If you’ve followed this blog at all, you’ve heard about our Musical Millennial. Here’s another of his original jazz compositions, “8:51 a.m.,” performed by the University of Texas Jazz Orchestra on November 15, 2019 under the direction of Professor Jeff Helmer. It is sooooo upbeat and fun. I first mentioned it here when it was performed, because it was live-streamed, but now it has been mixed and released, just uploaded to YouTube last night.
If you’re wondering about the inspiration for the song, here’s what he said in the liner notes for the program when it was performed at Bates Recital Hall in Austin:
8:51 AM is a song inspired by the experience that directly follows the act of waking up at your dorm precisely nine minutes before the start of your first morning class, which you’ve determined from laborious calculation and experimentation throughout the semester to be precisely a ten-minute walk away. I originally wrote the song in the summer of 2018 as the opening track to an album entitled “Brother!” (now available anywhere online!), which I recorded and self-produced in collaboration with my dear friend and longtime collaborator, guitarist Joel White. As time passed following the release of the album, I slowly began to realize how perfectly the tune would fit into a big band idiom, and one year later, I’m excited that it’s finally come to fruition!
Thomas Wenglinski
If you give it a listen, let me know what you think! (I’m bursting with pride, myself.)
I just love jazz.