Night Visions
A Groove to Some…A Nightmare to Others
Today was one of those lovely “Boy, I didn’t see THAT one coming!” days. I just LOVE when they happen…albeit when they happen with GOOD news…you dig? It was certainly the best of all things today though… I was tagged into an amazing FaceBook post by Michael “Mickle” Miller: the great composer, arranger, and producer. It was a video post showing off the amazing skills of the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars under the direction of the legendary Paul Contos. What almost made me jump out of my chair and inspired the aforementioned “Didn’t see THAT one coming!” moment was when they played a snippet of a piece that I wrote back in 1987 for the UNT One O’Clock Lab Band, when I was a Masters student fresh off the road with the legendary Maynard Ferguson and playing lead trombone in the band.
And THAT in turn has inspired this wee treatise where I feel the need to talk about the chart and where it came from…as well as creating another opportunity to heap effusive and well-deserved awe and praise on the SFJ All Stars, and their fearless leader, Paul! And I am forever grateful to Michael for posting the video that reminded me of Paul’s great ensemble and turned me on to Levi Farrar, an incredible young lead trumpet rising star that Michael mentors. This ensemble of unbelievably talented high school students played the daylights out of this advanced university-level music! And this ol’ composer-trombonist was honored beyond belief to hear them do so.
And so it goes…
The Origin of the Night Visions
Here’s the origin story of the piece of music that the SFJAZZ High School All Stars played so very well. First off, the chart’s title is “Night Visions” plural, rather than “night vision” as in the hip device that allows military folks to see in the dark.
“Night Visions.”
Sounds ominous, no? It is INDEED ominous, yes.
There is a condition that often occurs in teenagers and younger children of trauma–of which I certainly qualified back in the day–where they experience a nightmare so intense that it causes them to leap out of a DEEP sleep with the horror-dream still fully visible and masquerading as real life! Known more commonly as “night terrors” here’s how WIKI describes it:
OY! I know, right?!
During my early teenage years as I suggested earlier, I went through a series of very difficult and traumatic events connected with the divorces of my parents (handled VERY badly, BTW) and my mother’s remarriage to a very broken and sick abusive man (even WORSE!) Since this isn’t a memoire and is actually a discussion of one of my compositions, no need to break out “the world’s smallest violin” for li’l Stevie and his siblings right now, suffice to say those years were BLEAK. But as is often the case, I guess it made me into the man I am today. That is to say, a raving over-the-top LUNATIC! …but I digress 😛
At the time I wrote this piece, I was originally considering the title “Night Terrors” but switched it to “Visions” at the last minute. Somehow it seemed more poetic, perhaps biblical? Dunno.
But at the time as mentioned earlier (1986–87 school year) I was studying at the University of North Texas and surrounded by some of the greatest musicians in the world, and also one of the top jazz faculties on the planet. Included in this amazing league of professors was Neil Slater, a seriously gifted composer, pianist, and educator. At the time, he was Chair of the Jazz Studies program, and Director of the One O’Clock Lab Band. I was absolutely enthralled with his writing and had arranged a semester of private composition study with him. What an education THAT was! Remember, these were still the tactile analog years. When I came in to Neil’s office he asked:
“So, what are you writing, Steve”
I answered, “I’ve started this fun piece that I’m calling “Night Visions” here is the score.”
Neil replied, play if for me on piano.”
I replied “Huh?” (yeah, I had a way with words even back then😛)
Neil insisted that everyone express themselves FULLY on the keyboard. I had–at best– average “arranger chops” on piano, but heroically tried my best to pound out the score for the great man. As I did so, he would stop me and say… “Ok, put this finger here…that’s the flute. And now this finger there…that’s the bass trombone.” Cue the sound of angels singing folks, it was epiphany time in Wiestworld! And so it went, Neil took all of my ideas and helped me to take them to a whole new level of jazz sophistication that I am STILL mining to this day. What a joy.
Nearing completion of the piece (now chockablock with ultra-hip Neil-isms and Bob Brookmeyer-isms) I wanted some kind of crazy trumpet feature moment. Because…well, I gotta be ME! At that time the great Mike Williams who went on to play lead with the Count Basie band for 30 years was in the section and I wanted to have fun with THAT set of crayons. I was also inspired in those days by the writing of Greg Hopkins who famously penned the original “Waltz of The Mushroom Hunters” for the Buddy Rich Band on the epic album “Roar of ‘74”. I heard what Greg did with the trumpets there (3:47 mark) and said…YES! I’ll take some of THAT please. Also being a huge fan of Bill Chase and his epic band, I added some of that spice as well. And considering that I had soloists Brad Leali (alto) and Todd Davidson (trumpet) to work with as well as Dan Wojciechowski, on drums it was…GAME ON!
And now as Paul Harvey used to say… “You know the REST of the story”
And here is the amazing rendition by the Mighty SFJAZZ High School Spring 2026 All Stars:
