Saxophonist Jan Berry Baker and Percussionist Stuart Gerber Perform Of Wells & Springs

Of Wells and Springs takes its title (and the spelling of drouth) from environmentalist Wendell Berry’s poem, Water, from his collection, Farming: A Handbook. The poem tells of a terrible drouth, of the narrator’s mother waiting for men to bring water from distant springs, of his fear of recurring drouth and of his love of the water of ‘wells and springs.’ He closes the poem with the line ‘My sweetness is to wake in the night after days of dry heat, hearing the rain.’ My music responds to the experiences that Berry conveys so vividly—the fear of drouth and its anguish, the joy of rain and its sound, adding the potential danger it carries. Of Wells & Springs was commissioned in consortium with the lead Bent Frequency Duo of saxophonist Jan Berry Baker and percussionist Stuart Gerber as well as saxophonists Nicole M. Roman,  and Drew Whiting, and percussionist/composer Kevin Norton