Left At Albuquerque

As part of this trip we’re currently on, we had to fly from El Paso TX to Scottsdale AZ. We passed over Albuquerque NM at 40,000 feet and I was reminded  of an emergency landing we made there just last year. We were heading back to Toronto from Scottsdale and at around 1:00 am MST less than an hour into the flight, there was jolt and a muffled bang and suddenly we were slowing down. After a couple of minutes there was the familiar ear popping sensation of descent. A glance at my watch confirmed that it was way too soon to refuel. We were met with emergency vehicles as we put down at a fairly large airport that I guessed was Albuquerque. When we stopped one of the pilots came back to tell us that we had blown out an engine over the mountains and that the airplane was toast. 

So Rick arranged for hotel rooms and there we were, stuck in New Mexico for the night and most of the next day while the pinheads at our air service in Toronto dragged their asses getting us another jet. A commercial flight was out of the question because we had instruments with us  that don’t fly well. We finally got out of there about 18 hours later. 

At the hotel that Rick arranged for us in no time at all ( the guy’s amazing, more about him in a future post ), I was too terrorized to sleep so I set up my MacBook and a small travel keyboard and did some composing. I have some experience in electronic music production and I had the necessary software with me so I poured a double vodka 7 in a well sterilized hotel room glass and prepared to let off some musical steam. 

I ended up with a short piece of music  I call “Shoulda Turned Left At Albuquerque”.  Like Bugs Bunny would say it. Turned is toined and Albuquerque is Albakoykee.  I’ve been writing in this short form for quite a while. These “vignettes” are meant to evoke imagery in a musical and somewhat detached way.  I would call the genre in which I compose “Impressionism” if it didn’t make me sound full of shit. How about: The style I’m going for is impressionism. Nah…..that’s clunky sounding. I aspire to be an impressionist?

……….. It doesn’t matter. Go to Wikipedia and search for “impressionism in music” and see for yourself how full of BS I am. 

At some point I will post detailed instructions in how to use the music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel as a portal into an alternate universe in which your entire experience with reality is one of detached observation. I’m also planning a post outlining why, if you take anti-psychotic medication, you shouldn’t skip a day.

I haven’t figured out yet how to put audio clips in this blog. If you would like to hear “Left At Albuquerque” email me and I’ll send you an MP3.

My address is in Contact at the top of the Web page.