Willis captures Satie's brilliance while overcoming a major obstacle of taking classical compositions and arranging them with standard jazz treatments, free jazz, and bluesy rock interpretations. On The Satie Project's opening track, "Second Gymnopedie," Willis transforms the piece into a jazz sextet arrangement, emulating the essential Satie theme of childlike playfulness - a theme found in several of Satie's works. Many Satie compositions are also dedicated to close friends and family. The "Second Gymnopedie" is for his brother Conrad. The brotherly interplay is immediately felt by Willis playing soprano saxophone and Chuck MacKinnon on flugel horn. He simply states the melody in unison, and then jumps into improvisations with accompaniment by the guitar trio plus accordion, which adds a hint of French flavor.
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