In March of 2020 while mixing the CD Waiting I decided the project needed more songs with the guitar as the lead instrument. I wrote Zozo to be the first song of the CD. It was this point where the CD changed from atmospheric music to a more jazz/rock sound. I was reading about Voltaire at the time I was writing this song thus the name Zozo, as it was Voltaire's nicknamed by his family.

Zozo

This was the first song I wrote for the CD Keepsakes. It’s about the hot air balloon ‘Aerostat Reveillon’ which on September 19, 1783 was the first flight ever with passengers; a sheep, duck and a chicken. Scientist Pilatre De Rozier setup the demonstration for King Louis XVI to give him assurance that human beings could breathe at the higher elevations.

Aerostat Reveillon

At Sixes And Sevens had several revisions. Originally, the opening of the piece was in 6/4 and the remainder of the song was in 7/4 (thus the title) but i didn't like the 6/4 feel. I decided to stay in 7/4 for the entire song (pretty much).

At Sixes And Sevens

Memoirs of the Twentieth Century – The title comes from the 1733 novel by Samuel Madden, considered the first of English literature to ever feature time travel. I wrote this to be the first song on the CD and was the last I song wrote for the project.

At the completion of my project “Waiting”, I decided to start on another project immediately. I’m not sure whether it was my turning 60 or the fact that 2020 was a year that had me wishing for another time, but either way I found myself drawn to stories of time travel. 

I did not begin the Keepsakes project with the idea it would be a concept project/CD, but it does seem to feel like one. It Just proves how much your writing is influenced by your situation, whether you realize it or not.

Memoirs Of The Twentieth Century

While on the NASA website I found an image of Olympus Mons from the Viking 1 Orbiter which gave me the idea for this song.  Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in our solar system, over 25 miles high from it's base to it's summit. The base is as large an area as the state of Arizona. 

I have included into this number recordings from Mars by the Perseverance rover. These recordings include the Ingenuity helicopter on April 30, 2021 as it flew on Mars for the fourth time, sounds of the Perseverance rover driving on Mars, the Perseverance rover as it laser zaps a Mars rock and wind sounds on Mars.

Special thanks to Kate Nord for the wonderful vocals on the track.

Olympus Mons

I love a good mystery, especially an ancient one. When I was researching Sibyl's Cave I ran across the story of 3,000 year-old underground city in Derinkuyu, Turkey. This song features Ben Beheshty on the Persian Santoor, Vocals by Tetem and Dumindu Dassanay on the Indian flute.

Stairs To Derinkuyu

After viewing the photograph of Nikola Tesla sitting on a chair in his Knobe Hill, Colorado Springs laboratory it made me wonder what the night sky must have looked like in 1899 while Tesla was performing his experiments. The photo also reminded of the James Whale's 1931 Frankenstien movie's lab designed which included Kenneth Strickfaden's movie machinery prop, his own Tesla coil that he called the Megavolt Senior. The marvelous bass solo is performed Stefan Pavlov and vocals by Volodymyr Chyzhovych. The intro has an actual recording of a Tesla coil charging.

Moonlight On Knob Hill

I have always loved the story of Odysseus and Aeolus. A story that shows us why we need patience and vigilance! This song features Walter Yones on vibes and Gabriel Rever on percussion.

Aeolus, Thanks For Nothing

I have always been fascinated with Greek Mythology. 

Zephyrus God of the West Winds is the first of four pieces that make up the project "The Children of Astraeus and Eos". 

Each piece will be on one of the four children gods of Astraeus (God of stars, planets, astrology and the winds) and Eos (Goddess of the dawn).

The children are; Zephyrus (God of the West Wind), Eurus (God of the East Wind), Boreas (God of the North Wind) and Notus (God of the South Wind).

Zephyrus God of the West Winds

In reading about Tesla's time in Budapest a story jumped out and inspired this piece. In 1882 Tesla suffered a breakdown. A friend, Anthony Szigeti, helped Telsa get back on his feet. Szigeti convinced Tesla to walk with him each evening in the Varosliget (the city park). During one of these walks Telsa (while reading: Goethe's "Faust") had the idea for the rotating magnetic field which is at the heart of the induction motor and Tesla's Polyphase Alternating Current.

As they would walk around the park every night, I decided to put the main melody in a "round" section with each woodwind instrument playing the motif.

The musician's on this are Miguel Vargas on flute and piccolo, Maria Virginia Espinoza on oboe, Nirvana Villegas on clarinet, Javier Cereceda on bassoon and Larry Salzman on percussion.

An Evening Walk In The Varosliget

I wrote this piano, violin and flute trio piece after reading about Katharine McMahon Johnson (the wife of poet Robert Underwood Johnson.) She was one of the many female admirers of Nikola Tesla. Some say she was the only woman Tesla ever loved. In one of Katharine's letters to Tesla she called him "my ever dear and ever silent friend." I thought how sad she must have been. This piece features Luisana Hernandez on the violin and Miguel Vargas on Flute.

Ever Silent Friend

I always love close harmony, think of Debussy or Ravel but in vocals it sounds especially wonderful. I wanted to write something that I could use close harmonies in, so I came up with the idea of a song that harkens back to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. This fair is where Tesla was introduced to the world. This song features Caleb Cabiness performing the 6-part harmonies and lead vocal, Mannuel Trabucco on alto sax and Larry Salzman on percussion. The lyrics were written by my daughter Cecilia.

These Days

I was watching Close Encounters Of The Third Kind which gave me the idea to write something about the Devil's Tower. The Devils Tower, in the Black Hills of Wyoming has several Legends about it. 

This piece is based on the Kiowa story of seven little girls playing when they were chased by some bears. The girls ran and just when the bears were about to catch them when the girls jumped on a low rock prayed to the great spirit of the rock to save them. The rock began to grow upwards, pushing the girls higher and higher. The bears scratched at the rock but could not reach the girls. The rock took the girls higher until they were pushed up into the sky, where they now are, seven little stars in a group (The Pleiades).

Cello solo performed by Charlot Rivero harp by Merci Bravo.

The Devils Tower

Just a little fun number as a background for a video production. Featuring Cherry Audio Dream Synth DS-1.

Analog Buildup (Eletronic Version)

Just a small number for fun. All the synth sounds come from the Arturia Synclavier V.

Stratospheric Synclavier Strut

I was wanted to compose something very dramatic. I looked at Norse mythology for inspiration and thought the story of the death of Odin's and Frigg's son Baldur would be great. Big thanks to Mezzo Soprano Valen from Kazakhstan as well as Claude Lumley on French Horn (Texas)and Manuel Domènech on English Horn (Spain)!

The Death Of Baldur Prelude And A Mothers Lament

The Death Of Baldur (Prelude And A Mothers Lament)

I wanted to write a trio piece for piano, flute and clarinet and thought a lullaby would work. I had wonderful memories of trying to get my daughter to sleep when she was around one. It always seemed that just as I thought she had fallen asleep, she would open her eyes and say “da-da” and then want to play. This piece features Davide Bonomo on flute and Iván Villar-Sanz on clarinet.

Lights Out

During high school, I lived with my sister and her son (my nephew). We lived next to Salem River, and my bedroom window faced west. We had so many wonderful sunsets. My sister would often make us stop what we were doing to look out the window to watch the very end of the sunset. 

Years passed, I moved away, my nephew moved away, but my sister remained. 

Those sunsets made such an impression on me, I got married at my sister’s house along the river at sunset. 

In 2017 my sister passed away and my nephew moved back into our old home.  Then in March of 2022 my nephew began photographing that same setting sun that I would watch thirty-five years earlier. Sadly, he passed that December.

As I was working on this project it struck me, I should compose a piece about that sunset.  I always saw the sun as struggling to stay afloat with even moments of almost violent outburst of rays of light as it grasped to linger just a little longer.  So, this piece represents that wonderful sun of my youth (and now my senior years) doing its best to give us just a few more moments of its beautiful and warm light and a few more moments of life.

This piece features Davide Bonomo on flute, Manuel Domènech on english horn and oboe as well ass Javier Cereceda on bassoon.

Portrait Of A Setting Sun

After finishing the title piece, Portrait of a Sunset, I thought I needed just one more smaller number to round out the project. Still thinking about growing up on the Salem River, I looked through some old photos I had taken and saw the end of the Salem River as it fed into the Delaware River. One of my favorite adventures was to canoe on the Salem River and land on one of the south-west beaches of Hickory Island. From this small island, you could see the Salem River as it ended and connected with the Delaware River. As a teenager, it was such a wonderful feeling to be alone in a canoe on the river. This piece includes Davide Bonomo on flute and Charlot Rivero on cello.

End Of The River - Flute, Cello & Piano

The piece is based on the story of Ishtar found on the Sixth Tablet of the ancient Mesopotamia "Epic of Gilgamesh", an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC.

The story is of Ishtar the Mesopotamian Goddesses of love and war as she attempts to seduce king Gilgamesh as well as offer to become his wife. Gilgamesh refuses Ishtar’s advances thus insulting the goddess. Gilgamesh accused Ishtar of leading her previous lovers to horrible fates. She was so angered by Gilgamesh’s rejection that the goddess sent the Bull of Heaven to kill the king but ultimately caused the death of Gilgamesh’s closest companion, Enkidu.

This features  Manuel Domènech on English Horn and Ubaid Ayub on Tablas.

Ishtar's Seduction

Another movie inspired piece of music. It was Halloween, and I was watching the 1932 version of “The Mummy”. Watching Boris Karloff playing Imhotep the high priest of Amenhotep III inspired me to write a horn fanfare for entering his grand palace. The next day,  after listening to the fanfare, I started writing the main French Horn theme and then joined them in one piece. 

This piece has Cal Rustad on French Horn and Iryna Markevych on the violin.

Palace Of Amenhtep III

The Jewel Of The Lyre or Vega is the fifth-brightest star in the night sky, easily visible to the naked eye with a magnitude of 0.03. It is outshone in brightness only by Sirius, Canopus, Arcturus, and Alpha Centauri. Throughout history, Vega and its constellation Lyra have been called the jewel, and with its surrounding stars, Vega depicts an ancient stringed instrument, the lyre. In Arabic tradition, Vega is connected to a predatory bird, either an eagle or a vulture, and the star's name is derived from the Arabic phrase 'the swooping eagle.' This is echoed in some versions of the Greek lyre story, which also involve an eagle. 

This song is part of the project Analog Buildup.

Special thanks to Gabriel Rever for his timbales work.

The Jewel Of The Lyre

In August 1877, Asaph Hall of the U.S. Naval Observatory conducted a systematic search and discovered two satellites, or moons, of Mars within a few nights of each other. Hall named the moons Phobos and Deimos, after the two sons of Mars who were his chariot attendants and constant companions. However, this was not the first time that the existence of these moons had been theorized. Almost three centuries earlier, in the early 17th century, astronomer Johannes Kepler had also proposed the idea of two moons orbiting Mars. This was due to a secret coded letter received from his colleague Galileo Galilei. Both Galileo and Kepler were influential figures in the field of astronomy, and their contributions are still celebrated today. 

When Galileo sent his coded letter, Kepler was eager to solve it and feel validated in his theories about Mars. The letter was written in Latin and contained a word puzzle for Kepler to decipher. Despite his best efforts, Kepler's interpretation of the code was not entirely accurate. He rearranged the letters to read 'be greeted, double-knob, children of Mars,' and believed this confirmed his theory. However, the actual solution to the puzzle was a playful joke from Galileo, not a scientific revelation.

This song is part of the project Analog Buildup.

Special thanks to Percussionist Reinaldo Ocando for his work on the bongos.

The Children of Mars

I wrote this contemporary jazz piece after watching Rick Beato's wonderful interview with Keith Jarrett. This features Ric Fierabracci on bass, Larry Salzman on percussion and Mannuel Trabucco on soprano sax.

Looking To Allentown

I wrote this piece after watching the BBC's documentary about the Silk Road. This features vocals by Marriam Zeeshan and Dumindu Dassanay on the Indian flute.

Glowing Lamps Of Bukhara

This started as a small synthesizer electronic piece but it wanted to be a larger number so now it is. This features Mannuel Trabucco on soprano sax.

Analog Buildup

This piece is written about the discovery of the star Earendel (Star WHL0137-LS). Earendel is located in the constellation Cetus and was discovered in 2022 by the Hubble Space Telescope. Earendel is the earliest and most distant known star, at an estimated distance of 28 billion light-years. It's estimated that the light detected from Earendel was emitted 900 million years after the Big Bang. Earendel is a massive B-type main-sequence star more than twice as hot as our Sun, and about a million times more luminous.

This piece features Mezzo Soprano Dimi De San.

Our First Glimpse Of Earendel

This piece is about the constellation Ophiuchus. Ophiuchus one of the 48 constellations discovered by Ptolemy in the 2nd century. This constellation depictions a man holding a very large snake, he is a snake charmer. Rasalhague (in Arabic means “head of the snake handler) is the brightest star of this constellation.

Mannuel Trabucco on soprano sax
Dumindu Dassanay on the Indian wooden flute
Andy Warner on fretless bass solo
Remi on percussion (Shamanic drum and Tibetan cymbals)

Head Of The Serpent Charmer

This is a contemporary jazz piece in my new project titled "Fables". This song is based on the Turkish fairy tale "The Wizard Dervish". This piece has the following musicians: soprano sax & alto sax by Manuel Trabucco, drums by Soykan Akkaya, bass by Doga Ay and Percussion (Cajon, Maracas, Ghungroo Bells, Shaker, Triangle and the Woodblocks) by Larry Salzman.

The Wizard Dervish

This is the first completed track of my newest project "Morning Songs Of South Jersey". This project is made up of compositions that are about various locations around southern New jersey. This piece includes Davide Bonomo on flute.  The natural sounds were recorded just after daylight on Money Island Road which is situated between Alloway Creek Watershed Wetland Restoration Site and Abbott's Meadow Wildlife Management Area, Latitude 39.527032 and Longitude -75.504876.

Money Island Road

“There is nothing permanent except change.” – Heraclitus.

The music industry (like many things) has changed greatly since I bought my first 45 record (Green Eyed Lady) at my hometown record shop in 1970. It would be very easy to lament over these changes (and I have.) However, with change comes new opportunities, and thanks to websites/apps like Soundcloud we musicians and composers have the opportunity to to be heard as never before. So thank you Soundcloud and thank you for visiting my page. - Jim Combs

Bio
* Born 1959
* From Southern New Jersey, USA
* Instruments: Guitar (jazz & classical), Bass, Piano, Voice 
* Influential LPs/music (not all and in no specific order): Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire, Miles Davis - Nefertiti & Sketches of Spain, Larry Coryell – Spaces, Weather Report - Heavy Weather, Pat Martino – Consciousness, Return to Forever  - Romantic Warrior,  Chick Corea - The Leprechaun, Jeff Beck - Blow By Blow,  Frank Zappa - Zoot Allures, Santana & McLaughlin - Love Devotion Surrender, ELP – Trilogy, Genesis - Wind and Wuthering, Yes - Close to the Edge, David Sancious - The Bridge, Be Bop Deluxe - Sunburst Finish, Ambrosia - Somewhere I've Never Traveled, Journey – Journey,  Rite of Spring & Petrushka – Stravinsky, Don Quixote - Richard Strauss, La Mer - Claude Debussy, Pavane pour une infante défunte & Daphnis et Chloé – Ravel, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta - Bartok ,  Andrew Lloyd Webber - Jesus Christ Superstar, Jerry Goldsmith - MacArthur, The Omen, Planet Of The Apes (1968), Isao Tomita - Snowflakes Are Dancing & The Bermuda Triangle.

Jim Combs - Composer, Keyboardist and Guitarist

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