Recorded at Playground Studios in just a few live takes, Open to Vocals is an instrumental EP that showcases a range of styles clustered around the periphery of jazz and funk. The EP features three original songs as well as two arrangements of popular songs.

Personnel:

Neelan Kumar - Bass (https://soundcloud.com/neelan-kumar)
Daniel Shapiro - Keys (https://soundcloud.com/daniel-shapiro-1)
Jordan Bryan - Drums / Trumpet (https://soundcloud.com/jordan-grey-bryan)

Open to Vocals EP

Happy to say that I’m writing and recording original music again! I wrote this one in December of last year, as I was away on a 10-day silent meditation retreat near Yosemite. Sitting surrounded by natural splendor, I found myself wishing I could be somewhere else, with someone else, and I wrote this song to capture that feeling. Of course, I didn’t sign up for the retreat with the goal of writing music. But it was the first time in years that I felt inspired to write a song, so for several days I spent the daily meditation hours––ten, to be exact––lost in a musical wonderland. And what a joy it was! While my fellow meditators focused intensely on inward observation, I submerged myself in banal harmonies and chased fragmented melodies that seemed to grow out of the silence. Like the shy fawns around camp, good ideas occasionally appeared, unannounced. Capturing them was a challenge, however, because writing, along with talking and technology use, was forbidden. So, during breaks I would race to the nearest bathroom stall, slide out my orientation booklet and a dry-erase marker I’d borrowed, and scribble in the margins whatever musical and lyrical ideas I could remember from the most recent sit. By the tenth day, I emerged with an almost illegible orientation booklet and three original songs tucked away in its margins.

This is the first song that I’ve written for piano, and my first original that has been through all stages of production. It wouldn’t have happened without James Ordner, who led me through recording, editing, and mixing––a lot of work happens for even such a simple song! Eventually, I’m hoping to write it for orchestra and re-record, so you can consider this the stripped version of an orchestral arrangement yet to be written :) Also, I’m working towards new originals with fuller instrumentation and production, so stay tuned!

As you listen, I encourage you to think of being alone in a beautiful place, wishing you could be with someone you love.

Lyrics

Morning dew smells of evergreen
Hillside covered in frosty sheen
Wake for sunrise if we’d like
I can’t help but wish that I
Could gaze at it with you

Time lingers to daydream here
Days are frigid and nights are clear
Mountain silhouettes
Frame scenes you won’t forget
But I’d rather be with you

This December was lonely
It's not hard to know why
The only Christmas trees around
Are rooted in the ground

It’s a place you could dream of
With bronze-encased manzanitas
I get covered all in chills
It’s a hollow joy ‘til
I’m sitting here with you

They’re more holidays in store
By the Golden Gate
Love, when we’re united soon
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Written and performed by: me
Recording: James Ordner
Editing and Mixing: James Order, with my input
Mastering: Landr (thanks Elena!)

Up In The Air

Jordan Bryan

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