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| New Age Equestrian TJ Martin's 'The Judge at E' features music designed for equine events ____________________ By ROSS BOISSONEAU Record-Eagle features editor _________________________ TRAVERSE CITY -- Whatever the genre--classical, rock, blues, country -- one thing all music has in common is the audience: human beings. TJ Martin's new CD is a bit different, 'The Judge at E' is not only for people but for horses, it is music for dressage (rhymes with massage). Martin was a devotee of the sport which has been called equine ballet for the movements demanded of horse and rider. But one thing always bothered him: The clumsy segues between the pieces of music that were adapted for the event. "I thought I could eliminate that by having original music", he said. So that's what he set out to do. Enlisting a 15 piece ensemble including saxophone, flute, trumpet, keyboards, percussion and his guitar, he composed seven pieces of music. Not only were they meant for dressage, the pieces were composed specifically for individual riders and their mounts, though for the most part they could be adapted for others. "The recording session was done very differently, TJ sat in front of a video (of the horse and rider performing) playing his guitar", said John Knight, owner of Full Circle Recording Studio where the project was recorded. The pieces on 'The Judge at E' run between five-and-a-half and six minutes, with the exception of a catchy 2-minute, 40 second tune called "Samson's Prelude". The music embraces many genres: There is gentle romanticism, sprightly folk, jazzy interludes, even some quasi-flamenco. It holds together surprisingly well as an instrumental, acoustic new age/pop disc. __________________________________________ "Chilled out and floating!!" "Nice mood" Delicious!" "Solid performing" "Quite beautiful" _________________________________________ |
