Steve Slagle Quartet At Hat City

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Sat. Jan 12 – 9:00 pm – 12:00 am
The Steve Slagle Quartet ( Steve Slagle – sax, Dave Stryker – guitar, Bill Moring – bass, McClenty Hunter – drums) will perform at the Hat City Kitchen, 459 Valley Street, Orange, NJ on Saturday, January,12.New CD coming in March. This recording felt like a motherlode of new songs and music, so just a bit here on each- 1) Mingus In Us -The first bar of this song Charles Mingus sang to me in a dream— just the first bar! And then he kind of smiled and said, "Write a song on that!".
There are some quotes of Mingus that I threw in.Also I dedicate this to my great
bassist friend the late Dennis Irwin. New songs, old friends.
2) Blues Four -- I wanted to compose a 12 bar Blues that STARTS on the IV (Four) chord
and so with this in B-flat the first chord is E-flat. Dig that! (And thanx to drummer Colby Inzer
for giving me the idea.) Dave lays out on my solo which really opens it up-sometimes its
what you don't play that counts.
3) Supermoon --This song has the Stryker stamp on it compositionally and is a long form
with a uniquely bright feel. It sets itself apart from the rest of the session, fully.
4) Quiet Folks --This one felt best played quiet when I wrote it and so it's an anthem for
such folks. (There are enough of the others around these days!) I would like to dedicate
this also to the great lyrical guitarist, Jim Hall.
5) Shadowboxing --Dave wrote a kicking minor blues here that in fact is much more than
that. The composition has some quick meter changes, we all throw a few punches and
our rhythm section shows what its all about.
6) Alive --I wrote this first as a solo alto sax piece and played it live solo on WKCR radio.
That station and WBGO are the champions of our music here. It then developed into a new
fangled song, and a cool form of hybrid blues. And Blessed be the rhythm of new.
7) Equal Nox --I wrote this on John Coltrane's birthday (Sept 23) which is on the autumn
equinox and the whole song came to me in about a half hour. I named it 'EQUAL NOX' in
that this is one of the two days on our planet when night and day are of equal length. I was
also born under the sign of Virgo.
8) B Like Me --This melody came to me first and felt free, going in and out of different
tonalities. The chord changes though, end up being great to improvise on after the melody
sets them up. The title is the song talking to you or me--play free.
9) The Star-Crossed Lovers –I couldn't write enough on how this, one of my favorite of
the Strayhorn/Ellington masterpieces has affected me. We did it duo at the end of the
session after everyone had left and play this beautiful classic melody short and to the
point to end it all.
Finally a note about our cover and painting by Ivan Pazlamatchev the great Bulgarian
born New York artist. This large work struck me as fitting for the music we present here,
as well as it's title. With help from graphic artist Al Gold we were able to capture the
essence of EVENSONG for this CD cover.

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