Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
$2USD or more
about
"In Flight" depicts the feeling of flying on a plane for the first time. It particularly deals with the sensation of take-off. The first melodic statement, played in unison by tenor and guitar, is hopeful and channels the excitement of getting to travel somewhere new and unfamiliar. The next section, which begins with a suspenseful upper register piano figure, qualifies the initial excitement with unease and fear as the plane starts to accelerate and leave the ground. The melodic voices of the bass and guitar followed by tenor, all layered over the continuing upper register piano texture, are like the thoughts that manifest in our heads when we encounter a new and terrifying experience like flying.
The story behind this song goes back to the first flight my family ever took when escaping from the Soviet Union. I was only two years old, but my parents described the feeling of leaving, of encountering a plane for the first time—and my reactions as a baby—so vividly that I had to write a composition about it. They were terrified, were stripped of Soviet citizenship, and had a restless infant with them, but were hopeful about starting a new life in a less oppressive place on the other side of the world.
Trumpeter Harry Spencer’s orchestral modern jazz has cinematic scope, inspired here by dissidents throughout history. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 3, 2023