As a working musician, I often need to take on gigs doing cocktail parties, weddings, etc. On one such occasion, I played at a private party in a ritzy condo in Toronto. One of the guests at this party was a once-prominent Canadian television personality. She was smoking up a storm and tipsy to say the least. Throughout the evening, she insisted on singing along with my casual background music and talking my ear off on bullshit affairs while I was trying to play.
This weird episode inspired a weird piece, "Penthouse". It's made up of 2 themes that are the polar opposite of each other: 1. a personally self-gratifying high-tempo/energetic idea that has an improv. feel to it, and 2. loungy, laid back jazz mocking those lengthy and not so memorable evenings.
- Frank Horvat
