Music
Jay has been playing and composing music for longer than he cares to remember, on keyboards and trumpet, in brass bands, dance bands, Dixieland and modern jazz bands, rock bands, blues bands and as a soloist in bars and restaurants in Australia and the Philippines. Here are some of his compositions.
There is music everywhere on a coral reef—in the constant movements of fish; in the shapes, colors and contours of the corals; in the darkness of caves and the brightness of moonlight, in dangers seen and unseen. Reef songs need no words.
These reef songs are Jay’s improvised, spontaneous expressions of life in and around coral reefs derived from more than 40 years of diving and snorkeling around the tropics, and painting portraits of fish and reef scenes. In nearly all the songs, Jay plays what comes into his head, thinking of the dynamics of an underwater scene. No retakes or corrections. However, a bass track has been added to some to enhance their moods.
Moonlight on my hands
This melody came into my head while snorkeling over a moonlit coral reef late one night. I turned off my flashlight and became fascinated by the pattern of the moonlight on my hands and across the reef. By stirring the water, I could make many stars appear, not from the reflected sky but from the myriad plankton drifting by.
Lionfish
Lionfish are stealth hunters. Slowly, they close in on their prey with their big fins fully extended like a net to stop it from escaping. Suddenly, the lionfish gulps and the prey has disappeared, sucked into the lionfish’s huge mouth. I left spaces in the music when they lunged and killed. I played the music on a keyboard in one take as I thought about them, leaving spaces when they lunged and killed. After, I added strings to heighten the tension.
Anilao reefs
The reefs around Anilao in the Philippines are full of colorful hard and soft corals and small fish. The closer you observe these reefs, the more color and variety you find, hundreds of species of fish, and of corals and other marine creatures.
Polka Dots and Parrotfish
Imagine fish that swim the way birds fly—flapping their fins like wings. That’s how parrotfish cruise around the reef, biting at the corals with their parrot-like teeth as they go. The whole song was again one thought, one take, and a bass added later.
Dangerous reefs
Here, I recalled through my fingers the wonders and perils of a dive. It could be an underwater tour of almost any coral reef. Everywhere there is beauty and danger. The reef can draw you down and down; suddenly it may be too late to return safely to the surface.
Hermit Crab Crush
Doodling on the piano, a bass line reminded me of hermit crab trails that you can see on tropical beaches. Some kinds of these crabs live out of the water and fossick for food among the rocks when the tide recedes and even on dry land. When touched they withdraw into their shell (where the music stops) and when the danger has passed, swagger off (the bass solo).
Shy butterfly(fish)
‘Shy Butterflies’ was the only way to describe these portraits of butterflyfish I painted some time ago. Looking at them, I thought “you look so lonely” and those words formed the tune, short and bitter sweet.
Ebb and Flow
n the reef shallows, the swell ebbs and flows gently among the corals; small fish swim in and around them, risking the waves but safe from larger predator fish that cannot enter. In this song, I let my hands lose themselves as I played my visions of a wave-washed reef over the background swell.
Jeepers Sweepers
Tiny sweeper fish huddle together in hundreds and move in wavy masses among and under the corals. I imagined them doing underwater ballets and making bursts this way and that in a single take. Then I recorded a second, also spontaneous, track to accentuate the crowding and movement.
Moonlight on the Other Hand
I enjoyed the moonlit reef scene so much I wanted to relive it all over again through a second version of the song. I hope you find the same enjoyment in these interpretations of life on coral reefs—reef songs.