VWR

My grandfather’s name was Virgil Wilder Rice.

I wrote this tune the day that he died.

To me, he was one of the greatest people to ever live and i could never do justice to any of the stories about him.

click here to hear it:  VWR

Here is the lead sheet:

Theoretically, i don’t have much to share about this one.  When i wrote it, i was in college and really into Monk.

I heard from one of my instructors about Monk writing major blues tunes sometimes.

I also was just beginning to understand about chord substitutions, and how Bartok used harmony.

I misunderstood both of those things at the time and this tune came out of that combined misunderstanding.

That is a beautiful thing.