"Grdina finds perfect communication with the rhythm section... Middle Eastern-meets-ECM chamber jazz in 14 wildly creative tracks." -Stuart Derdeyn, Vancouver Province

The young, Vancouver guitarist and oud player Gordon Grdina sought out Gary Peacock after a Keith Jarrett concert in San Francisco in 2000, and for the next five years Gary became his mentor and teacher. At their last meeting at Gary's house in upstate New York there was virtually no discussion, they just sessioned together for an hour or so, and the next day Gordon asked Gary if he would do a trio record. Gary agreed, and helped bring Paul Motian (another of Gordon's musical heroes) into the picture. Recorded in Brooklyn in January, Think Like the Waves is a remarkable international jazz debut, full of compelling original tunes by Grdina and deep interaction by the trio.

The record combines Grdina's primary musical interests: mainstream jazz, free-form improvisation, and Arabic classical music. But diversity for its own sake was not his aim: "I wanted to bring together the oud and the guitar because I could hear the oud working so well with these two, and there’s something in the way they improvise which reminds me of the Arabic taqasim, the free-time improvised introduction to the melodic material of a piece. But I’ve tried to make the oud part of my complete musical experience, so that I can take it with me on any musical exploration without any preconceived idea about its musical role." Many of the guitar tunes tap into a range of emotions on the melancholy and tender side while suggesting a tensile inner strength, which is then developed in different ways in the improvisations "I've found that the simpler and clearer the composition, the more room the improviser has to develop it. I wanted the pieces to be full statements in themselves that we as improvisers could comment on but not necessarily have to stay faithful to."

From the almost straight-ahead ("Combustion") to the quite abstract ("String Quartet #6"), the group explores improvisation in its purest form. There are solos, duos, and trio improvisations, but in each case the emphasis is on spontaneity and letting the music go wherever it will. "Music comes not from your head, but straight from what you're hearing, with all its rhythmic/harmonic/melodic implications, and from having a connection where you're getting as much of it out through your instrument as you can, without at the time having an intellectual understanding of it. It's a different kind of thinking where you're so involved in what you're doing that your whole body is doing the thinking."

Many of the pieces balance groove and pulse, strict tonality and a freer harmonic treatment. Grdina seems to draw particular inspiration from the jazz developments of the mid-60s to mid-70s: Jarrett, Paul Bley, Ornette... "There's just something in that music that I gravitate towards, something about its simplicity and complexity all at the same time. Keith always sounds so fluid, and fluidity is what I hear in Ornette's writing and playing as well. It's not trying to be clever or complex. If it is complex that comes out of the need to express the melody more richly. In their music and improvisation, tonality is being stretched to its furthest point while still being tonal. Music like that, and by composers like Berg, Webern and Bartok, is what I've been particularly interested in."

Like most musicians of my generation I came to know music from different genres all at once, forwards and backwards, east and west, just as likely to be listening to Miles Davis or Jim Hall as Ali Akbar Khan or Munir Bashir. This juxtaposition inspired my interest in what's going on underneath and across different styles and aesthetics, focusing on common threads and deeper purpose. Surface differences faded further and further away.

During the past few years I've formed groups that roughly fit certain genres of music that I'm interested in, from Arabic classical music to more straight-ahead jazz, usually performing solely on either guitar or oud. But I began to realize that when I intensely focused on what was happening in the music, I was getting the same experience from each ensemble, even though their aesthetics remained extremely different. In this recording I wanted to bring these influences together into a unified statement more in line with this experience. I'm really happy with the result and hope that this search for the deeper essence of the music is evident to the listener.

Some of the music was written specifically for the record and other pieces that I could hear Paul and Gary playing on were borrowed from my other ensembles.

Although neither of them has recorded in an oud trio before, I knew that Gary was interested in Arabic music and that Paul's sound, textures, and use of space were all significantly influenced by listening to Armenian folk music as a child.

I've had the privilege of studying with Gary for the past five years and I don't know anyone else who understands music the way he does. He's absolutely unique. He's able to get to the intellectual, spiritual and emotional heart of the music immediately. This is apparent as soon as he touches the instrument. His sound and intensity are always right there engaging the listener and telling a story.

I've been a huge fan of Paul's since I was a teenager, first listening to him with Keith Jarrett and Paul Bley and then in his own bands. I was always struck by his ability to say so much with so little - nothing ever wasted or overdone. He was always purely about the music. As such he's been a huge influence on me as a composer, improviser, and most of all as a listener. He's always listening so intensely, letting whatever's supposed to happen next happen.

Before the sessions I thought I knew how these songs were going to develop and how they'd feel, but in the end it turned out very different and way better. Having Paul Motian and Gary Peacock involved in this recording has been an absolute pleasure. They are the freest, most honest and selfless musicians I've ever met.

Gordon Grdina, Vancouver, April 2006


". ..No one can advise or help you - no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself... Confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: Must I write?"
- Rainer Maria Rilke (from Letters to a Young Poet)