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MP3 Mark Kramer, Jazz Pianist - Boulders and Mountains
8 MP3 Songs in this album (59:57) !
Related styles: JAZZ: Cool Jazz, JAZZ: Smooth Jazz
People who are interested in Duke Ellington Count Basie Dave Brubeck should consider this download.
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ON BOULDERS AND MOUNTAINS
Enter Sisyphus: the strong-willed politically incorrect trickster, who was banished by Zeus to roll a huge boulder up a steep mountain for eternity. As close as he came to getting it to the top, the boulder would once again roll him down to the bottom. The story of Sisyphus1 is compelling to me because no matter how close Sisyphus delivered the boulder to the top of the mountain, the boulder always proved too heavy for him near the top.
However, over the ages Sisyphus became stronger: physically and emotionally. Sisyphus finally theorizes that his failure to scale the top is not due to his lack of strength or emotional readiness. On one trip up, suspicious, he raises the boulder, and peers around it, seeing and feeling someone pushing back down on the boulder. Next trip, about 10 feet from the top, he raises the boulder high with one hand; with the other he throws the pebble to the side and over the top of the Mountain. He sees the other figure scampering off, distracted by the small pebble. Sisyphus now rolls the boulder easily onto the summit of the mountain. (As translated in revised form by my friend Sir Thomas Forman)
There is more to this story, for another time. Like Sisyphus, I am now standing on my artistic summit. You will hear it in late 2009. Wow! At least now it will have the context of this period. As with many artists, something in me connects intermittently with an Omnipresence. Now more humbled than feeling entitled, I accept my infatuation, inconsequentiality, and my wish to be relevant, worthy, and a conduit.
The originals included here do not pretend to be everlasting. They are just here to archive a certain period of my work; a thin slice of an unmanageable collection of original jazz tunes, arguably the seeds for a unified vision, cloaked in a protective pretense. Those herein were played by some very good musicians/friends about 15 years ago. That the tunes were recorded at all, is the reason they are included here, and others not.
My tunes, whether or not they had been heard back then, did not open any doors. Years of colossal effort before and after - thwarted perhaps by glaring lack of nepotism, a rich relative, or striking originality - got me athinkin'' recently and with gravitas. Fortunately, an artistic breakthrough occurred in me a few months ago; hubris scattered to the wind.
Seemingly, pointless, intense struggle had been my "muse" for decades. It is now clear that the impulse to "make it/acquire that deal" was the rich yolk which nourished a potential towards authenticity. The means are the rewards, and the means provide an unimpeded opening for an extraordinary grace that is transformative.
"Work and grace" are far from mutually exclusive. The "futility of persistence", however, is the myth/ major "cop out" for so many who have not gone the extra 25,000 miles. There is a fine balance between "being prepared to receive" versus boasting that one is the cause of everything.
In closing, I do grieve the loss of Freddie Waits, a singular talent. This is perhaps his last recording. This CD is also dedicated to my dear friend — Dean Leavitt -- a true jazz fan and musician. He introduced me to jazz. Dean died as a very young man. "One for Dean" was written for him. I have appreciated all of my work with Eddie Gomez - who continues to live through most of what I am saying, I also extend my thanks to drummers Joe Chambers and John Mosemann,
Please enjoy BOULDERS AND MOUNTAINS. My best regards. MARK KRAMER
CRFD1TS
Executive Producer - Larry Russell
Tracks (1,4,6): Producer/Engineer Jeff Bernstein/ Cynthia Daniels.
Tracks (2,3,5,7,8) Co-producers/Mark Kramer and Eddie Gomez / Engineer; Mark Kramer
Tracks (1,4,6) Recorded at Waterworks Studio, NY NY, [1989]; Mixed at Sigma Sound, Phila., PA. by John Anthony
Tracks (2,3,5,7,8: live in concert [1991,1994]
All re-mastered 2008 by Mark Kramer at Blue Hara Studios, Upper Dublin, Pa.
Art Design and Production: Mark Kramer / Liner notes: Mark Kramer / Copy Editor: Martin Shillinger
Piano: Mark Kramer Bass; Eddie Gomez, Drums: Freddie Waits (T1,4,6), Joe Chambers (T2,3) Joh''n Mosemann (T5,7,8) ''
WITH GRATITUDE to:
Larry Russell and June de Toth of EROICA RECORDS for their love and friendship.
Janet Factor and Jim Calderone without whom the live concert would not have occured and been recorded.
All the forgotten artists: may you find the courage, strength, and resources to continue rolling your boulders up the mountains. Remember. Gratitude is your Power Bar.
IN MEMORY OF FREDDIE WAITS (1943-1989)
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