This a piece i composed for a dads' hiking group I was part of and eventually led. Originally founded by my friend Jonathan Marks back in 1998 this group over decades brought together dads with their toddlers, in some cases infants to a monthly monthly outdoor excursions and for two decades, we cultivated memories of nature, innocence , growth and life-long kinships.
I revisited the piece as our kids have all grown , and re-arranged the music for an array of instruments, with performances from Marcel Berteaux, my musical partner (drums), David Cowan (hammer dulcimer and pan pipes) Peder Liljequist (harmonica) and my students Nihal Nazeem (flute) Nick Brandis (sax), Zed Millette, (one of the grateful kids) on trumpet, and guitar solo from the legendary, Charlie Robinson.
Charlie was gracious enough to play guitar on an early composition called Vulnerable Angel back in the mid 90s. Then years later, I asked him to play a guitar solo on El Toro a piece for a musical I was scoring, then after the session we did a quick jam on the piece Grateful Dads as I wanted to see what he could do on it as I could always hear his playing with the piece.
I revisited the piece as our kids have all grown , and re-arranged the music for an array of instruments, with performances from Marcel Berteaux, my musical partner (drums), David Cowan (hammer dulcimer and pan pipes) Peder Liljequist (harmonica) and my students Nihal Nazeem (flute) Nick Brandis (sax), Zed Millette, (one of the grateful kids) on trumpet, and guitar solo from the legendary, Charlie Robinson.
Charlie was gracious enough to play guitar on an early composition called Vulnerable Angel back in the mid 90s. Then years later, I asked him to play a guitar solo on El Toro a piece for a musical I was scoring, then after the session we did a quick jam on the piece Grateful Dads as I wanted to see what he could do on it as I could always hear his playing with the piece.
I knew then, when it came time to redo the piece which was years later he would grace the composition with his heart felt notes.