…creepy. When I’m at a loss for new tune names, I often name them for something that describes some feature of the music or reminds me of what I was doing at the time of writing. In this case, I named the song “CP504” for the IRS tax form that lets one know they’re planning to seize one’s property for unpaid taxes. (Jen and I got one; it’s a clerical error on their end.)

I should point out that these recordings are made by sticking my iPhone on my music stand and pressing record. You can hear how things begin tentatively and slowly pick up steam. If you listen closely, you can also hear Susan (the violinist) turn to me and suggest that the restaurant should make this song their hold music. Ironically, as I write this blogpost, I’m on hold with the IRS. I heartily agree that my song would be a lot better than what the IRS has provided me for hold music.*

*For those of you who are interested, the current IRS hold music is in the key of E, features a melody with lots of seconds, harmonies with open fifths, and rocks back and forth between E and A with an exciting shift to C#m at one point.

This entry was posted in Jazz, Live. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *