MUSIC REVIEW BY Claus Friede, Kultur Port (Germany)
In January 2017, in the middle of his fourth year at Wichita State University, jazz guitarist William Flynn drove a thousand miles from the plains of Kansas to the idyllic beaches of Florida's Gulf Coast.
He had applied for an Escape to Create artist residency. Funded and organized by residents and volunteers of the city of Seaside FL, the Cross-Cultural Genre Grant has been around since 1993—12 years after the fledgling community was founded. Flynn received a month-long winter residency.
His goal for this month was to work out compositions for a new album. For a teaching and committed musician, concentrated composing in one piece was almost impossible: the daily madness of teaching, concerts and other activities simply did not allow this.
Now he had a whole month to write music, daily and almost ritualistically.
The seclusion of the seaside residence proved more productive for him than the musician had imagined: "The isolation of living in just a cottage by the sea and being more than a thousand miles from my normal life and work allowed me to... with a creative intensity I had never experienced before. Hopefully, all of the music you hear on my new album, Seaside, will transport you to an equally enjoyable space of thought and sound that I was in while writing the tracks. Seaside is a magical place and I will always fondly remember the month I spent driving Hwy 30A to arrive."
Featuring a band of Kansas City musicians -- pianist Roger Wilder, bassist Sam Copeland, drummer Brian Steever, and a guest appearance by singer Emily Merrell -- "Seaside" offers an inspired jazz sound that reveals melodies and harmonies unleashed throughout a particularly rich creative phase in Flynn's career and continued in the recording studio in 2019. The ten compositions on the CD for jazz quartet are like a diary of this productive time.
William Flynn is a Midwestern jazz guitarist and educator, highly respected for his playing and teaching in equal measure. He currently serves as Director of Jazz Studies at Wichita State University.
He had applied for an Escape to Create artist residency. Funded and organized by residents and volunteers of the city of Seaside FL, the Cross-Cultural Genre Grant has been around since 1993—12 years after the fledgling community was founded. Flynn received a month-long winter residency.
His goal for this month was to work out compositions for a new album. For a teaching and committed musician, concentrated composing in one piece was almost impossible: the daily madness of teaching, concerts and other activities simply did not allow this.
Now he had a whole month to write music, daily and almost ritualistically.
The seclusion of the seaside residence proved more productive for him than the musician had imagined: "The isolation of living in just a cottage by the sea and being more than a thousand miles from my normal life and work allowed me to... with a creative intensity I had never experienced before. Hopefully, all of the music you hear on my new album, Seaside, will transport you to an equally enjoyable space of thought and sound that I was in while writing the tracks. Seaside is a magical place and I will always fondly remember the month I spent driving Hwy 30A to arrive."
Featuring a band of Kansas City musicians -- pianist Roger Wilder, bassist Sam Copeland, drummer Brian Steever, and a guest appearance by singer Emily Merrell -- "Seaside" offers an inspired jazz sound that reveals melodies and harmonies unleashed throughout a particularly rich creative phase in Flynn's career and continued in the recording studio in 2019. The ten compositions on the CD for jazz quartet are like a diary of this productive time.
William Flynn is a Midwestern jazz guitarist and educator, highly respected for his playing and teaching in equal measure. He currently serves as Director of Jazz Studies at Wichita State University.
Soundclips
Other Reviews of
"Seaside":
The Sunflower by Sascha Harvey
Jazz Weekly by George W Harris
Dr. Jazz Magazine (Netherlands) by Aldert Toornstra
Midwest Record by Chris Spector