Single release: “Letters of Transit” delivered today

In March of 2020, I was getting ready to attend my first Brooklyn Accordion Club meeting. Joining a community of fellow travelers had me so revved up that I composed sort of an Irish jig, but with one eighth-note missing, to perform at the club’s open mic. And then lockdown sent us into yearslong exile in Zoomland. For me this period was a kind of online “inner emigration” — a modern twist on a centuries-old concept that describes a feeling of alienation from one’s own country.

My own inner emigration took several forms, through space and time. For one, I developed an unforgiving addiction to Duolingo. The upside was that it allowed me to imagine myself in any number of places around the globe.

On top of that, a concurrent mental journey involved moving backwards in time, rooting up any information the internet could reveal to me about my ancestors. The downside: I learned some disturbing things!

More on that later.

Thanks to Zoom, I was also able to build relationships with people who are still living. Regular online gatherings of my new accordion pals helped so much to alleviate the severe isolation of the pandemic. One big reason I made it through the Slough of Despond was that I received a commission to write an accordion quartet for Bachtopus. More on that later, too.

As I continued to play this new jig with one eighth-note missing that I’d written, I came to understand it as the national anthem of the imaginary country I wanted to live in. It was a musical escape to a better place. Letters of transit.

Before long there was enough material for an album. “Letters of Transit” is the title track. It features Meg Okura (violin), David Bertrand (bass clarinet), Rez Abbasi (guitar), George Farmer (bass), and me (accordion). This tune is dedicated to the Brooklyn Accordion Club and it is available on Bandcamp.

In the weeks ahead I’ll be posting here as more singles are released. Watch this space.