Dayna Stephens - Gratitude (2017) Lossless

Of the many ways one could express Gratitude, I struggle forming adequate words. When expressing such an important emotion they never seem to quite capture the essence of whats really burning to be understood. The seemingly infinite possible mixtures of notes rhythms and textures given to us by musical expression, however, while still not 100% representative of my personal experienced Gratitude, shines a much brighter light on how humbled and lucky I am to be surrounded by so many angels of compassion and inspiration. It’s been a long night walking through dense forrest, but being surrounded by a sea of candles held by so many gracious people singing "the sun is on its way up” helped illuminate the path to a better place. For them and you I hope this music comes close to expressing how eternally grateful I am for the opportunity given to extend my journey of inspired existence.
One thing that unites every song on this record is they were all at one time or another ear worms that stuck around for a while, and often returned for lengthy stays. Another uniting factor is that they all have to my ear enchanting beautiful singable melodies, and give me a strong sense of sentiment. When we recorded these songs I was conflictingly full of hope peace and uncertainty. Hope that my years would be extended, peace that I was lucky to have made it that far with lots a great moments and experiences despite the circumstances, yet uncertainty because it wasn’t yet clear how the journey was going to continue. Now after so much warmth love peace and connection has been given to me by countless I am saturated with gratitude, perhaps completing a circle that started with those ingredients. ~Dayna Stephens

The 1st song Emilie was introduced to me by violinist/composer Olivier Manchon. He dedicates it to his sister Emilie and its got a nice simple melody that when combined with the plesantly unexpected harmony create a beautiful song to connect with.

In A Garden was written by Aaron Parks, and i’ve had the pleasure of playing this song with him on several occasions. It often paints scenes for me one would find in a fantasy movie. Some of the visuals in the Robin Williams movie What Dreams May Come come to mind.

Amber Is Falling (Red and Yellow) was written by vocalist/composer Michelle Amador, and has been on my favorites list since the mid two thousandzies when we played it in San Francisco in her group Michelle Amador and the True Believers.

Woodside Waltz refers to a city in Northern California called Woodside which has tons of great scenic views of the SF bay through tall redwood trees. While recording it we discovered the recording studio called the Club House Rhinebeck NY had a tack piano which was perfect for bringing out the essence of this gem written Julian Lage. We were all even willing to all tune down our instruments a dozen or so cents flat to match the turning of the piano which hadn’t been tuned in some time.

We Had A Sister is a hauntingly beautiful song by Pat Metheny that I heard as a young beginning saxophone student on Joshua Redman’s second release entitle “Wish”. It’s a song i’ve always wanted to play.

The Timbre of Gratitude is the only original song of mine. In a loose way the happy sounding starts of each new section represent the many positive moments of encouragement I received throughout my journey thus far.

Isfahan is one of many masterpieces by the great Billy Stayhorn. I’m reminded of Joe Henderson's version he recorded on his album dedicated to Stayhorn. I really admired how personal and intimate his playing was which is why i felt it was a good idea to do this one trio with Larry and Julian.

Don’t Mean a Thing at All is a song written by vocalist/Song writer Rebecca Martin. I first heard her sing it duo with Larry Grenadier and immediately fell in love with its melody and lyric.

Clouds is one title for two songs written by different composers. The first version was written by Bassist/Composer Massimo Biolcati and one I’ve played many times while we were both in the Monk Institute. The melody gets is full of nice intricate surprises. The second version was written by drummer/producer/composer Louis Cole and this was actually my introduction to his unique magical sonic world, which I have since become a huge fan off.