Verities / Kelly Jocoy

“Jocoy’s own drumming is low-key yet solid throughout this is a man content to lead quietly, providing his friends and sidemen the spotlight. The result is a solid, hugely listenable album of jazz by mostly local players in an environment we don’t always hear them in.”
Jim Trageser
North County Times
December, 2007

Kelly, like myself and bro’ Tripp, John Leftwich, Kevyn Lettau, Rob Schneiderman, Steve Feierabend, Bryant Allard, Mark Lessman, and Bim Strasburg, was a vital member of the Del Mar Jazz Mafia. We didn’t call ourselves that but it’s kind of weird the way this whole handful of folks ended up making music their main thing in life after having grown up in the surf filled forever mellow Del Mar hang zone. It might have made more sense if we all started a surf shop or a yoga studio instead. Maybe it went this way ‘cuz we had tolerant parents that were willing to let their kids gamble big in the jazz as a career arena. It’s good that it worked this way because now our world is filled with some pretty great jazz players spreading the good word.

Kelly lived at 23rd Street in Del Mar right on the beach and he was into music early on, first rock bands and then his natural talent carried him into jazz. He was part of our original Dance of The Universe Orchestra and he was on our first recording You Make Me Want To Sing. We did a lot of gigging back in those days including 5 nights a week for a month straight at the same venue. We only lugged the gear once a week and we complained about it then! Little did we know that it would evolve to today’s situation of a new place, a new setup every week.

Kelly was one of the main players in San Diego and was in bands with Butch Lacy, Hollis Gentry, Mike Wofford, The People Movers, and many others. He did this for fifteen years or so and then decided to change his course and take on the financial mysterioso world of bond investing. He moved to L.A., worked for Citi Bank, started a wonderful family and still kept music in his life. A year or so back he made the decision to put music more on the front burner and with this idea started upping his practice schedule and finally came to me with an idea for a recording project. He brought in his favorite tunes and we talked about some of the musicians that he wanted to collaborate with. All of the elements flowed together and in February 2007 we started the ride in creating Verities. The songs are a mix of straight ahead jazz (Suspone, Lester Left Town, Invitation, and My Romance); new versions of classic rock hits (the Zombies Time of the Season and the Beatles’ And I Love Her); and explorations on a few modern jazz tunes (Metheny’s Facing West, Jaco’s Three Views of a Secret, Ron Carter’s De Samba, and Kenny Garrett’s Tsunami Song). And the final tune on this CD is a wonderful reading of the poem Look To This Day spoken over a classic Rob Schneiderman tune. This is one of my favorite moments on the recording.

Look to this day, for it is life, the very life of life. In its brief course lie all the verities and realities of your existence. The bliss of growth, the glory of action, the splendor of achievement are but experiences of time. For yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision; and today well-lived, makes yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day.

by Kalidasa

Musicians

Kelly Jocoy: drums
Peter Sprague: guitar
Mike Wofford: piano
Darek Oleszkiewicz: bass
Tom Aros: percussion
Tripp Sprague: saxophone and flute
Leonard Patton: vocals
Gary Meek: saxophone

Songs

Suspone – 4:55
Mike Stern

Time Of The Season – 7:12
The Zombies

Facing West – 5:54
Pat Metheny

Lester Left Town – 5:09
Wayne Shorter

Three Views of a Secret – 6:27
Jaco Pastorius

De Samba – 5:57
Ron Carter

And I Love Her – 5:38
Paul McCartney

Invitation – 7:18
Webster/Kaper

Tsunami Song – 4:36
Kenny Garrett

My Romance – 6:13
Rogers & Hammerstein

Dreamin’ / Look To This Day – 4:00
Rob Schneiderman / Sanskrit Proverb

Credits
Produced by: Kelly Jocoy and Peter Sprague
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by: Peter Sprague
Recorded at: SpragueLand Studios, Encinitas, CA
Cover Art by: Rix Graphix