"Winter Fire" - The YYC Music Award Jazz Recording of the Year

Winter Fire is the name I chose for this album, borne from the opening piece that gives it life. The music of Winter Fire is a symbol of the hope that never fades–a flame that persists, tireless and eternal, against an endless landscape of uncertainty, fear, and cold. That hope is the warm light of love, the embrace of home. Its’ pulse, carried by a hypnotic rhythm in 11/8, weaves tension like a thread of fire through the first, before erupting into clarity in the B section, where improvisation finds its voice.

Each piece in this collection is a chapter of my own journey, telling stories that are intimate and unguarded. Fear, solitude, nostalgia, loss, love, the bit of winter, the glow of warmth, and the fragility of uncertainty–all of them are the protagonists that shape the emotional fabric of this album.

–Esteban Herrera