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  “Dedication” Liner Notes
  Trevor C. jones Music 2020
  
  This album is dedicated to people that are dedicated. 2020 has seen the rise of the dedicated; whether frontline health workers or those on the frontline of protest and change, this album is for you.
  
  It’s also broader than that. We are all dedicated to things that we choose, and sometimes things we don’t choose. It’s the energy we bring with our dedication that matters. It’s your energy that makes the world go around and makes change. This is for you.
  
  In all of the music I play live or produce, you will hear elements of Black Music, as all American music contains, because it is the root, the beginning, the lineage* so many musicians benefit from to this day. You cannot say that we are able to express ourselves this way as artists in 2020 if it wasn’t for pioneering Black artists since day 1.
  
  And so, my dedication involves sampling my favorite hip-hop artist of all time, The Notorious BIG AKA Biggie Smalls AKA Christopher George Letore Wallace. I think he was the best rapper of all time. Period. The rhythmic dynamism drips from each phrase, and that is why you hear his distinct voice sampled everywhere. Next to James Brown’s drummer, Clyde Stubblefield, it’s the best stuff around for an electronic musician.
  
  There are other elements of dedication to Black Music, like the blues form, improvisation, call and response, and I would be amiss if I did not note that every guitar solo I have ever played has aspired to the likes of Lightnin’ Hopkins or Jimi. I’ll never get there. But I’m so thankful for those who came before.
  
  Now, to be fair, you will not hear a lot of guitar on this record. After touring with Frogs Gone Fishin’ playing lead, I became very interested in electronic music: synths, keys, fat bass lines etc.
  
  So, you will hear those elements and I hope you find it a bit cinematic, and perhaps even a bit beautiful, although certain sections will reflect the heaviness, the imminence and the soul that is in the times we are living in. I began recording this at 10,000ft. elevation at a cabin high in the Rocky Mountains during quarantine, in a state that I think we all experienced: uncertainty and even some fear about the future. I finished the EP during a time of mass protestation of the violence police have wrought against the Black community for far too long.
  
  
  
  Track List:
  
  The Call – Representing the complexity and heaviness of this year and all we have come through together. The Call is the call you feel to be dedicated to something. It could be anything, as long as it lifts each other up and makes the world a more creative or stable place. It could be the positivity you bring to your job/friends/family, the way you make a sandwich or the grace with which you endure this life in which we all suffer at one moment or the other. All is dedication and all is good. So, you will hear a very heavy and sometimes hectic sound, but the guitar solo and string resolution (this is my first album with a lot of string work) implies hope. A hope that I deeply wish you to also feel.
  
  Dedication – This album is a dedication to the selfless changemakers, frontline health workers, social activists and those that protect the most vulnerable populations in our society, like the homeless or minorities who are more vulnerable to COVID-19. As a society we are humbled and thankful.
  
  Big Yachty – It is indeed summertime after all and, at least inside ourselves, I hope everyone feels a sense of a little hope and enjoyment of those around us we love. The string line in the track is a homage to 70’s soul jams that have influenced me and a lot of the bands I’ve played with, especially in New Orleans. Big Yachty also has a few hip-hop elements, but that fat disco/soul beat is what I’m all about. It’s the best medicine sometimes.
  
  The Blues – You know when you go to a super hipster restaurant and the menu items are listed like a “deconstructed” hamburger or whatever? This track is the deconstructed blues, elements musicians in all genres have relied on for decades. It was a good opportunity to sneak in a guitar solo…
  
  Back to Yokohama (Outro) – This is a hopeful track inspired by travel to Japan. The ‘Rona put us all in a state of freeze, like some alien device that caused all humans to stay put. But I know many people, and am one of these people, who have permanent wanderlust. We want to see the world we live in, beyond our borders, to engage with different cultures, food, architecture, music and PEOPLE. What is this life if not to meet those other creatures that inhabit this Earth? We are brothers and sisters and so want to cooperate on a base-level. It is often difficult, but I believe we are One, and music is the shortcut to that path.
  
  So, with that said, I hope you enjoy this brief flight on Fat Beats Airlines Flight ‘86. I wish a deep -peace to you and yours this summer and I hope you find joy in not just music, but all you touch.
  
  
  Trevor C. Jones
  June 18, 2020
  
  
  
  *The term Black music is sometimes contentious because there are SO many stand-alone categories of music (see below) that can be identified this way. I use the term to pay respect to the many influences we as a global music community benefit from every time we pick up an instrument or sing; the term includes the music genres of the African diaspora, including Afro-Caribbean music, Afro-Latino music, Afro-Brazilian music and African American music. These genres include spiritual[1], gospel, rumba, blues[2], bomba, jazz, salsa, R&B, samba, rock and roll, calypso, soul, cumbia, funk, ska, reggae[3], dub reggae, house, detroit techno, hip hop, gqom, afrobeat, funk carioca, country, and others. ... more
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