New Release: Life Got in the Way from Heather McKay

 

New Release:  Life Got in the Way from Heather McKay
Label:  Self-Released
Release Date:  September 26, 2025
Website:  www.heathermckaymusic.com

Guitarist-composer Heather McKay's latest offering, Life Got In The Way, is a collection of Latin jazz compositions written over the past twenty years.  Each piece is inspired by a place, a person, or a moment in McKay's life that affected her profoundly.  The arrangements flow without being restrained by conventional time signatures.  The varying rhythms cause the instruments to sound disjointed like in "Boo," as the musicians move in harmony with one another, exchanging complementing remarks and lively responses at their own time signature.  The soothing atmosphere of "Narraguagus Bay" is spiked by McKay's searing guitar riffs, giving the track depth and character, and singed by Peter Fraize's churning sax as it moves through the melodic progression.  The samba groove underlining "The Playground" holds the robust conversation among the instruments together.  McKay describes in the liner notes that the track is inspired by a family reunion when "Three new additions had been added to the family. They were all three toddlers and at various stages of talking... The conversations between them were fascinating as the subject or direction would change at the drop of a hat... Many times, they were all three talking at once. I tried to represent these conversations with this composition."  She successfully does so.  This is a recurring theme throughout McKay's project, representing different voices and combining them into a multi-faceted family, sharing the experience with the listener.

 

Musicians:

Heather McKay – guitar
Leonardo Lucini – bass
Leland Nakamura – drums
Campbell Charshee – keyboard
Peter Fraize - saxophone
Bruno Lucini – percussion