Excerpt from the CD: "Turn Right at New South Wales, The Compositions of Bryce Rohde

The seed of this recording was planted in 1961, when, as a member of the esteemed Australian Jazz Quintet, I toured with the Kingston Trio. Between performances, the Trio's bass player, David (Buck) Wheat, sang intriguing scales while he played chords on a guitar. These scales, I soon learned, derived from George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept. David kindly handed me two copies of it saying, "Pass one on to someone you care about."

I was immediately taken with Russell's work. In some jazz sessions, I had felt my desire to freely improvise was constrained by my training in classical piano, my experience in big band arranging, and my early influence of the jazz greats of the time. The Lydian Concept gave me, as a performer, the latitude to stretch further, to move into uncharted domains as I improvised, no longer limited by a fear of not being able to return. As it freed my performances, it also freed me to compose in that I was no longer limited by an allegiance to certain chromatic scales--as long as I could relate a note, a chord, a phrase to a parent, I could be certain that it would work.

In 1962, I handed my second copy of Russell's book to bass player Bruce Cale, when he joined the newly formed Bryce Rohde Quartet. Since then, Bruce has fulfilled his original great promise as a performer, and the application of the Lydian Concept to his prize-winning jazz and classical compositions has produced what he calls "a fearless approach to writing music."

Excerpt from the CD: "Turn Right at New South Wales, The Compositions of Bryce Rohde
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