https://soundcloud.com/user-931489017/one-of-a-kind-the-new-york-second
This is the first jazz tune I ever wrote. I was 19, in France for a year, and had brought my Yamaha DX27S synthesizer to be able to play – non-touch sensitive plastic keys, but producing a highly acceptable piano sound. I only had a vague notion of what jazz was supposed to sound like, but I remember sitting down and thinking “now I’ll write a jazz tune”. I also remember thinking that for it to be effective it had to be played fast – something like 200 bpm – much faster than I could actually play it at the time.
I then put it away for 25 years, and now that I’m playing with excellent jazz musicians who can actually do this stuff, I wanted to find out if it actually ‘works’. So I arranged it for the quartet, added an interlude and wrote an ending. So here it is – One of a Kind. Still a little rough around the edges because it turns out it’s challenging, even for accomplished jazzers, but good enough to share here.