Peter McPhee and Tim Posgate

Tim's Notes
Someone once asked me if I was going to write a "sappy" little jazz ballad for my newborn son. I took that as a challenge. (not to!) Peter McPhee is not only a great poet but also a great friend. When I asked him about writing a collection of poems inspired by my son Dylan he was completely committed right from the beginning. Of course, it was a nice excuse to get together again soon and talk about the project and hang out with Dylan

When he wrote the first poem; "Dylan`s Dream" I loved it so much I knew we were going to have fun on this project. Peter loves music as much as I do and it comes across in his words. We think we should sell 6 pounds 4 Ounces to Celine Dion. (it was such a natural lyric before I got to it that it only took minutes to write the majority of the chords and melody)

I knew I wanted John Millard to sing on this suite (as I am a big fan) and so I asked him, and the other five folks who were either in his band or sang together in a very loose Toronto folk choir. Lina Allemano and Quinsin Nachoff were the obvious choices for intstrumentalists (we perform together as the Tim Posgate Horn Band) while adding my neighbour Andrew Downing on Bass Clarinet (best known as a very talented bassist) Fortunately, we made our original deadline in time to perform it at the Guelph Jazz Festival in 2001. After finishing the suite I called Peter up and asked him if it was okay if the whole record was about his words. (I didn't have to twist his arm) The next day, I received close to one hundered poems in my email "in-box". It was so much fun going through them, looking for the ones that jumped out and said "pick me... I want to be a song!" It was also a great reminder of how lucky I am to be friends with such a talent like Peter. I knew early on that I wanted Jean Martin and Rob Clutton to be the rhythm section (just checkout the Jazzstory Cd!!) and we started building these songs in the studio over two very long, intense days in the Rogue Studios in downtown Toronto (most of us lived within walking distance). I also knew that Kavli would figure large in the second half of the disc. (Karin Randoja and Randi Helmers) Pete also has a great sounding voice and is a wonderful performer. I am really glad you get to hear him on "a gift" and "Machine Gun Thugs Grab 500 Gs". The latter was read live in the studio with my group Jazzstory improvising all the way!

Pete and I have come a long way since we met in l994 at the Action Poetry festival in Banff and recorded Peter's Cd "The Sound of Filling Hollow" in l996 but we still look forward to hanging out, watching the Leafs and making art together.

I hear this record like a two sided piece of vinyl. Side one, the suite is composed in a style that is as old as music itself with pencil to paper, mostly at a piano. The songs on the second half were often written with me singing and playing guitar, and finally recorded in the post Elvis style of studio overdubs including some spontaneous composition and arrangements.

The models on the cover and inside are created by one of my favourite artists, Canadian; Kim Adams. His attention to detail and childlike sense of humour and beauty are perfect to help hold this project together.

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Peter's Notes
They way I heard the story is a little bit different. Tim invited me for lunch with Dylan and told me about watching his young son dream. ìI wish I had your words to describe the way it made me feel.î, he said. I wish I had a quarter note of his music to express how grateful I am for his belief in me and the conversation stuck with me. That night I sent him an eMail, Dylan's Dream. A month later it was a song.

I returned from an annual fall trip across the country to be informed that Dylanís Dream was the first piece in a choral suite to be performed the following September. I guess Tim and I hear the same things sometimes, through different channels. (Heís been known to phone and ask for a lyric about the environment, the political situation and world hunger: "I need about four, maybe eight lines?", and I know what heís talking about). We both understood how the suite would work and the personnel heíd assembled were exciting to work for. When I handed him the loose script for a sound poem, First Word, (to be presented visually in Concrete form) he didnít even look at me funny. He embraced it (as evidentially did Randi) and guided the choir from the script, through improvisation, to an accappella orchestration that I could not have imagined.

At about the same time I began work on the suite, my oldest friend's five year-old daughter was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. The final piece was written the night Megan Bebenek entered the hospital for the last time. Six Pounds, Four Ounces is the weight at which a premature infant is considered safe.

Above all, I drew on Tim and the many friends who have shown and shared with me the love they have for their children. There is no more precious gift. This suite is for them.

In The Future of Your Dream was performed that September while I was in Vancouver. When I returned to Toronto, I was informed that a recording would be made and the rest of the record would be based on my words. "Send me everything you have thatís not in your book or on your CD". I know of no one who can do more with a scrap of paper than Tim. I sent him phone messages, birthday cards, unsuccessful love letters and poems that would never be published. Why Sweat the Details is a tune that Tim left on my answering machine one afternoon. I emailed the words to him the next day. We both want to sing it. Neither of us did.

I think of our first meetings sitting at Mattilda's, in Banff, watching the Leafs in the playoffs (warding off overtime so Tim would make sound-check) and talking about music and poetry during intermission. I told him I wasnít crazy about jazz guitar. Tim responded by writing music for one of my poems that became the centrepiece of my CD. He invited me to open for his band on the Toronto leg of his first Canadian tour. He included me in his ambitious An Eager Leap project. He became one of my best friends. He changed my mind about jazz guitar. Thanks Tim. Thanks to everyone involved in this project. I am honoured to be part of it.
Peter McPhee January 2004

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