For a very long time, I have thought about and envisioned writing the music for, rehearsing, and time in the studio toward the release of this recording. I have called it Free Expression, honoring the thinking of the incomparable Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ Ellington, who rejected the label ‘jazz’, preferring to characterize his own music as that which embodied ‘freedom of expression’. Conceptually, the foundations of this recording are the style to which we refer as ‘Swing’ (from the 1930s) and space—the interplay between sound and silence that allows each musician to participate in the dialogue with full liberty and profundity. And so, we express our individual and corporate emotions, thinking, and musicianship; with grateful hearts, we offer this music to those for whom it may have meaning or give some pleasure. The music on this record represents memories of places and times in my own life, inspired by those whom I have encountered in many ways. I am a child of the 1960s, and I was captivated by the music from the television talk shows andsituation comedies of that era, all of which seem to have had their own big bands and striking theme music. Jackie Gleason’s theme from The Honeymooners—Melancholy Serenade—and the Fifth Dimension singing One Less Bell to Answer were two of my favorites. Much of my musical influence comes from the songs I heard as a child at the Good Shepherd Baptist Church (Richmond, Virginia) and from Grandmother’s Praying Band fervently singing in her living room, so we swing What a Friend We Have in Jesus the way they did. I listened to, and was captivated by, the recordings of Count Basie, Cannonball Adderly, Nancy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, Sarah Vaughn, and Oscar Peterson, all of which were in our home when I was child.The totality of these influences have resulted in my reverence for the blues and its urbane, unabashed rawness which move me like no other genre—hence the blues songs and sounds on this disc—most pointedly in Mike Hawkins’ Blues for the Weary Traveler; my own Thyrio (and acronym for ‘the horse you rode in on’). The treatments of traditional so-named ‘jazz standards’ and some newer music are our experiments with extended form, alternative chord progressions, rhythmic styles, and melodic excursions (All of You, A Shade of Jade, Good for the Soul, What is this Thing Called. . . .Love?,[sic] and Manteca). There are some special original songs, the first of which is Mike Hawkins’ Izee—for his Mother. Most importantly, this entire project is dedicated to my Mother, Deloris Rebecca Sturdavant Hill who made certain that I had every opportunity to realize my heart’s desires and whom I love and cherish like No One Else—the song in special tribute to her. The Weldon Hill Trio is Weldon Hill - Piano, Michael K. Hawkins - Double Bass, and Billy Williams - Drums. Thank you for your support. W. Weldon Hill