Wood and Wire is a family collaboration with a great deal of personal meaning. I wrote it for my father, clarinetist James Campbell. The title refers to the instrumentation of clarinet and piano, which carries many nostalgic associations for me. I grew up hearing a lot of classical clarinet repertoire, but as a kid, my favourite thing to hear my father play was jazz music. He worked with several notable jazz musicians who would later become my teachers and mentors, and each movement is a musical tribute to one of them.

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   The first movement, Blues, is a tribute to my first composition teacher, the great jazz composer and educator David Baker. As a teenager, I was captivated by a clarinet sonata he wrote for my father, also with a movement entitled Blues. The main theme is based on the traditional 12-bar blues form, while the development section becomes more exploratory without leaving the blues language behind.

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   The second movement, Ballad, is a tribute to jazz pianist Gene DiNovi. My father worked closely with Gene for many years, and his playing was one of the earliest inspirations for my own musical path. One of Gene's great gifts as a musician is his ability to play a jazz ballad with an expressiveness unlike anything else I’ve heard.

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   The third movement, Jig, is a tribute to my most important mentor, my father. It features virtuosic clarinet writing and a light-hearted sense of humour that reflects his personality and spirit.

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   I finished the piece on March 7th 2026, which by coincidence (or perhaps not) was the 50th anniversary of the day my mother moved from England to Canada, ultimately to start a family with my dad. The piece is dedicated to her.