Search - Novak & Haar :: Old Friends

from the album liner notes... I first met Jon Novak in 1977 as one of his guitar students. With Jons influence combined with a desire to play in my high school stage band, I was soon studying jazz guitar. Underlining our professional work together has been our friendship. Playing with Novak, you have to be prepared to play in any key at any tempo. So, I was not completely surprised when Jon handed me three charts and smugly said, Here, play this. We record in three days. The tunes were Old Friends, Taradactyl, and E-mail Special. On Old Friends I am playing the first solo and Jon has the second. While our styles are different, beyond the fact that I am using a pick and Jon is playing with his fingers, you will notice that we both close our solos with octave passages, and there is a striking similarity in the comping behind the solos. Bringing back the head are a bass solo by Haar and a brief drum break Gulizia. Taradactyl was the most challenging tune for me, given the breakneck tempo and precision lines that Jon had written. I like the octave interludes separating the solos and the overall energy of the piece. Jon is playing the A section melody of E-mail Special, and I am playing the bridge of this AABA-structured tune. As with Old Friends I have the first solo and Jon follows. In this case, however, we alternate twice, and then we solo simultaneously in counterpoint. Again, the bass and drums bring back the head. The trio of Novak, Haar, and drummer Carlos Figueroa perform on four of the ten total tracks. Two of them are Mark Haars compositions. The spacey, free introduction and parts of the harmonic progression of Thought about Life remind me of several versions of Gentle Rain that I have heard. Marks second contribution to the disc is the one less traveled by, a very beautiful and haunting melody and arrangement. The trio also performs on Fiddle-De-Dee, Fiddle-De-Doh and Winters Coming, the former an up-tempo opener, and the latter a laid back, mellow tune that provides fitting contrast to the following track, E-mail Special. Little Mo is the first of three tracks that feature the expressive and virtuosic saxophone playing of Darrin Pettit. This is one of my personal favorite tracks on this disc. Pettits playing is truly outstanding. A straightforward swing blues tune that Novak wrote for Blue House, a blues band in which he played a few years ago, Jons Jam features the guitar and sax playing the melody together in harmony, a jammin melody with intense solos. Mr. Toad is a tune that Novak had initially written for Luigi Waites, who for over thirty years has led a group of musicians--which at different times included both Novak and myself--in a bar in the Old Market area of Omaha, Nebraska, called Mr. Toads. The sustaining saxophone melody is punctuated with rhythmic punches from the guitar, bass, and drums. Kevin E. Mooney, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin