ONE UP, TWO BACK

"This tune is an example of just how much mileage you can get out of two diminished scales and a couple of dominant seventh chords. The ridiculously long form was originally even longer. I'd wanted to write something with a long and contrasting solo form like Mingus' "Sue's Changes", and so the original version had a big rhapsodic ballad section in the middle of it, which I eventually decided was just too much. Everybody carries on in a grand fashion on this one, especially our very special guest pianist, Tony Foster."

WE KNEW

"Fabulous tune by our bassist Al Johnston, in fact it's my personal favourite on the album. It's really hard to play though. I'm tempted to complain to Al about that, then I remind myself that I'm often guilty of the same thing (see ONE UP, TWO BACK). Al cultivates a wise-guy public persona, but his bass solo here reveals him for the sensitive and poetic soul he is"

ATTACK OF THE KILLER CHALMATIONS

"This tune contains my favourite Norm Quinn solo. A "Chalmation", by the way, is simply someone who lives in Chalmette Louisiana, which is a suburb of New Orleans. It has the same relationship to New Orleans as Surrey does to Vancouver i.e. New Orleanians sometimes make unkind and snobbish jokes at the expense of Chalmations, who are wonderful people and the salt of the earth even if they do occasionally say things like "say bra, what time da midnight show start at?"

PLAYER'S INN

"Was written in honor of a notorious pimp bar in Manhattan, near 44th and Broadway. It was actually called The Sportsman's Paradise, and was just "50 short pimps" from Times Square. This was in the 70s, the golden age of pimping in America, and for those of you too young to have experienced first hand the sartorial outrageousness of these guys I'm here to tell you they make today's hip-hopper pimps look like the baggy, clueless lumps they are. This tune contains my absolute favourite Ridley Vinson solo ever, except for maybe the fistfulls 'o' keys she pulled out on our "second line" version of OLEO at the 2002 DuMaurier Jazzfest."

DINDI

"Colleen Savage and I have been friends since 1976. In the last year or so we've worked a number of gigs together and there are times I'd swear she's channelling Carmen McRae. Listen to her break your heart on this one. And dig Ridley's "cluster" comping on the out vamp."

KILLER CHALMATIONS...SLIGHT RETURN

"I was having a 70s flashback when I wrote this. The "Slight Return" in the title is an homage to fellow Seattleite Jimi Hendrix, and refers to the first 7 notes of the melody, which are identical to ATTACK OF..."

TIME AFTER TIME

"Hey, it's my wife's favourite song. I played it at our wedding. This is for you Darlene."

ONCE IN AWHILE

"Another example of why those in the know rate Tony Foster so highly as a pianist. Great, swinging flugel solo by Norm Quinn. And let me take this opportunity to point out that Stan Taylor, who has a heavy reputation as an aggressive, "outside" player, navigates this classic medium-swing groove like he was Cozy Cole. In fact if you listen closely to his playing throughout the record, you'll see that no matter what style of tune we're playing Stan always does EXACTLY the right thing and is ALWAYS in the pocket. And that's why he's "first call" with me."

PERDIDO

"My God just listen to what we've done to this poor defenceless standard. My second favourite Norm Quinn solo on the record. (You shoulda heard what he did on Strayhorn's "JOHNNY COME LATELY" on the gig a few weeks back)"