Jazz musician Dan Sullivan and Friends performed at the Cape Cod Cultural Center in South Yarmouth, MA, on Saturday, February 27, at 7:30 pm. A gifted and versatile musician, Sullivan writes and produces music, and performs on both sax and flute. He was joined by Cape favorites Alan Clinger on guitar and Rod McCaulley on bass in an evening of jazz, including selections from Sullivan’s newly-released CD, Cape Cod Magic. Clinger and McCaulley collaborated with Sullivan on the CD. Admission is $12 ($10 for members).
In Cape Cod Magic’s cycle of ten songs, Sullivan pours out lilting flute melodies and smooth saxophone lines that evoke the magical spell that seaside summers hold on us all year long. Through musical textures that vary with the seasons, the gifted musician tells stories of summer as it is experienced in the moment, even as it begins to wane (A la Carte, Christmas Shells, Almost Rain), but also as it is anticipated in the spring (the title song Cape Cod Magic, Gettin’ There, and First Morning), and ultimately transformed into the darkness, cold, and quiet of a summer resort’s off-season (P’town Winter). As winter inevitably yields again to spring, Cape Cod Magic is essentially a cycle of interconnected songs inspired by the iconic American seaside vacation, and likely to touch the emotions of anyone who has experienced its joys.
Sullivan, who has been composing music for as long as he can remember, selected eight original songs from the many that his long-time Cape Cod connections have inspired. Two jazz standards complement the original pieces. Sullivan’s sax conjures up with ease Burton Lane and E.Y.Harburg’s bewitching Old Devil Moon, along with the rich emotions of summer. Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Wave speaks words of love with images of the sea, and Sullivan’s captivating sax rendition very nearly croons the song’s rhythmically perfect lyrics, “the fundamental loneliness goes whenever two can dream a dream together.”
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