Pete Roth Trio feat. Bill Bruford - exc. from 'Looking Forward to Looking Back' (60 Live Jazzaldia)

Take three small words: ‘on the road’. The phrase is a great metaphor, one whose every-day use in the music community we can probably trace back to Jack Kerouac’s 1951 book of the same name. Musicians are always going out ‘on the road’, notwithstanding that anything outside the UK is usually ‘in the air’.

The ‘road’ implies a journey - the endless trek that a creatively-minded player volunteers for on day one, and that doesn’t end until she is obliged (or chooses) to put down her burden and stop walking. It implies going out to interact with people, to have them listen to, enjoy or deride her music. In my world, it is axiomatic that you go on the road first, to play the music in, before you try to record it. The music business naturally wants it the other way round: record the ‘product’ first, then learn how to play it in front of a patient audience.

All journeys seem to have a rhythm: unwarranted optimism at the start, self-doubt about half way through, loss of faith in aspects the project, unwarranted pessimism in the entire project, a wrong turn forcing a complete rethink. Then, an unexpected slice of luck puts wind back in the sails as the destination, only recently unclear, hoves into view. At last, you can start looking forward to looking back.

It really doesn’t matter whether the journey is across you entire country, or an unambitious day’s walk in unfamiliar terrain. It’s the same journey involved in writing a book, or getting an album or a band together, and I’ve made a lot of journeys. My journey with PRT is but the most recent. When are we going to trip up, become despondent, fall flat on our faces, fall out and fall back in again? We’ve done most of those things several times already. We’ll all be slightly altered at the end of it, I hope.

I’m always slightly surprised that listeners / viewers/ fellow musicians like anything I do, so I’m wildly thrilled that we’re connecting in some way with people globally. The music is new to us all. It benefits from no branding, no marketing, no merchandising, no production values, no push or shove. It’s just three guys playing what feels right to play. We’re not selling anything at all outside your attendance at a show. The ‘show’- if you can call it that - works as a process. It’s created personally, individually for you, that night. It is unrepeatable, a unique occasion, that we enjoy providing.

The song is in two parts, separated by a ‘false’ ending. It ‘looks forward’ to its own journey with an exuberant riff in an odd meter, (of course). From 00.34 - 00.59 you get a sneak preview of the thematic material for a melancholy end section, as if you glimpse it through an open window from a passing car. Through various strategies and finger-busting skills from Pete, and not included here, we finally arrive at the false ending, which begins the Looking Back section. The ending is also a beginning – geddit?! If you want to hear the whole thing in one piece, check out a concert length version from San Sebastian on YouTube, or you’ll just have to come to a gig!

   • Pete Roth Trio feat. Bill Bruford - exc. f...  
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