*\"Tales of Sadness\" is strongly based on C minor, at the same time it seems to allow for harmonic freedom. The gradual breaking down of the main tonality coincides with the establishment of tempo and viceversa towards the end of the improvisation.
I wrote \"Judy's Smile\" for my wife. The three takes of this tune are an excellent representation of how different the improvisation can be using the same starting point each time, and the way we use the theme as a stepping stone for improvisation.
The mood of \"Prayer for Peace\" is a very strong part of my musical personality. The theme came to me during an improvisation. Afterwards I remembered it because the feeling was so beautiful for me that I wanted to re-create it, and give that feeling of peace and beauty to others.
Ideally all improvised parts of the music are felt and played moment by moment. I selected the musicians because of their sympathy towards, and undertanding of the music. For me, John is the finest European drummer, and Jeff has been and excellent bassist for years. I used Barry on the title track because this piece is as special to him as it is for me.
All the titles have a real significance to the themes, most of which are at least three years old but the opportunity to record them had not occured until now. We recorded the music in one session of three hours duration, and from that selected what we thought to be the best. I sincerely hope that this record will be a constant source of enjoyment for many years* Trevor Watts.
