Bryan E. Kennard

One of the fun (for me, at least) things I’ve been doing with my 2-year-old is letting her pick a record to listen to in the morning while we get ready for breakfast. My very limited vinyl collection has been temporarily expanded recently as I hold onto part of my dad’s collection while my folks have some house work done. Anyway, Freddie Hubbard’s “Sky Dive”was my daughter’s pick this morning.

New music by and with tonight at . Come on through.

More thoughts and reflections to come, but a quick note that the Jazz Flute Big Band performance last night was amazing. Big congrats to everyone in the band for their hard work putting this music together on limited rehearsals, and thank you to for joining us as guest soloist. It was an honor to work with you all. See you for the next JFBB competition for the 2027 convention!

TL;DR: I wrote a new piece for John Klayman and his little chamber jazz group Prism featuring Carrie Klayman Singler, Jeff Singler, Anthony Fuoco, Aidan Plank, and Sunceray Tabler. They’ll be playing it tonight at 7pm at the Bop Stop along with several other compositions/arrangements by writers from the area.

When John asked if I would write something for the group, one of my first ideas was to tie in one of the most well-known tunes/albums with “clay” in the title, Freddie Hubbard’s “Red Clay.” I used the pitches of Red Clay’s bass line as a starting point for melodic material, but that’s about where the similarities end between the two pieces.

The piece and the title, “Of the Same Clay,” hold multiple meanings for me. The obvious being the aforementioned connection to Red Clay. Then of course a clear tribute to John Klayman and the fact that Prism is a sort of family band with his daughter and son-in-law.

Beyond that, the concept of being “of the same clay” has been a strong recurring theme/mantra/meditation for me, particularly as we find ourselves in challenging and heavily divided times. We’re all physically made of the same stuff, and we’re all just trying to live our lives, be loved, and find happiness. So, on that physical level, I long for that sameness to bring us together. However, I recognize that we are, like clay, all mailable and molded differently by our experiences, the people in our lives, and what we read, watch, and consume. It’s hard to not look at the state of the country and see the how the hands of current leadership have molded the clay of the right for years to be just the way they want (in fairness, they probably see the same thing of the left, which is part of the problem that has contributed to this divide). This molding is creating a less hospitable environment for a lot of people, friends, neighbors, etc. It just makes me want to shout, “we’re all of the same clay!” But maybe that’s just an idealist, superficial point of view.

Gotta fight for what we want, and writing music/making art is part of that fight. Anyway, come hear some good music tonight. Listening to and making music are healing, and I know I need some healing.

Some great shots of last Sunday's Kennard Kennective show by Alyssa Redd Photography.