white cloud blue sky (hommage to john mclaughlin)

i have long been an admirer of the great british born guitarist john mclaughlin. though he is so well versed in a great variety of styles from ‘jazz-rock fusion’ to ‘Indian classical’ the aspect I most admire about him (apart from his thrilling speed) is his rhythmic agility. ‘white cloud blue sky’ grew out of my love of one of his quieter pieces ‘zakir’ from the album ‘making music’. originally i wanted to write a piece which mirrored the mood created in ‘zakir’ but after writing the slower melodic idea I continued to expand the music incorporating little quotes and references from john’s early work from miles davis’ beautiful ‘in a silent way.’ technically the most interesting aspect of ‘white cloud blue sky’ is the use of right hand ‘arpeggio’ patterns to produce scale-like phrases by using cross-string patterns. this enables the player to produce very fast phrases using (perhaps) an easier method than the typical ‘imim’ right hand pattern. this piece grew from an improvisation so please do feel free to experiment and treat it in the way a ‘jazz’ musician might.