'The Light of Common Day' is a duo album recorded live at Ottawa's "The Record Centre" (by Robert Chapman). It is a wam musical conversation between two old friends.

Here are the liner notes written by Allan Wigney :

“Are we moving on?” the pianist asks.

It is a chilly December evening and all is quiet on Wellington Street West, save for the sweet sounds emanating from a storefront. Passersby – and there are not many – pause and peer, taking a moment to discern a familiar melody. It may be cold outside, but there is time for the warmth of something timeless.

As timeless as the pairing of piano and saxophone, of a standard and a touch of improvisation, of Brian Browne and Peter Woods. The veteran musicians have forged a strong partnership through years of live performances and a pair of fine albums. Browne brings to the table over five decades spent at the forefront of Canada’s jazz scene. Woods, the comparative youngster, has lent his talents to everything from Dixieland combos to gospel choirs.

Browne will shortly celebrate 80 years spent in this world. Woods, an ordained minister, spends much of his time talking-up the next one. On this night, as the musicians run through a selection of standards, those worlds join together in song.

The familiar tune is Duke Ellington’s In a Sentimental Mood, and Browne sets that mood by going it alone for the first half before welcoming sympathetic, serpentine sax from Woods. These are seasoned players engaged in a musical embrace.

And as the last sentimental chord fades into the December air, the pianist glances over at the saxophonist and a characteristically brief exchange ensues.

“Are we moving on?”
“Yes.”
“What are we moving on to?”
“Blues.”

With that, Browne introduces a restrained Blue Moon, a tune he has no doubt served up hundreds and perhaps thousands of times prior to this relaxed session. This time, however, is different.

More accurately, each time is different. That is the essence of jazz. And jazz is the essence of Brian Browne. Seated at the upright in the doorway of a record store, he allows himself to be lost in the music, as he has been for most of his 79 years. Woods is in step with the pianist throughout, as each anticipates and reacts to the other. Few words are exchanged over the course of the evening; yet, the conversation is as playful as the playing is conversational.

That is apparent as the veterans cue each other for one more serenade to an empty record store. As Robert Chapman monitors the proceedings, rolling tape and offering feedback, the room full of music is filled with complementary sounds.

Blue Moon steps lightly through the ears. There is no audience. But one need not close one’s eyes to be transported to a smoky jazz club of yore. One need only listen. Take, for example, Browne’s free-form solo on what will be this album’s opening track. The pianist is in the moment, focusing not on fingers but on feel.

The pair work their way through a number of tunes, taking one or perhaps two passes at each before moving on. Ellington comes to Wellington as on this night Duke’s Place is transported to Hintonburg, Ottawa, Canada.

“Do I play an old-fashioned chord, or just a chord?” Browne asks at one point, as another Ellington number is considered.

A tricky one, that. When is a chord just a chord?

Over the course of this disc’s eight numbers, you’ll encounter new-fashioned imaginings of a clutch of Ellington classics – from a melancholy Come Sunday to a spritely Mood Indigo – as well as of course Blue Moon and a reverent I Remember Clifford, Benny Golson’s tribute to Clifford Brown.

Then there is The Light of Common Day, an original blues that allows Woods in particular to step forward and shine. The title, a Wordsworth phrase, is a nod to troubled tenor saxman Gene Ammons, the influential player whose life was cut tragically short at age 49. The track, like I Remember Clifford, is a fitting homage to legends of jazz, made that much stronger by having a local jazz legend at the keys.

At the session, as that new/old-fashioned tune draws to a close, Browne offers a critique.

“There was some nonsense and some good stuff,” he suggests.

Without further discussion, the players launch into a second take. This time, there is no nonsense. Or, to quote the pianist, “That was kind of nice.”

It was. It is. And if we must now move on, let us ever move on up.



Blue Moon (Rodgers/Hart)
The Light of Common Day (Woods/Browne)
In a Sentimental Mood (Ellington)
Come Sunday (Ellington)
Mood Indigo (Ellington/Bigard)
Don’t Get Around Much Anymore (Ellington)
I Got It Bad (Ellington)
I Remember Clifford (Golson)

Peter Woods tenor and soprano saxophone
Brian Browne piano

Robert Chapman recording engineer
Philip Shaw Bova mix and master
John Thompson executive producer
Recorded live at The Record Centre, Ottawa, ON

"the many shades and moods of living" (Jack Kirkland)

Peter Woods and Brian Browne perform classic songs from the jazz repertoire, creating a sound both earthy and transcendent with Woods providing lyrical interpretations against the lush harmonic backdrop drawn by Browne. Brian Browne is one of the leading jazz pianists in Canada today and a national musical treasure. Peter Woods is a
gifted saxophonist and collaborator/arranger, as well as a United Church minister in Smiths Falls, Ontario. They have worked together for many years, creating musical chemistry that is intense and generous, touring their Jazz in Sacred Spaces show across Canada.

Since the release of their first disc Testimony, the duo has been in demand for concerts regionally and nationally. With their new collection, Honest Company, being released in May, 2013, their elegant and spontaneous sound will continue to connect with audiences across the country.

Original Liner Notes:

“There’s no place like home."

Everybody comes home sometime. The homes we discover are not always in the places or with the people we expect. But there are times in our lives when we know with certainty that we belong exactly where we are.

Coming Home is our attempt to reflect in musical terms the many shades and moods that we experience as we find the places where we “fit.” Most of the songs evolve during a musical road trip Peter Dent and I played in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island in May and June of 2004. To those who welcomed us into their homes, pubs, and churches and to those who shared their musical talents with us, we thank you and dedicate this disc to you.

From “Goin’ Home To Lonesome Town” to “Go to Dark Gethsemane”, the CD has a spiritual theme running throughout. There is a musical story of a sacred presence on the paths all of us travel. Peter Dent and I have drawn on the traditions and sources that have defined us individually and as a duet: jazz standards, pop songs, original compositions, and the ever-powerful melodic world of hymns and spirituals.

In this our second CD, the duet setting allows us to have direct musical conversations (piano and saxophone) with each other as the various songs unfold. We owe a conceptual debt to the great Archie Shepp/Horace Parlan duet recordings, “Trouble in Mind” and “Goin’ Home” as benchmarks for the conversational jazz we strove to create on Coming Home.

Peter Woods

1. Goin’ Home to Lonesome Town
2. Saved Paradise, Tore up a Parking Lot
3. Go Down Moses
4. Dorothy
5. Lament for a Queen
6. St. Agnes (Here O My Lord)
7. On Eagles Wings
8. Jesus Loves Me
9. A Time for Every Purpose
10. My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean
11. Someone to Watch Over Me
12. Sweet Suzanne
13. Redhead No. 76 (Go to Dark Gethsemane