Russian Cutlet

From SS: Russian Cutlet - each of my children had a different CD that would put them to sleep. One of them would only sleep in the car if we listened to Best Of Weather Report, sometimes for 3 whole cycles before the magic happened. I had swallowed a lot of Zawinul by the time I came to writing this. Again, demand based, I felt Frock needed some more finishers, and I conceived it while eating the amazing Russian Cutlet at the old Scheherazade in Acland St, a restaurant of primary significance for me in my early life. I was trying to copy Birdland, and I had also been listening to a lot of Duke Ellington, and I loved how he juxtaposed the extremely shmaltzy with the dissonant. It made things all post-modern, and saved a reasonable idea from being taken too seriously. Not high art other than the meta-narrative concept that Duke used, but it has some great bits in it ; like each time I write, there may be the smallest kernel of an intellectual idea, but basically my process is a bass line or harmonic framework, and then trying to notate whatever I sing over the top of it. The reappearance of the middle riff at the end with drum solo over the top tied the piece together nicely, and ensured that each of the 3 main ideas had been recapitulated at least once.