Off-Roading with Bodhidharma: Tales and Songs from the Outposts is a project of Zen poems and musical improvisation created by a trio of friends connected by either Zen or music. I have known Thom since 1964 when we met at the Berklee College of Music in our quest to study jazz. We also developed and shared a strong interest in Zen, and in 1965 we would use an empty apartment above Thom's residence to crank our legs into a full lotus and sit in excruciating physical and mental pain for 5 minutes, after which we would go and have tea together. Eventually we worked our way up to half an hour of sitting and both physical and mental pain began to diminish. While both Thom and I went our separate ways pursuing musical careers, our histories intertwined again through the Kwan Um School of Zen (I was one of the founders of the New Haven Zen Center, and Thom is the founder and guiding teacher of the Zen Center of Las Vegas). Jesse and I have been long time collaborators in various musical contexts, but principally as improvisers and developers of new and extended techniques on our respective instruments. In describing what Jesse does with all kinds of percussion instruments, I once said to someone that you could give him two pieces of paper and he'd make musical sounds with them. Subsequently, I happened to mention that comment to Jesse only to have him tell me that, actually, he does have a composition for pieces of paper. Our Off-Roading collaboration could have only come about among three musicians willing to hang out there in the moment (Jesse on percussion, Thom reading the poems and me on the baritone saxophone), spontaneously interacting through "just now mind", with a deep musical sensitivity to each other and a connection to Music in the largest sense of the word. The Outposts are also situated in both the Canadian Precambrian Shield and the desert around Las Vegas, Nevada –places that inspired much of the poetry and music. Thom lives in the desert and I live in the Canadian woods. The poems were written by my dear friend Brent Mitton (The Axe track 8), and Thom Pastor (tracks 13, 22 –24), with the rest being my contribution to the project. I can say that I hope the poems convey both a connection to Han Shan and to the Crazy Wisdom tradition and are probably more than a little indebted to the Beat poets. Thom Pastor is a Zen teacher not only in his resident center in Las Vegas but also in his travels to other Zen Centers, where he leads retreats across North America and in Singapore. In addition, he teaches an Introduction to Zen Buddhism at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and has initiated a Zen Meditation program at Federal Prison Nellis. He began formal study in the Kwan Um School of Zen in the late 1980s with Zen Master Ji Bong and subsequently received inka from Zen Master Seung Sahn on April 6, 2002 as the last student to do so prior the great master's passing. As a musician he has performed with over 100 internationally known recording and show business luminaries, and he is the current secretary-treasurer of the Musicians Union of Las Vegas. Jesse Stewart is a composer, improviser, percussionist, visual artist, instrument builder and writer dedicated to re-imagining the spaces between artistic disciplines. As a musician, he has performed with a veritable Who's Who of internationally acclaimed musicians in the improvising tradition including George Lewis, Roswell Rudd, Evan Parker, Bill Dixon, William Parker, Pauline Oliveros, Carlo Actis Dato, Frank Gratkowski, Gerry Hemingway, Joe Mcphee and many others. He is a virtuoso performer on the very rare waterphone (heard on tracks 9,13,14,19 and 29). His recordings have received considerable critical acclaim praising him for the beauty of his sonic language. He is currently on the faculty of Carleton University. David Mott has a multi-faceted musical career as a composer, baritone saxophonist and improviser in both new classical music and jazz. He has been teaching music composition at York University since 1978. He has been the Abbot of both the New Haven Zen Center and the Ontario Zen Centre. He teaches qigong and Uechi-ryu Karate Do at Cold Mountain School of Martial and Healing Arts in Toronto. He has improvised for Pope John Paul II and at the ***** ****'s Long Life empowerment ceremony in Toronto (with Jesse Stewart on waterphone). He has performed with a wide variety of musicians from Stevie Wonder to I Musici de Montreal. His music has been twice taken on space shuttle missions by Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean. As a noted virtuoso performer of solo baritone saxophone concerts, he has just released his third solo recording, Dragonhorn, and he continues to be active in his duo Erosonic with concert accordionist Joseph Petric, and with his quintet the DMQ. www. davidmottmusic.com Note: All of the performances were created in real time without over-dubbing or electronic modification.