Domo Arigato 

A Japanese Music Box tune given to me by George Winston is combined here with the traditional French folk melody Mon Infante (Dear Child.) I heard George transposing it from Ralph Towner’s guitar version (DIARY) off of a cassette player before a concert for which I was setting up chairs on a rainy night in Point Reyes. He played it for an encore, after which I approached him and asked about the piece, thinking I could play its haunting harmonies with my limited dexterity. He took to my story, and mailed me a cassette of both pieces several years before he recorded them (FOREST.) 

In this arrangement, the opening theme to Thanksgiving (WINTER,) emerges from the music box, and becomes a lullaby of gratitude for creation. That’s the gratitude I feel for Winston’s mentoring my ability to produce such rich sounds. Sounds that refresh the love I have for my own dear child. E minor’s moist crispness feels like sunlight reflecting off the ocean in the presence of the moon. (recorded January 2012 at Mesa Recording Studio.)