Mark Davenport

In “Sea of Hope,” the still of a cricket-filled evening falls from the heavens. We’ve gone “down to the water, where it all begins,” and hear the sound of the babbling brook in the forest, on a dark summer’s night. Another variation of the “piano/time motive” enters, this time more gently… giving time to reflect, time to get “my feet back on the ground.” As “Sea of Hope” observes, you can “lose yourself in time:” relentless, never-ceasing time. The song questions life… the uncertainty… “Never knowing where your future may lie, you learn to live with fate” … and you are dreaming again, this time, of “a place without tears.”

In the original version of this song I was stuck on this “merry-go-round” of life and couldn’t get off. Over a quarter of a century later I have come to better understand life’s ups and downs, and learned to never lose faith, to never lose hope. These are the new words I added to the song, and that I used to dedicate the album… “to all of the courageous and beautiful women who have battled breast cancer.”

This new version also includes two added solo sax sections, carved out with Andy Snitzer’s sax playing in mind (having known Andy from working together in NY throughout the 80s). Andy’s style is as uplifting and “hopeful” as any sax player I know and it was inspiring to reconnect with him again for this project, after so many years.