As far back as the 1990s, the trombone section occasionally performed in schools and churches through the SLSO’s outreach program. With limited repertoire available that was appropriate for these situations, Tim, along with former Second Trombone Roger Davenport, began writing occasional arrangements for these performances. These performances were fun for us, but back then, we were always a trombone section playing a special event. 

However, with Jonathan’s arrival in the orchestra in 2006, we began to dream of becoming our own band. In the process of preparing to record what would eventually become 4.1, we became a chamber ensemble.

We spent endless hours in Steve’s basement rehearsing, talking about the music, matching our sounds, lengths of notes, shapes of phrases, and going off on tangents (at one point, we thought of calling our group “Tangent”). For 4.1, we believed strongly in all of the pieces we recorded, but two of those pieces, Tim’s resetting of the Gabrieli Sonata XV “con tre violini” and Conrad Henning’s beautiful transcription of Poulenc’s Four Prayers of St. Francis, began our trend of finding, arranging, or composing our own music.

The title 4.1 symbolized, for us, four musicians coming together for one purpose. If you missed it in 2010, we hope you’ll give it a listen now.