“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinion for or against. The struggle of what one likes and what one dislikes is the disease of the mind.” ― Sengstan

The recordings contained herein were made in early 2024 with my 12-year-old daughter on alto saxophone. She had just received her instrument days before we rolled tape on these one-take improvs.

The sound is an embodiment of the famous saying: "In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind, there are few."

Being a beginner musician, my daughter was unfamiliar with proper "embouchure"...which is something to do with the "correct" placement of mouth, tongue and teeth on the mouthpiece of her woodwind instrument.

As a result, her performance was filled with mellifluous squeaks and squawks that were sad, old, beatific and beautiful.

To me, our music is an aural equivalent of a palindrome. So I've included a near baker's dozen here inspired by a variety of musical acts and references.

Palindromes can be a single word, a phrase or a sentence that reads the same backwards as it does forwards. Classic examples include "racecar" and "radar" and phrases like "rats live on no evil star" and "Madam, I'm Adam."

I believe this language form approximates free jazz in its paradox of freedom yet ultimate structure.

Palindromes don't require reader or writer to approach them in the "right" way. Backwards is just as good as forwards. No preferences! Which are a disease of the mind anyway.

Freed from the tyranny of expectations...both in music and in language...an unexpected comedic element arises; it's a reminder of the joy, bliss and improbable foolishness at the core of the experience of being alive, floating on a planet in the middle of nowhere.

We won't be here for very long and no one has ever stayed. So let's enjoy it while we may!