Title: Dance of the Pampanzi
Artist: Perrine, John Quartet
Label: CD Baby
Product Type: COMPACT DISCS
UPC: 837101317207
Genre: Jazz

John Perrine is a saxophone player and composer currently living in the Cleveland area. Basically you need to know about the music so here it is... Linear Notes for Dance of the Pampanzi In the Skinner Box is inspired by B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning experiments on cats. These experiments were designed to teach the cat simple cause and effect principles, e.g., "Push the lever = Get some food." I hate mind games. On Shore has gone through some changes over the last few years. In this version is a more non-specific Eastern-ish vibe combined with a jazz waltz in the middle. The tune had a specific story when it was newer, but has now outgrown it. TNJNT stands for "Tim not John not Tim," and is a relic of my days at Northwestern with Tim Aubuchon. We had a professor there who couldn't keep us straight in his head, so he called both of us "Tim not John not Tim." The original version of this tune was written for Tim and me to play as a duet on two tenor saxophones. The version on this album features the guitar in place of the second tenor. Think, "I Got Rhythm" with altered changes, a New Orleans street beat, and a pretty messed up A section melody. Dance of the Pampanzi is about a mythical creature that was invented by the very imaginative two-year-old son of some friends of ours. This creature, well, dances. (And apparently it does so in a quasi-bossa nova feel with many Major 7 chords with altered 5ths) Mr. McCarthy, Table for One is a strange funk using a tone row in the B section. This is an homage to the strange communist witch hunts of the so-named McCarthy Era. Slam's Lament is sort of a heart-shover ballad. My nickname in high school was Slam because my friend body slammed me in a bowling alley for making fun of his Ford Pinto. (Come on, it was a Pinto.) Anyway, the song isn't about that. It's about...sappy stuff. The Snipe is also named for the two-year-old mentioned above. In addition to making up mythical creatures, he liked to steal my Diet Coke. The word "snipe" was used to describe the act of stealing sips of drinks, and also to describe the person who did the stealing. Spinning Plates is a tableau of a circus plate-spinner in 7/4 with a 4/4 bridge and a bit of 12/8 at the end of the form. It is a tribute to the art of time management and thought management. What is Your Quest is the eternal Monty Python question set in a slow blues.

Tracks:
1.1 In the Skinner Box
1.2 On Shore
1.3 Dance of the Pampanzi
1.4 TNJNT
1.5 Mr. McCarthy, Table for One
1.6 Slam's Lament
1.7 The Snipe
1.8 Spinning Plates
1.9 What Is Your Quest?