One of my first professional gigs after graduating college was playing music on cruise ships. I did two contracts in Alaska and Europe on Princess and Cunard (The QE II) cruise lines. In Alaska we took a route known as the “Inside Passage” for 3 months, traveling along the coastline glaciers from Seattle to Skagway. My composition “Inside Passage” was created as a reflection of this pristine wilderness, and it was eventually recorded on my first album Transitions.
In Europe the following year, I visited Norway and Iceland before heading down into the Mediterranean Sea to Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. While in Norway, I took an overland tour from Hellesylt to Geiranger which offered some of the most stunning panoramic views in the world, along with treacherous hairpin turns on the road to the mountain summit.
Years later while visiting Colorado, I was captivated by the allure of the Flatirons in Boulder as if they were speaking to me and I was called to ascend the peaks. The relatively higher altitude of this mountainous environment became apparent only after I returned back to sea level on the East Coast.
Looking back at my photographs from these places, it appears the impulse of climbing to the top of things is a unifying aspect of my travel experience so I've tried to channel that feeling into an artistic output representative of the openness and grandeur of nature. I originally composed “Ascent” for a jazz trio, but always heard a wider panoramic sonic landscape and later re-orchestrated it for a larger ensemble, which accentuates the dramatic rock formations in the photo montage accompanying the musical climax.
Score and parts are available for purchase from the "Sheet Music" page of this website, as well as the full saxophone solo transcription.
