In 1987 I was in Nyack NY with the high school marching band hanging out in the stands, I played trumpet. There was a girl named Yvette holding the most peculiar horn. I asked her what it was. This was the first time I saw or heard of the bass clarinet. Something about that horn I thought. A few years later I sat in with David Murray playing trumpet, and he was playing bass clarinet on the gig. He did a slap tongue hip hop type thing on it that blew my mind.

In the mid 90’s I exiled myself from the NYC straight ahead jazz scene to Kingston NY, searching for myself. I walked into a music store on main street. At the counter the man started addressing somebody in the back that I couldn’t see and said “Gus, you stink, you really need to take a bath!” I then met Gus, who came out to the front, a huge old shaggy dog with lots of love in his eyes. I asked the man what’s the chance he had a used bass clarinet as almost a joke to myself. He said he had one for $200! As low as that was, I needed 2 weeks to pay it off. The die was cast.

With no training or internet I thought it was a bass clef instrument. I had an old stencil of unknown origin. I could get a sound pretty quick but was lost. I took one lesson from a burned out band instrument teacher. I then found a great teacher in New Paltz named Bill Street who gave me a custom made mouthpiece and recommended playing standing up using a custom made rod extension to the floor. After a year of practicing I ventured back to big bad NYC, after meeting Ryan Sawyer who introduced me to the whole free jazz scene.

I was struggling on both horns then. I was trying to work this trumpet/BC double and causing myself all kinds of problems. The only person I knew then playing BC was Michael Herbst, who I heard burning with Charles Waters Gold Sparkle Band at Free Radio 103.9 in Brooklyn. The late great Steve Dalachinsky told the whole Vision Festival crowd as MC, “This Matt Lavelle, the first time I heard him with Daniel Carter, boy did he suck, but I heard him the other day and said wow, this guy might have something to say!” To tighten it up I took 2 lessons with a great clarinetist, Oscar Noriega. Daniel Carter and Sabir Mateen both pointed out to me that I was playing BC like a trumpet in the upper register. Sabir went next level though, and wrote music for me to play on BC forcing me downstairs, and urged me to pursue the authentic sound of the horn. I started recording with the horn right off regardless of my development, driving Bob Rusch at CIMP Records up the wall. In truth I was pushing too hard, playing BC when hired to play trumpet. If Ornette could do it, so could I, I thought. Then (I tell this story over and over) Ornette himself told me to stop the BC madness, literally taking the horn away from me in his music room. Still, I persisted and eventually found my groove on a Silkheart record called Spiritual Power, and with my brothers Matt Heyner and Ryan Sawyer in a trio called Eye Contact. I joined a free everything project called Stars Like Fleas and played mostly BC. Then came my second self imposed exile from NYC, and yes it was also based on a relationship. I started playing alto clarinet then and eventually stopped BC for a year or so, really messing with my mind and soul. Back in NYC, when the right horn came to me while working at Sam Ash, I came back to the BC and have not looked back. David Murray heard me on BC and told me I sounded good. For me the BC holy trinity is Eric Dolphy, Bennie Maupin, and David.

Now with my trusted working class old LeBlanc, me and the BC are drilling down to what this horn relationship has been about all along, singing. The horn is taped up and has been seen at Perry Ritter Horn Repair at least 20 times over the years. The horn is kind of like Gus, the old dog from the very beginning of the story.

Together now in Philadelphia, we sing together

Every tree has a song to sing, and in a forest they all sing together. The trees love the Earth, the Sky, the Sun, the Moon, the Birds, and especially each other.

Clouds sing as they pass overhead if you listen with your soul. On my deck in Philadelphia, I can see and hear them in a way I never could in NYC. When I play in the upper register on BC, I’m with them.

You know Mountains also sing, and when I play in the bottom register, I’m with them, primarily at night in the quiet dark.

Carpenter Woods is in Philadelphia near my home and I often play there to commune with the trees directly. As the BC is made of African blackwood, it’s one tree to another.

Morning Glory is a song about a flower written by William Parker, and is dedicated to him

Cymatics is the art science of sound vibration that I’m starting to explore in multiple ways, primarily as a possible path to bridge my music and paintings. More soon on this I hope.

Hope is a song I wrote for my beloved 12 Houses to play for the world

Radhe-Shyam was written by Alice Coltrane and is dedicated to her. You can’t hear the Bata drums in my head. I had a dream recently with Alice who told me “I give you complete permission”, I think she was talking about my being invited to speak about the astrology of John Coltrane at the John Coltrane symposium on 9/23 in Philadelphia

Finally, sail on is a dedication to my brother of 30 years, Francois Grillot. Sail on my friend, now and forever

This album is dedicated to every tree that has ever lived, is living, or will live on the Earth