Kevin Goss: Gratitude

As I approached the "big five-oh," I started doing some thinking about how much I have to be grateful for: a supportive family, meaningful friendships, and music. I wasn't supposed to make it to the "big oh-five," but I beat the odds and, in the years since, it is my family, friends, and music that have made my life better, along with a couple of goofy dogs.

"Ted's Kick" is a boogaloo blues with a bridge. I wrote it with baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber in mind. Ronnie seamlessly weaves jazz and soul in his playing, and I wanted to capture that. The title is my tribute to this album's drummer, Ted Warren, who vehemently dislikes the term "kick drum." "IT'S A BASS DRUM!!." Dave Restivo's Fender Rhodes and Nathan Hiltz's Benson-esque guitar transport you back to the '60s.

Birdshit (or Bird droppings) if I ever hope to get radio play) is a contrafact I wrote on Charlie "Bird" Parker's "Confirmation." It's also a tribute to all the bird puns used in his song titles.

"Mists of Fundy" was my biggest challenge to write. I wasn't even sure if I liked it until I heard Dave, Jim, and Ted playing it in the studio. Then I knew it worked. It's a ballad, played on alto, and is a bit of a tribute to Phil Woods and to my home town of Saint John, NB, where you often saw a thick layer of mist rising from the Bay of Fundy.

"Cayenne" is a tribute to the father of modern baritone playing, Pepper Adams. I incorporated some of his improvised vocabulary into a contrafact based on "But Not For Me."

I've long enjoyed playing Sonny Rollins's "Airegin," so I decided to write a waltz with those changes for soprano sax and Brian O'Kane's beautiful Flugelhorn playing. "Airegin" is "Nigeria" spelled backwards, so I called this "Adanac."

"By George," based on "Sweet Georgia Brown" was written after I drove to Montreal to hear Ronnie Cuber and Vanessa Rodrigues playing music from the George Benson "Cookbook" quartet. I went back to my hotel and wrote this song with guitar and B3 in mind.

"Hipititus C" is a blues with a hip hop drum feel. It's in C, thus the name. This is a tune I really enjoy playing on alto. The rhythm section is nothing short of amazing on this one.

Adams Park is the only tune I didn't write. I first heard baritone player Glenn Wilson on an album I picked up in San Francisco for a buck. I became an instant fan and we have become friends. He graciously allowed me to record his tribute to Park Adams III, aka Pepper. This is a duet between myself on baritone and Jim Vivian on bass. I wanted it to be musically intimate and approach it differently from how Glenn has performed it.

"Jeruvian" pays homage to the Gerry Mulligan piano-less quartets of the 1950s with Chet Baker and, later, Art Farmer. Nicknamed "Jeru" by Miles Davis, Mulligan's approach was the polar opposite of Adams. He described his '50s music as "pipe and slipper jazz." I wanted to capture that feeling with a quartet featuring Brian's flugel and a bass / brushes trade-off between Jim and Ted.

"The R.C. Cooler" is a Latin tune written while I was in my car waiting to cross the US border. I had to keep singing it in my head until I could safely take out my phone and record myself singing it. It's based on one motif that I had heard Ronnie Cuber playing on "My Little Suede Shoes."

"Hipititus C Reprise" is a response to those who didn't like the ending of Hipititus C. You're welcome.

Liner Notes copyright © 2025 Kevin Goss.

Gratitude can be purchased here.

Contact Kevin Goss at All About Jazz.
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