DIW SEAN WAYLAND The Colossus of Rhodes CD available from DIW (Japan) You can also find this CD at www.amazon.com

My new CD "The Colossus of Rhodes" is the 4th album of original compositions I have released under my own name, the previous being Fangin', Stevo (1998) and 99 (2000). For those of you who don't know "The Colossus of Rhodes" is one of the ancient 7 wonders of the world and existed on Greece a very long time ago. A statue of a man whose identity alludes me at this point, it (he) was very large : Apparently after the statue fell down (his knee collapsed) no-one could wrap their arms around any of his fingers. The CD's title was inspired by the recent passing of Harold Rhodes, inventor of the great Fender Rhodes piano. Adding evidence to one prominent Victorian musician's claim that "Sydney is a Jazz-Rock town" an obituary appeared for Harry in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, his death being deemed not newsorthy elsewhere. For this record I have returned largely to the piano trio format. All of the tracks have Jochen Rueckert on Drums and Matt Penman on Bass. On "Indigo Mood" (a distillation of the feeling of numerous "Indigo Girls" compositions) I added Jesse Harris on guitar and overdubbed some Hammond Organ in my home studio. The album was recorded by John Rosenburg at Sound on Sound in Manhattan on March 20 and 21. I did some mixing at Treehouse Studios and also some mixing and mastering at home. I am particularly pleased by the sound of the CD - I think Mr Rosenburg did a wonderful job. The oldest composition is from around 1997 and 5 were written in Australia, the rest New York. If anything this group of tunes reiterates my love of the interval of the 5th, Parralellism as a method of modulation, an interest in long harmonic suspensions (for want of a better description) and my love of popular music. As well as my own compositions I have included a version of the old Standard "Bye Bye Blackbird". It works well at the bright tempo that we played it at (especially with Matt and Jochen!) and it was nice to get to play a tune with no modulations after dealing with my own unfeasable chord changes for a couple of days. I am especially delighted with the way this group has come together for me. I met Matt and Jochen pretty soon after coming to New York in 1999 and we have played together quite often in various groups, led by me and others. It is great to work with musicians who are so brilliant and creative, and who understand my musical concept and absurd sense of humour. With their help (e.g. putting up with me apologising after each take) I feel that I have recorded some of my best piano playing to date, and that the tunes are some of my finest. I am very proud of this CD, I sincerely hope you enjoy it.