I am delighted to finally be sharing this collection of new songs, Things Might Be Turning Round.

Initially written during a wildly creative week in August 2020, they came to me fully formed, with chords, melodies, lyrics, flowing one after the other.

My working title for the project at first was ‘Tin Pan Alley Time Machine’, as it felt like I was tuned into a radio station and literally transcribing these songs in a way, or perhaps like a character in a Philip K Dick novel (The Jazz in The High Castle?), I was hearing a broadcast from an alternate reality where these tunes already existed.

Ultimately, I believe these songs are really a loving homage to many of my favourite songwriters and musicians, and I hope you all find something to enjoy on this album.

Thank you a million times over to the incredible rhythm section on this recording, Brett Hirst on bass and Nic Cecire on drums and percussion. Additionally a huge thank you to my special guests, Andrew Robertson on saxophones, and Peter J Koopman on guitar, as well as Colin Wright for his stellar work mixing this recording and Michael Lynch for sweetening it all up.

DARYL ABERHART - PIANO/VOCALS

NIC CECIRE - DRUMS/PERCUSSION

BRETT HIRST- BASS

ANDREW ROBERTSON- SAXOPHONE

PETER J KOOPMAN- GUITAR

MIXING- COLIN WRIGHT

MASTERING- MICHAEL LYNCH

CD ARTWORK @HELLOPETA

COVER IMAGE GENERATED AT CRAIYON.COM

A few thoughts on the songs:

THE JAZZ SONG - As I was writing these songs, I was sharing them with my Facebook friends, and during this process, David Theak dared me to try and write a tune where the lyric was made up of only famous jazz standard song titles. With elements of Charlie Parker blues changes, a fun harmonic shift for the B-section and a super swinging melody this one was a lot of fun to write. I really loved the puzzle of trying to fit so many standard titles into a functional narrative.

SOMEDAY - To me this is an obvious tip of the hat to Jobim and the Bossanova, trying to come up with fun little twists, turns and sidesteps that flow seamlessly and key centre changes that you don’t really notice because of the melodic leading. Lyrically for me a fun take on the narrative from the classic standard ‘The Girl/Boy Next Door’, where the protagonist longs from afar, living in their own dream that there might be a future there when there plainly isn’t.

BOPPIN THE WHOLE DAY THROUGH - Just a really fun, heart on its sleeve tune. There’s lots of twisting bop vocal lines throughout in keeping with the theme. Musically to me this one is reminiscent of standards such as ‘ I Got Rhythm’, with the A sections floating over a turnaround but with a more chromatic B section than a ‘rhythm changes’ tune. Lyrically, it’s an ode to being a happy anachronism, playing the music you want to play, knowing that’s what you both want and need to do to be you, the whole day through.

AS LONG AS - The piano voicing and harmony in general in this song I associate very strongly with one of my favourite piano teachers, Judy Bailey. She would play me lots of different chord movements and so on in our lessons, and when I first started playing this tune it really felt very much like I was sitting with her talking through the voicings. This one also makes me think of the elegance of Duke Ellington, and classic crooners like Bing Crosby, with a lyric very much in the sentimental and unashamedly romantic style of that era.

PLEASE WONT YOU SAY - Johnny Hartman singing with Coltrane was very much in my head when writing and singing this one. Its also a fun take on Coleman Hawkins original recording of Body and Soul where he is just using the harmonic progression of the tune as a scaffold for his own lines. I use the same changes for the A sections of this song with a B section of my own devising. The lyric is a sad lament that something has changed and will never be the same again.

THINGS MIGHT BE TURNING ROUND- This one reminds me of a couple of things. First, Clifford Brown, Joy Spring and Jerome Kern’s All The Things You Are, with their winding chromatic key centre shifts but a melodic passage tying it all together nicely. Also the title is a play on the Aebersold II-V7-I turnaround book that so many of us slave along to at some point in our jazz education. Lyrically, probably the most optimistic thing I have ever written, the dark irony being this was literally a few weeks before the Covid epidemic shut everything down for a good while.