I composed the jazz-rock song “Gregorio” for musician Greg Greenway. In the 1990s, when I was teaching at Nauset Regional High School on Cape Cod, I joined Greg and fellow faculty member and percussionist Lisa Brown to present annual concerts to benefit the Clothesline Project, an organization that addresses issues of domestic violence in our communities. It's a heavy topic, but we sought to keep the fund-raising concerts upbeat and fun. To that end I invented an alter-ego for Greg who I named "Gregorio via Verdi". The real Greg Greenway is a folk-rock singer-songwriter-guitarist-pianist. His alter-ego, Gregorio via Verdi, is a jazz pianist from Rome, Maine which we referred to as the "Home of the Caesar Salad". For Gregorio's first concert appearance Greg dressed in sunglasses, beret and scarf. To our surprise it took many of his longtime fans some time to figure out who he really was! I composed this song for Greg to play on piano during one of the concerts. Some time later I had the great pleasure of recording this song with the Cape Cod Jazz Quintet: Steve Ahern (trumpet), Bruce Abbott (alto sax), Fred Boyle (piano), Ron Ormsby (bass) & Bart Weisman (drums). The track is featured on my album Summer Mood.

Sheet music for this composition is available at the Original Music page. Streaming on all platforms including YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music.