February 2011 Offering Of The Month:
"Snow Storm"
Written by Edward Jerlin and Bryan Celano
© 2011 Everlasting Arms Records & Publishing - All Rights Reserved
HEY! We're BACK!
Okay, we never left, but the "monthlies" were put on hold in 2010.
We needed the break after the effort that was put into "On Broken Wings".
We're going to try to relaunch this as an "every-other-month"
endeavor in 2011. This gives us some flexibility as we continue
working on the next CD. We're making this up as we go along...
Thanks to all who have continued to support us through some
challenging times. We still intend to bring the remainder of
Pastor Jim's music to completion as time permits, God willing.
Here's hoping 2011 is a fruitful year.
NYC Winter 2011
THE SNOW FALLS
The snow falls -
soldiers on silent parade,
marching on invisible strings.
The flakes swirl in rhythm,
a cast of diamond lights,
turning in the breeze;
And while the tempo seems
sometimes fast, and
sometimes slow,
the snow knows its place
in God's blanket below.
Pastor James A. Martin
-received December 1981
In honor of the lovely weather we've had here in the NYC area this
winter, we're presenting "Snow Storm", a piece I wrote in
1985-86 in college with my friend Bryan Celano who played the
drums. It originally started as a jam between the two of us, based
on the opening piano riff that continued to develop as we played it.Written by Edward Jerlin and Bryan Celano
© 2011 Everlasting Arms Records & Publishing - All Rights Reserved
HEY! We're BACK!
Okay, we never left, but the "monthlies" were put on hold in 2010.
We needed the break after the effort that was put into "On Broken Wings".
We're going to try to relaunch this as an "every-other-month"
endeavor in 2011. This gives us some flexibility as we continue
working on the next CD. We're making this up as we go along...
Thanks to all who have continued to support us through some
challenging times. We still intend to bring the remainder of
Pastor Jim's music to completion as time permits, God willing.
Here's hoping 2011 is a fruitful year.
NYC Winter 2011
THE SNOW FALLS
The snow falls -
soldiers on silent parade,
marching on invisible strings.
The flakes swirl in rhythm,
a cast of diamond lights,
turning in the breeze;
And while the tempo seems
sometimes fast, and
sometimes slow,
the snow knows its place
in God's blanket below.
Pastor James A. Martin
-received December 1981
I eventually linked it to a Genesis-inspired piece in 7/8 I'd been working on. My idea was that it was to be a vehicle for a long drum solo-tour-de-force. Bryan did not disappoint me. He was not only in my brain, but the drum parts he came up with helped to inspire the music and they became an integral part of the piece. When I played the drums to this, I culled from many excellent ideas Bryan had from various studio and live recordings while also putting my own touch on it.
It was Bryan's idea to name it "Snow", because the opening piano part reminded him of lightly falling snow on a winter night. (Of course, nearly anything reminded us of Snow up in Potsdam, NY where we went to school just a few miles from Canada...) But the "Snow" musically develops into a "Snow Storm", especially at the 3:10 mark when it sounds like a new frontal system arrives to drop a musical blizzard.
My favorite part is from 4:52 - 5:16 when it turns into a storm of the first order... not unlike what we've experienced multiple times here this winter.
Enjoy!
NYC Winter 2011
