ArtistShare Participants

GOLD SA NZENIN S I LV E R S P U T N I K
Bill & Carol Bloemer Joshua & Amy Boger
Justin Freed Paul & Kathy Kaleta
Eugene Malinowski
Heidi Schneider & Joel Mintzer
Paul Winters

BRONZE STONE SONG

Kirke Bent Paul James Linda & Ron Overton
Kasia & Michael Bock John Kafalas Peter Straub
Todd Bolton & Little Johnny Koerber Ian Vogwell
Judy Hoffman Bolton Romain Kohn Bob & Kate Washut
Aaron Horkey
Alan & Rose Drabkin Masamichi Konoe Eric Wenocur &
Slough Away Gilles Fontan & Todd M.C. Li Kim Keller
Acrylic and gouache on masonite
Exterior jacket and this page Vanessa Smiech Mia Marcy Chris Whitemore
Jennifer Foster Martin E. Messinger Joe Wilson
Tiding
Ink and gouache on bristol Marc-André Fredette The Messinger Family
Interior jacket John Anthony Helliwell Higuchi Naofumi
R ECL A I M YOU R BR A I N PA RT ICI PA N T S
Guido Ruland
Mitzi & Don Adams JR DiAndrea Philip Juras & Peter Riley
Craig Bachmann Carol Ann Dyer Beth Gavrilles Pietrina Scaraglino &
Giorgio Bassan Wolfram Endemann Marc Kaban Joseph Varvaro
Torben, Svenja, Matt Epstein Natsumi Komoto Robert Selby
Katja & Jörn Benkert Mike Epstein Jeffrey Kutler Joe Simon &
Beat Blaser Kensuke Fujisaki Jonathan Langsner Bo Baraket
Bluecoats Yosuke Fukuda Patricia Storace
Carol Langstaff
Peter Straub
Bop Shop Records Adrienne Gallagher & Cheryl Lew
Ken Tabachnick &
(Tom Kohn & Jim Nelson Jeffrey Magee
Yael Mandelstam
Jann Nyffeler) Jane E. Graves Harry Marvin Jr.
Dr. Matthew Tagkalidis
Gilberto Brasil Mark Grossman John McCole Angiolo Tarocchi
Michael Carlston Jon Haaland Nick McWilliams The Thompson Family
David Chauvin Rainer Haarmann Joe & Kim Morrison of The Thompson Fields
Enzo Costa Bill Hamilton Dominique Naguszewski Nancy Trautmann
Martijn de Koning Rick & Linda Hanson Terrance J. Nolan & Naoya Uehara
Jeffrey DeBevec Thomas Alexander Irene M. Rush Lyndon VanNorman
Aine Delaney Hrinkow Thomas O’Malley Jan & Andrea Weidner
Jean-Louis Derenne Paul James Robert S.(Bob) Peterkin Lillian Wu
in loving memory Tom Johnson Tom Priesmeyer James Zucker
The Digital World Our Natural World
A W O R L D L O S T 9:42 S A N Z E N I N 5:46
Soloists: Ben Monder – guitar, Rich Perry – tenor Soloist: Gary Versace – accordion

D O N ’ T B E E V I L 1 13:38 S T O N E S O N G 5:43
Soloists: Jay Anderson – bass, Ben Monder – guitar Soloist: Steve Wilson – soprano
Ryan Keberle – trombone, Frank Kimbrough – piano
L O O K U P 9:05
C Q C Q , I S A N Y B O D Y T H E R E ? 10:18 Soloists: Frank Kimbrough – piano, Marshall Gilkes – trombone
Soloists: Donny McCaslin – tenor
Greg Gisbert – trumpet (with electronics) B R A I D E D T O G E T H E R 3:59
Soloist: Dave Pietro – alto
S P U T N I K 8:10
Soloist: Scott Robinson – baritone B L U E B I R D 3 11:11
Soloists: Steve Wilson – alto, Gary Versace – accordion
D A T A L O R D S 2 11:06
Soloists: Mike Rodriguez – trumpet (with electronics) T H E S U N W A I T E D F O R M E 7:22
Dave Pietro – alto Soloist: Donny McCaslin – tenor
Marshall Gilkes – trombone melody
1
“Don’t Be Evil” was commissioned through ArtistShare ® by David & Ginger Komar and premiered at the All compositions by Maria Schneider
Newport Jazz Festival August 6, 2017.
cp Maria Schneider 2020 MSF Music/ASCAP
2
“Data Lords” was commissioned by the Library of Congress Da Capo Fund, with support from the
Reva & David Logan Foundation, in memory of David Logan. It premiered on April 15, 2016 at the 3
“Bluebird” was co-commissioned by The Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, The Flynn Center for the
Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Performing Arts, and The Center for Performing Arts at Penn State University for its premiere in April 2016.
Maria Schneider – composer, conductor
Steve Wilson – alto, soprano, clarinet, flute, alto flute
Dave Pietro – alto, clarinet, flute, alto flute, piccolo
Rich Perry – tenor
Donny McCaslin – tenor, flute
Scott Robinson – Bb, bass & contra-bass clarinets, baritone, muson
Tony Kadleck – trumpet, fluegelhorn
Greg Gisbert – trumpet, fluegelhorn
Nadje Noordhuis – trumpet, fluegelhorn
Mike Rodriguez – trumpet, fluegelhorn
Keith O’Quinn – trombone
Ryan Keberle – trombone
Marshall Gilkes – trombone
George Flynn – bass trombone
Gary Versace – accordion
Ben Monder – guitar
Frank Kimbrough – piano
Jay Anderson – bass
Johnathan Blake – drums, percussion
Donny M cC asl in Ryan Truesdell Nadje Noordhuis
J oh nat h a n Bla ke
A World Lost
Soloists:
Ben Monder – guitar
Rich Perry — tenor
Last summer, an old high school classmate told me how kids in our
hometown no longer socially gather to the degree we did years ago. He
said kids largely keep isolated, as they’re drawn into their individual
electronic worlds. Looking back, I recall staring out the window,
sometimes horribly bored, my mind bouncing around uncomfortably.
Those moments weren’t fun, but sitting there long enough, an imaginary
world eventually filled the void.
Aren’t those moments our first blank canvas, blank slate, lump of clay
or empty score page? I think empty space makes us ripe for daydreaming
and creativity. I know it brought my sisters and me outside searching the
dirt for rocks, carrying them home, excited to make animals, faces or
whatever, using any glue, paint or materials we could dig up. I’m thankful
to my mom for steering us in creative directions. We’d make little books
or find some old concrete slab by warehouses to sketch out a game of
hopscotch in chalk. Creative sparks would fly if we’d find some treasure
like an old rusty piece of bizarrely shaped metal. Life instantly lit up as
we’d run home super-excited to make something with it.
Rich P erry
 Today, in blank or bleak moments, we
all instantly grab for the companionship
of a device to fill a vacuum with
prefabricated entertainment, behind
which some camouflaged company stalks
every nuance of our (or our child’s)
behavior to manipulate us downstream.
We’ve become willing addicts to devices
and apps designed to trigger a dopamine
hit. They make it too easy for us to
step away from facing our own blank
space. Does it keep young people from
discovering their creative potential?
I believe it does, and that it deprives
many of us of the greatest high in life,
the freedom and space to imagine and
create within our own private interior.
But, it takes facing silence, space, and
even discomfort for creative thinking
to fire.
I mourn the loss of our internal
landscapes just as I mourn the loss of
B en Mon der our external landscapes.
Don’t Be Evil
Soloists: Jay Anderson – bass
Ben Monder – guitar
Ryan Keberle – trombone
Frank Kimbrough – piano
This work was commissioned through ArtistShare by David & Ginger Komar.
It premiered at the Newport Jazz Festival on August 6, 2017.
How can it be that people sitting in the boardroom of a company
poised to become the most powerful corporation in the world, would
actually select as their inspirational motto, “don’t be evil?” I’m not
sure what’s more alarming: that they set the bar so low, or that they
would fail to reach that most minimal aspiration.
Here’s a partial list of their failures in reaching a “don’t be evil”
standard: seeking to make kids addicted to its services, creating
childlike branding to look harmless, inserting Google products into
nearly every educational environment so future generations are
dependent upon its services, controlling our choices and opinions
by manipulating “search,” gathering data on the backs of those whose
goods Google knows are stolen,using and selling our data to garner
endless power and money, allowing our youth to be goaded into
Jay Anderson
 injury and suicide on
a platform that they
either won’t or can’t
control, launching fake
grassroots campaigns
that undermine a
true democratic
process, and fighting
legislation that would
help stop endless
egregious illegal
activities, including
sex trafficking. That’s
just for starters. This
piece mocks Google as
the cartoonish overlord
that it is.

Fra nk Kimb r ough

Jo hnatha n Bl ak e R ya n K e be rle
CQ CQ, flooding back to my mind,
so when Paul asked if I’d
Is Anybody There? considered using Morse code
in one of my works, it took
Soloists: root.
Donny McCaslin – tenor
Paul pointed out incredible
Greg Gisbert – trumpet
parallels to the internet. For
(with electronics)
instance, Morse code was
In making an ArtistShare video for the first widely used binary
this project, I held up to the camera digital encoding scheme
a photo of my rural Minnesota using electricity, preceding
childhood home. Ham radio today’s “ones and zeros” with
operator (Paul Schreier, HB9DST) “on and off” signals. Both
spotted the two massive ham radio ham radio and the internet
towers in our yard and reached out have connectivity at their
to ask what Dad’s “callsign” was. I core, and I still remember
responded WØABF, telling him how Dad’s thrill of connecting
my dad, who was an engineer, built with people in far off places.
his own ham radio and antenna
Wouldn’t it seem with today’s
towers and even tried to get his
social media where one person
three daughters to learn Morse
can instantly connect to
code. Solder smells and bleeping
billions, we’d be living some
sounds of Dad’s ham radio came
Tony K a d le ck G re g G is be rt
 kind-of ham radio nirvana? Somehow, we’re not. Amidst all this
connectivity, study after study reports that people feel ever more
disconnected. A comparison to ham radio gives us clues as to why:
Hams all share a code of ethics and operate within a clear system
of accountability and transparency. Giving one’s own callsign is
a requirement. Dad’s voice calling “CQ CQ, this is WØABF” is
forever branded in my brain. Radio hams have to understand
the technology and pass an exam before getting on the air – an
intellectual and creative effort. Another huge contrast with the
internet is that commercial activity is strictly forbidden. These
powerful distinctions are exponentially magnified with the reach
of the internet.
This piece uses Morse code for all of its written rhythms except
for a recurring unison sax line in the second half. The piece
starts with a search for connectivity in a mysterious world. Morse
messages transmitted through music start with “CQ” (meaning: Is
anybody there?). Others include: power, greed, help, SOS, AI, data, and
this is WØABF (that’s in memory of Dad). Donny McCaslin’s tenor
rises out of the radio waves and Morse chatter as a human voice
searching for expression and connectivity. When he reaches Greg
Gisbert (trumpet), what he encounters is simply AI.

Donny McCaslin
 creative and very personalized, and I was sure that Dad’s QSL would be
especially fun.
On February 26th, 2020 (just before finalizing this book), an unexpected
email arrived from a man named Bob Winn (W5KNE), saying that he
collects QSL cards and researches the lives of the operators. In researching
this particular card (left), he found my dad’s obituary and then discovered
my own very recent search for Dad’s (WØABF) QSL. He said he’d chosen
to research this particular W9ZUJ card simply because it had a fun picture.
As it turns out, W9ZUJ was a callsign my family wasn’t aware of from Dad’s
time spent in the Navy. Only twenty-five years of age when Dad sent this
card to a ham in the Bronx, Dad’s hand-drawn picture reveals what would
become a lifelong love of massive reception towers, planes (Dad would later
get his pilot’s license to conduct agricultural business in widespread rural
places), and good martinis.
Bob Winn put me in touch with Bob Ballantine (W8SU), who held Dad’s
74-year-old card in his collection and had posted it on Tom Roscoe’s
(K8CX) wonderful website, www.hamgallery.com. Go there, enter Dad’s
For many months I tried to locate Dad’s old ham radio QSL card to no old callsign, and you’ll see Bob Winn’s research on Dad. Bob Ballantine
avail. The Cottonwood County Citizen (my hometown paper) even kindly generously gifted Dad’s QSL to me and wrote, “Tom and I try to keep ‘em out of
put out a notice of my search. QSL cards were personalized postcards that the landfills. It is a lifelong obsession of mine, strange but true, holding on to DNA and
ham radio operators would regularly mail by post, confirming a two-way who they were and what became of them!” I am so grateful for these three men.
connection with another amateur radio operator. These cards were often The internet, when utilized for honest human connection, is indeed incredible.
 R ya n K e be rle
K e it h O ’Q u in n
Ma rs h a ll G ilke s
G e org e Fly n n Keith O’Quinn
 Sputnik
Soloist:
Scott Robinson – baritone
Every child born amidst the space race felt the tension
between the United States and Russia. At the same
time, we were all in awe of the Apollo space missions,
especially the 1969 lunar landing. I used to love to
look up into the black rural Midwest sky, sometimes
fixating on a tiny moving light, a single satellite.
Today’s space race is largely between big data
corporations as they launch thousands of satellites
into space at an ever-increasing rate. Many
miraculous things are being bounced from satellites
telling us about weather, our earth and more. But
surely, satellites will enable nefarious uses as well,
starting with the fact that it enables surveillance
of the entire world’s population. In this piece, I
envision these satellites as humanity’s ever-expanding
exoskeleton, not only made of orbiting metal and
silicon, but also made of a mosaic of data, a digital
representation of all of us.
Scott Ro b i ns on
 Data Lords
Soloists:
Mike Rodriguez – trumpet (with electronics)
Dave Pietro – alto
“Data Lords” was commissioned by the Library of Congress Da Capo Fund, with support
from the Reva and David Logan Foundation, in memory of David Logan. It premiered on
April 15th, 2016 at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.
While big data companies have only recently come under real public
scrutiny, we musicians have had our eyes on them for years. We were
among the first to see our life works exploited and traded on the internet
for data. Now, nearly everyone’s life is similarly exploited. There’s hardly
a place where some company isn’t extracting and refining the minutiae
of our lives to manipulate us to buy things, to influence us, or to fuel
machine learning and artificial intelligence. And, the incredible speed at
which our collective information is fueling AI is truly startling.
Ray Kurzweil (Google’s apologist) predicts computers will have human-
level intelligence by 2029. After the 2014 SXSW convention, multiple
publications quoted Kurzweil as saying, “That leads to computers having human
intelligence, our putting them inside our brains, connecting them to the cloud, expanding
who we are…We’re going to be funnier; we’re going to be better at music. We’re going to
D av e P i e tro Mike R od rig u e z
 be sexier…We’re really going to exemplify all the
things that we value in humans to a greater degree.”
Kurzweil went much further, setting the
date at 2045 for the moment of singularity,
which he says “is when we will multiply our
effective intelligence a billion fold by merging with
the intelligence we have created.”
In contrast to Kurzweil’s enthusiasm about
singularity, Stephen Hawking and many other
prominent scientists have warned of a far
darker scenario where, after AI becomes more
intelligent than humans, it will choose to turn
on us and destroy us. Whose vision should
we most trust, Hawking’s or Kurzweil’s? I’ve
placed my chips on the mathematician who’s
not on Google’s payroll. “Data Lords” plays
out Dr. Hawking’s dark prediction as he
explained it to BBC, “The development of full
artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human
race. It would take off on its own and re-design
itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are
limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t
compete and would be superseded.”
M ike Rod r i gu ez George F L ynn
To ny Kadl eck Johnathan B l ake
 I often try to separate myself from the
relentless noise of our digital world. I am
sure many of you do the same. When I
manage to make that space, I am easily
drawn to silence, books, art, poetry,
the earth and sky. From those encounters
came the following inspirations. S cot t R obin s on
Sanzenin
Soloist:
Gary Versace – accordion
Sanzenin is an ancient Buddhist temple
with a most spectacular garden, all located
just outside of Kyoto in the town of Ohara,
Japan. Its 1000-year-old garden is utterly
peaceful and magical. There are a number
of breathtaking gardens in neighboring
temples, one with a majestic 700-year old
tree. Set out along the various paths, and
you’ll find yourself smiling amidst playful
gardens that appeal to the child inside of
anyone. A love of nature along with the
artistry and skill of the garden architects are
felt with every step one takes. Gary Versace’s
accordion takes us on a joy-filled stroll
through the temple gardens. I’ve dedicated
this piece to my dear friend, Justin Freed,
whose photographic work also wondrously
connects man with nature.
G a ry Ve rs ace
Stone Song
Soloist:
Steve Wilson – soprano
Jack Troy is world-renowned potter, largely
appreciated for his incredible wood-fired pieces.
Wood firing is a Japanese tradition and technique
where no glaze is applied. The colors and designs
on the pottery’s surface come from complex
interactions of minerals, chemicals, ash, and
various forces like movement and temperature
of air, as well as a dose of good fortune as Jack
modestly has told me. I think wood firing has
something in common with jazz – multiple
spontaneous and mysterious forces beyond one’s
own will contribute to the beauty of the final work.
Both require facing risk.
Jack is a joy of a human being, and at a show I
attended last year, he displayed several orbs that
almost looked like meteorites or stones. He
invited me to pick one up and move it. When a J ack Troy ’s
stone jiggled inside, he said with delight, “They’re ishi no sasayaki
 called ishi no sasayaki,”explaining that in
Japanese it means secret voice in the stone.
After holding and listening to all of them,
one particularly spoke to me. I brought it
home and immediately named it Stoney.
That night I set Stoney beside me as I
sat down at the piano. I gave it a little
swish before going to work, imagining
the perspective of a little stone, patiently
waiting, maybe for months, years, or
even eons to be bumped, kicked, washed
or pushed, to find itself on a fresh side,
catching a little light on its newly exposed
colors or contours. I am grateful for
artists like Jack Troy, whose imagination
makes something magical out of the
simplest of ideas, and for musicians
like Steve Wilson, Gary Versace, Frank
Kimbrough, Jay Anderson, Johnathan
Blake, and all of the musicians on this
album who, like Jack Troy, are risk-takers,
willing to dive wholeheartedly into such a
whimsical idea.
Steve Wil s on
 Look Up
Soloists:
Frank Kimbrough – piano
Marshall Gilkes – trombone
When I sat down and started writing this piece, I knew
I was writing something to feature Marshall Gilkes.
Sometimes the instrument choice and soloist choice
emerge in response to the music.But this music was
inspired after thinking about Marshall’s sound,
expression, range and facility. Without planning it,
the melody and harmony give the impression of
spiraling up, drawing one’s attention up, even though
oddly, the bassline in truth, descends.
The melody spontaneously inspired something in me:
the idea of looking up. It’s something that I think the
world needs to make a concerted effort to do again –
whether looking up at the sky, trees, birds, clouds or
simply at each other. When I brought it to the band,
Scott Robinson said, “I go out and look up at the sky
every night!” What a great way to live.

Fra nk Kimb r ough

M a rsha ll Gi l k es B rian M ontgomery
 Braided Together
december 29
Soloist: Windy and cold.
Dave Pietro – alto
My favorite poet is Ted Kooser. His ability to find All night, in gusty winds,
intense depth of meaning encountering thoroughly the house has cupped its hands around
mundane objects is extraordinary. Ted’s artfulness the steady candle of our marriage,
with metaphor illustrates something that AI will never
be able to do – make utterly surprising and unique the two of us braided together in sleep,
connections seen through the lens of one unique life. An empty and burning, yes, but slowly,
gallon jug floating in a pond, a hay bale bound in nylon twine,
giving off just enough light so that one of us,
a tin door from an old barn – these are just three of endless
ordinary objects around which Ted has written stirring poems. awakening frightened in darkness,
Suddenly these objects make your heart ache with everything can see.
from pain, to longing or laughter. He makes you feel more
fully alive, helping you find new corners within yourself. Jim
Harrison called one of Ted’s books, Local Wonders,“the quietest
magnificent book I’ve ever read.” Quiet magnificence – yes,
perfect words to describe Ted, the person, and Ted, the poet.
Ted Kooser, “ december 29” from Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison.
“Braided Together” is based on the following poem from Ted’s Copyright ©2000 by Ted Kooser. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC
book, Winter Morning Walks, 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison. on behalf of Carnegie Mellon University Press,www.cmu.edu/universitypress
D ave Pie tr o Johnathan B l ake
Bluebird
Soloists:
Steve Wilson – alto
Gary Versace – accordion
I started writing these notes in the country: Summer was winding down,
the birds had stopped singing for mates and territory, and many were
already southward bound. It’s a lonely time of year, but it’s a cycle that
brings unmatchable joy when they return. When our lovely bluebird couple
shows up and is ready to nest, they always face a fight for their nest box with
the more aggressive tree swallows. One year our male bluebird had had
quite enough of it and grabbed a swallow out of the sky and let it rip when
they reached the ground. A newfound respect was earned that year, and the
swallows kept to their own box for the season.
While half of this recording is focusing on the dark manifestations of the
internet, an entirely inspiring example of the internet can be found by
looking at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird.org site. It shows us
how worldwide internet connectivity can fuel citizen science, providing
powerful information to help us save the things we most cherish on this
planet. Through the eBird app, birders all over the world upload their
own sightings, sound recordings, observations and photos. The Lab then
consolidates these millions and millions of observations into time-lapse
Gary Versace
maps revealing migration patterns
and valuable information on
necessary feeding stops, breeding
habitats, and more. This wealth of
detailed data about birds is enabling
scientists and conservationists to
monitor birds’ movements and
needs at a global scale to come up
with better conservation strategies.
Additionally, researchers around
the world can access all of the data
uploaded to the Cornell Lab’s eBird
site for their own research.
The internet doesn’t have to be
all about secret surveillance, data
exploitation, overreaching terms
of use, and systems designed to
make every human addicted to their
services. It can be used to assist us all
in making the world better place.

Steve Wil son

The Sun Waited For Me
march 20
Soloist: The vernal equinox.
Donny McCaslin – tenor
How important it must be
Marshall Gilkes – trombone melody
to someone
I love this poem by Ted Kooser so much, that I had
used it to close a song cycle of mine called “Winter that I am alive, and walking,
Morning Walks.” Originally for soprano, Dawn and that I have written
Upshaw, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra,
I almost immediately had my eye on also making this these poems.
instrumental version. This morning the sun stood
I’ve chosen to end this recording with it, leaving us with right at the end of the road
the simple and reassuring truth that the sun and and waited for me.
everything in this world is there waiting for us – patiently
and loyally. To feel its power, we just need to make the
choice to get up, go out, look up and connect to its
magnificence. This poem is such a strong affirmation
of life itself. It reminds me that the dawn of each day Ted Kooser, “march 20” from Winter Morning Walks:
presents a new opportunity to step into the world One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison. Copyright ©2000 by Ted Kooser.
Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of
with openness and gratitude. Carnegie Mellon University Press, www.cmu.edu/universitypress
M arsha ll Gi l k es Donny M cC aslin
Credits
Produced by Brian Camelio,
Maria Schneider and Ryan Truesdell
Associate Producer: Zachary Bornheimer
Recorded at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY
August 30th – September 2nd, 2019
Engineered by Brian Montgomery
Assisted by Charles Mueller and Edwin Huet
Trumpet electronics programming on
“CQ CQ, Is Anybody There?” by Michael Lenssen
Recording production assistance by Eunha So
Mixed by Brian Montgomery and Maria Schneider
Mastered by Gene Paul at G&J Audio, and Nate Wood
PACK AGE DE SIGN
Illustration by Aaron Horkey
Graphic design by Cheri Dorr
Print production by Franklin Press, Inc.
Session photography by Briene Lermitte
Video documentation on ArtistShare by
Marie Le Claire, assisted by Erin Harper
Tony Kadleck Greg Gisbert Nadje Noordhuis