"Unfinished Business"
Behind the Album
When it came time to start work on my second album, I didn’t have much of a direction – other than wanting to continue the overall feel from the first one – original compositions for Jazz Ensemble (i.e., “Big Band”) and Studio Orchestra. I had plenty of material to choose from, since I still had quite a backlog of compositions that never quite made it into production. It was just a matter deciding what pieces I wanted to revisit, what each one’s style would be (the arrangement), and which piece would be performed by which group (orchestration). As the late Chick Corea said, everything is just a matter of choice.
Ironically, my first album, “What Was Can Still Be,” didn’t start out as a planned album. I just started recording material I was never able to hear performed to my liking. After I ended up with 8 fully mixed and mastered tracks, then came the decision to release an album. This 2nd one, however, needed to be done in a more organized manner and would be different in two ways. First, I made the choice to handwrite every newly arranged/orchestrated score fully, and then record it (like we did back in the day). Secondly, I wanted to have my childhood friend and colleague, Mark Blumberg (who is himself an accomplished writer/producer), produce this one with me. That in itself was an added treat, because we got to work together again for the first time in about 45 years. After the final chart was mixed and mastered, I needed to come up with a title for the album. This time, I named it after one of the pieces, “Unfinished Business.” And yes, very much an inside joke, as I felt I had so much of that to sort out before I make my final journey (hopefully, not for a very long time).
A Bit More About Each Song
Purplesque
I first came up with the tune for this jazz waltz about 12 years ago. And it, like many others, ended up in a box as a lead sheet. When I decided to revisit it and decide on how to arrange it, I knew it needed to be up-tempo with a lot of richness in the changes, i.e., the basic chord structure, as well a lot of interesting passing chords within the harmonized lines to keep it interesting. And, it had to be for studio orchestra, where I could take advantage of all the different instrumental colors, i.e., woodwinds, saxes, French horns, trumpets, trombones, rhythm section, extra percussion and a full complement of strings. The final piece ended up being a very happy, airy composition, designed to lift the spirits and put a smile on the face of the listener.
Aspen Danse
This piece has always been a favorite of mine. I originally composed the tune while living in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Rockies are known all over the world for their unique yellow-leaf trees, the aspens. Whenever I saw them, I had such a sense of connection to creation. So I penned this piece to honor them. At the time, I had a jazz quintet called Spectrum III, so we played this piece quite often. But I always felt it had so much more to say, if it could be arranged and orchestrated for big band. When I finally did, I opted to add 4 French Horns in the standard 17-piece big band, similar to some of the early charts penned by the legendary Henry Mancini. This orchestration, combined with a Latin jazz-fusion feel finally brought Aspen Danse to life, so much so that I ended up naming my publishing company after it: Aspen Danse Music, ASCAP.
Unfinished Business
This one was a true labor of love, in that it was the 3rd incarnation of a piece originally called, “One Step Forward.” I wrote that piece in 1973 as part of the Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media Class I was taking that summer at the Eastman School of Music. I was never happy with that initial attempt but, like so many of my compositions, I ended up filing it away for later. “Later” turned out to be a revised version called, “Eagle Flight Suite” I did in 1996. Again, not really what I heard in my head, so back to the filing cabinet. When I finally was able to do this 3-movement concerto justice with the help of the new VST technology, it was time to give it a new name. There was only one choice: “Unfinished Business,” which also served as the title of the second album. However, the real question is, is the “business” ever really finished?
Suddenly
“Suddenly” started out as a 12 bar unfinished composition; it was originally meant to be a jazz ballad when I wrote it in 2002. Three years later, I was in a stage play (yes, I did a bit of acting). The play needed a prerecorded opening piece of music and I immediately remembered this piece. I added lyrics to the existing 12 bars, extended the ending a bit and that was that – or so I thought. When it came time to map out my second album, this piece came back to me and I knew I needed to finally finish it properly. I added a badly needed middle section and reworked the chord changed to be more harmonically rich. Then I made the decision to arrange it as a boss nova and orchestrate it for a small studio orchestra. It is now one my favorite pieces I have produced.
Twice Around
Besides doing a bit of acting for several years, I also wrote a few screenplays. They never really went anywhere, but one showed promise as a 10 minute short film. Again, as a musician, I felt it needed a title track to go with the proposed opening credits. I wrote it, called it “She’s Magic” and the whole project was rejected by the producers. However, I dug it put this past year, wrote a new middle section and reworked the overall piece, arranging it as a 60’s Las Vegas style jazz piece for augmented big band. Finally, it needed a new title, so “Twice Around” seemed appropriate. (In hindsight, perhaps I should have renamed “Unfinished Business” as “Thrice Around?” (composer’s joke).
If Only
In the late spring of 1976, I was looking forward to my 5th summer session with Ray and Manny up at Eastman. And although I would be taking the advanced film-scoring class, I wanted to have a piece ready for the Arranger’s Holiday Concert that year (I had already had 2 of my pieces performed in ’73 and ’74). I decided on a very poignant ballad with some very sophisticated chord changes, which would feature soprano sax (yes, it was performed on the concert and one day, I might release that live version). For this second album, I did the exact same arrangement I did in ’76 but this time, I swapped the soprano sax for flugelhorn, as the featured soloist.
Algunos Cambios Menores
Another example of a chart that went through a bunch of changes (no bilingual pun intended). The original 2001 tune was called “Time to Move On,” as a proposed title track to accompany a screenplay I had written. I did record it as a sort of torch song with me on vocals singing highly co-dependent pity party lyrics (don’t ask). The piece scored for piano trio and vocals was a personal disappointment, so into the drawer it went. I pulled it out again in 2002 for a brief curtain call, as the final piece in an audio drama I helped produce. That version had a new set of lyrics, as well as a new vocalist and was scored for studio orchestra. But again, I was not happy with it. So for the final piece on this second album, I completely redid it as a Cuban bolero and scored it for augmented big band, featuring the lead trumpet. Finally, it was what I wanted. And all it took was “a few small changes.”
Dedication
This album is dedicated to someone I always looked up to as an older brother, Mark Blumberg. Had it not been for inadvertently seeing a score of Watermelon Man you did while in high school, and then later hearing a chart you did at MSU, I might have never been bitten by the "writer's bug." Without knowing it all those years ago,
you helped me become the composer/arranger/producer
I am today. Thanks, big bro!
Album Credits
All music composed, arranged, and performed by Tony SingingEagle.
Produced by Mark Blumberg and Tony SingingEagle.
Copyright © 2023 Aspen Danse Music, ASCAP.
All rights reserved.
Recorded between May, 2022 – February, 2023
Sacramento, California
"Unfinished Business"
Behind the Album
When it came time to start work on my second album, I didn’t have much of a direction – other than wanting to continue the overall feel from the first one – original compositions for Jazz Ensemble (i.e., “Big Band”) and Studio Orchestra. I had plenty of material to choose from, since I still had quite a backlog of compositions that never quite made it into production. It was just a matter deciding what pieces I wanted to revisit, what each one’s style would be (the arrangement), and which piece would be performed by which group (orchestration). As the late Chick Corea said, everything is just a matter of choice.
Ironically, my first album, “What Was Can Still Be,” didn’t start out as a planned album. I just started recording material I was never able to hear performed to my liking. After I ended up with 8 fully mixed and mastered tracks, then came the decision to release an album. This 2nd one, however, needed to be done in a more organized manner and would be different in two ways. First, I made the choice to handwrite every newly arranged/orchestrated score fully, and then record it (like we did back in the day). Secondly, I wanted to have my childhood friend and colleague, Mark Blumberg (who is himself an accomplished writer/producer), produce this one with me. That in itself was an added treat, because we got to work together again for the first time in about 45 years. After the final chart was mixed and mastered, I needed to come up with a title for the album. This time, I named it after one of the pieces, “Unfinished Business.” And yes, very much an inside joke, as I felt I had so much of that to sort out before I make my final journey (hopefully, not for a very long time).
A Bit More About Each Song
Purplesque
I first came up with the tune for this jazz waltz about 12 years ago. And it, like many others, ended up in a box as a lead sheet. When I decided to revisit it and decide on how to arrange it, I knew it needed to be up-tempo with a lot of richness in the changes, i.e., the basic chord structure, as well a lot of interesting passing chords within the harmonized lines to keep it interesting. And, it had to be for studio orchestra, where I could take advantage of all the different instrumental colors, i.e., woodwinds, saxes, French horns, trumpets, trombones, rhythm section, extra percussion and a full complement of strings. The final piece ended up being a very happy, airy composition, designed to lift the spirits and put a smile on the face of the listener.
Aspen Danse
This piece has always been a favorite of mine. I originally composed the tune while living in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Rockies are known all over the world for their unique yellow-leaf trees, the aspens. Whenever I saw them, I had such a sense of connection to creation. So I penned this piece to honor them. At the time, I had a jazz quintet called Spectrum III, so we played this piece quite often. But I always felt it had so much more to say, if it could be arranged and orchestrated for big band. When I finally did, I opted to add 4 French Horns in the standard 17-piece big band, similar to some of the early charts penned by the legendary Henry Mancini. This orchestration, combined with a Latin jazz-fusion feel finally brought Aspen Danse to life, so much so that I ended up naming my publishing company after it: Aspen Danse Music, ASCAP.
Unfinished Business
This one was a true labor of love, in that it was the 3rd incarnation of a piece originally called, “One Step Forward.” I wrote that piece in 1973 as part of the Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media Class I was taking that summer at the Eastman School of Music. I was never happy with that initial attempt but, like so many of my compositions, I ended up filing it away for later. “Later” turned out to be a revised version called, “Eagle Flight Suite” I did in 1996. Again, not really what I heard in my head, so back to the filing cabinet. When I finally was able to do this 3-movement concerto justice with the help of the new VST technology, it was time to give it a new name. There was only one choice: “Unfinished Business,” which also served as the title of the second album. However, the real question is, is the “business” ever really finished?
Suddenly
“Suddenly” started out as a 12 bar unfinished composition; it was originally meant to be a jazz ballad when I wrote it in 2002. Three years later, I was in a stage play (yes, I did a bit of acting). The play needed a prerecorded opening piece of music and I immediately remembered this piece. I added lyrics to the existing 12 bars, extended the ending a bit and that was that – or so I thought. When it came time to map out my second album, this piece came back to me and I knew I needed to finally finish it properly. I added a badly needed middle section and reworked the chord changed to be more harmonically rich. Then I made the decision to arrange it as a boss nova and orchestrate it for a small studio orchestra. It is now one my favorite pieces I have produced.
Twice Around
Besides doing a bit of acting for several years, I also wrote a few screenplays. They never really went anywhere, but one showed promise as a 10 minute short film. Again, as a musician, I felt it needed a title track to go with the proposed opening credits. I wrote it, called it “She’s Magic” and the whole project was rejected by the producers. However, I dug it put this past year, wrote a new middle section and reworked the overall piece, arranging it as a 60’s Las Vegas style jazz piece for augmented big band. Finally, it needed a new title, so “Twice Around” seemed appropriate. (In hindsight, perhaps I should have renamed “Unfinished Business” as “Thrice Around?” (composer’s joke).
If Only
In the late spring of 1976, I was looking forward to my 5th summer session with Ray and Manny up at Eastman. And although I would be taking the advanced film-scoring class, I wanted to have a piece ready for the Arranger’s Holiday Concert that year (I had already had 2 of my pieces performed in ’73 and ’74). I decided on a very poignant ballad with some very sophisticated chord changes, which would feature soprano sax (yes, it was performed on the concert and one day, I might release that live version). For this second album, I did the exact same arrangement I did in ’76 but this time, I swapped the soprano sax for flugelhorn, as the featured soloist.
Algunos Cambios Menores
Another example of a chart that went through a bunch of changes (no bilingual pun intended). The original 2001 tune was called “Time to Move On,” as a proposed title track to accompany a screenplay I had written. I did record it as a sort of torch song with me on vocals singing highly co-dependent pity party lyrics (don’t ask). The piece scored for piano trio and vocals was a personal disappointment, so into the drawer it went. I pulled it out again in 2002 for a brief curtain call, as the final piece in an audio drama I helped produce. That version had a new set of lyrics, as well as a new vocalist and was scored for studio orchestra. But again, I was not happy with it. So for the final piece on this second album, I completely redid it as a Cuban bolero and scored it for augmented big band, featuring the lead trumpet. Finally, it was what I wanted. And all it took was “a few small changes.”
Dedication
This album is dedicated to someone I always looked up to as an older brother,
Mark Blumberg. Had it not been for inadvertently seeing a score of
Watermelon Man you did while in high school,
and then later hearing a chart you did at MSU,
I might have never been bitten by the "writer's bug."
Without knowing it all those years ago, you helped me become
the composer/arranger/producer I am today. Thanks, big bro!
Album Credits
All music composed, arranged, and performed by Tony SingingEagle.
Produced by Mark Blumberg and Tony SingingEagle.
Copyright © 2023 Aspen Danse Music, ASCAP.
All rights reserved.
Recorded between May, 2022 – February, 2023
Sacramento, California
"Unfinished Business"
Behind the Album
When it came time to start work on my second album, I didn’t have much of a direction – other than wanting to continue the overall feel from the first one – original compositions for Jazz Ensemble (i.e., “Big Band”) and Studio Orchestra. I had plenty of material to choose from, since I still had quite a backlog of compositions that never quite made it into production. It was just a matter deciding what pieces I wanted to revisit, what each one’s style would be (the arrangement), and which piece would be performed by which group (orchestration). As the late Chick Corea said, everything is just a matter of choice.
Ironically, my first album, “What Was Can Still Be,” didn’t start out as a planned album. I just started recording material I was never able to hear performed to my liking. After I ended up with 8 fully mixed and mastered tracks, then came the decision to release an album. This 2nd one, however, needed to be done in a more organized manner and would be different in two ways. First, I made the choice to handwrite every newly arranged/orchestrated score fully, and then record it (like we did back in the day). Secondly, I wanted to have my childhood friend and colleague, Mark Blumberg (who is himself an accomplished writer/producer), produce this one with me. That in itself was an added treat, because we got to work together again for the first time in about 45 years. After the final chart was mixed and mastered, I needed to come up with a title for the album. This time, I named it after one of the pieces, “Unfinished Business.” And yes, very much an inside joke, as I felt I had so much of that to sort out before I make my final journey (hopefully, not for a very long time).
A Bit More About Each Song
Purplesque
I first came up with the tune for this jazz waltz about 12 years ago. And it, like many others, ended up in a box as a lead sheet. When I decided to revisit it and decide on how to arrange it, I knew it needed to be up-tempo with a lot of richness in the changes, i.e., the basic chord structure, as well a lot of interesting passing chords within the harmonized lines to keep it interesting. And, it had to be for studio orchestra, where I could take advantage of all the different instrumental colors, i.e., woodwinds, saxes, French horns, trumpets, trombones, rhythm section, extra percussion and a full complement of strings. The final piece ended up being a very happy, airy composition, designed to lift the spirits and put a smile on the face of the listener.
Aspen Danse
This piece has always been a favorite of mine. I originally composed the tune while living in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Rockies are known all over the world for their unique yellow-leaf trees, the aspens. Whenever I saw them, I had such a sense of connection to creation. So I penned this piece to honor them. At the time, I had a jazz quintet called Spectrum III, so we played this piece quite often. But I always felt it had so much more to say, if it could be arranged and orchestrated for big band. When I finally did, I opted to add 4 French Horns in the standard 17-piece big band, similar to some of the early charts penned by the legendary Henry Mancini. This orchestration, combined with a Latin jazz-fusion feel finally brought Aspen Danse to life, so much so that I ended up naming my publishing company after it: Aspen Danse Music, ASCAP.
Unfinished Business
This one was a true labor of love, in that it was the 3rd incarnation of a piece originally called, “One Step Forward.” I wrote that piece in 1973 as part of the Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media Class I was taking that summer at the Eastman School of Music. I was never happy with that initial attempt but, like so many of my compositions, I ended up filing it away for later. “Later” turned out to be a revised version called, “Eagle Flight Suite” I did in 1996. Again, not really what I heard in my head, so back to the filing cabinet. When I finally was able to do this 3-movement concerto justice with the help of the new VST technology, it was time to give it a new name. There was only one choice: “Unfinished Business,” which also served as the title of the second album. However, the real question is, is the “business” ever really finished?
Suddenly
“Suddenly” started out as a 12 bar unfinished composition; it was originally meant to be a jazz ballad when I wrote it in 2002. Three years later, I was in a stage play (yes, I did a bit of acting). The play needed a prerecorded opening piece of music and I immediately remembered this piece. I added lyrics to the existing 12 bars, extended the ending a bit and that was that – or so I thought. When it came time to map out my second album, this piece came back to me and I knew I needed to finally finish it properly. I added a badly needed middle section and reworked the chord changed to be more harmonically rich. Then I made the decision to arrange it as a boss nova and orchestrate it for a small studio orchestra. It is now one my favorite pieces I have produced.
Twice Around
Besides doing a bit of acting for several years, I also wrote a few screenplays. They never really went anywhere, but one showed promise as a 10 minute short film. Again, as a musician, I felt it needed a title track to go with the proposed opening credits. I wrote it, called it “She’s Magic” and the whole project was rejected by the producers. However, I dug it put this past year, wrote a new middle section and reworked the overall piece, arranging it as a 60’s Las Vegas style jazz piece for augmented big band. Finally, it needed a new title, so “Twice Around” seemed appropriate. (In hindsight, perhaps I should have renamed “Unfinished Business” as “Thrice Around?” (composer’s joke).
If Only
In the late spring of 1976, I was looking forward to my 5th summer session with Ray and Manny up at Eastman. And although I would be taking the advanced film-scoring class, I wanted to have a piece ready for the Arranger’s Holiday Concert that year (I had already had 2 of my pieces performed in ’73 and ’74). I decided on a very poignant ballad with some very sophisticated chord changes, which would feature soprano sax (yes, it was performed on the concert and one day, I might release that live version). For this second album, I did the exact same arrangement I did in ’76 but this time, I swapped the soprano sax for flugelhorn, as the featured soloist.
Algunos Cambios Menores
Another example of a chart that went through a bunch of changes (no bilingual pun intended). The original 2001 tune was called “Time to Move On,” as a proposed title track to accompany a screenplay I had written. I did record it as a sort of torch song with me on vocals singing highly co-dependent pity party lyrics (don’t ask). The piece scored for piano trio and vocals was a personal disappointment, so into the drawer it went. I pulled it out again in 2002 for a brief curtain call, as the final piece in an audio drama I helped produce. That version had a new set of lyrics, as well as a new vocalist and was scored for studio orchestra. But again, I was not happy with it. So for the final piece on this second album, I completely redid it as a Cuban bolero and scored it for augmented big band, featuring the lead trumpet. Finally, it was what I wanted. And all it took was “a few small changes.”
Dedication
This album is dedicated to someone I always looked up to as an older brother, Mark Blumberg.
Had it not been for inadvertently seeing a score of Watermelon Man you did while in high school,
and then later hearing a chart you did at MSU, I might have never been bitten by the "writer's bug."
Without knowing it all those years ago, you helped me become
the composer/arranger/producer I am today. Thanks, big bro!
Album Credits
All music composed, arranged, and performed by Tony SingingEagle.
Produced by Mark Blumberg and Tony SingingEagle.
Copyright © 2023 Aspen Danse Music, ASCAP.
All rights reserved.
Recorded between May, 2022 – February, 2023
Sacramento, California