After successful dual simultaneous careers in music and software programming, Doug Wyatt’s journey to composing and producing his new album, “Days of Gypsy Nights,” has been circuitous; it has been several decades, with some tangential sojourns, in the making. Powered by a personal crisis during the 2020 pandemic, Doug refocused himself on creating music after a break of almost 15 years.

Deeply influenced by the 1970s “Nordic Fusion” sound of ECM Records of the 1970s and 1980s, Doug prefers his music dark, stark with a strong undertone of emotion. Wyatt submerges his feelings in the deep water of his compositions. These dark passions can creep to the surface of his music like ghostly musical leviathans and then disappear just as quickly. Like other talented pianists before him, Doug has taken an “improvisation first” approach to the creation of his work. This process has been employed by Keith Jarrett, the band Oregon and Joe Zawinul, who are but a few of the artists Doug uses as a touchstone for his own music. It is from improvisation that his pieces have extended forms and are often less “jazz” pieces than classical compositions in their final construction. Interestingly, Doug does not traffic in describing his music in terms of style or genre. He thinks of colors, shapes and textures he wants to hear and then applies them as desired. One of the most important “colors” on this album is string quartet.

Doug Wyatt came of musical age in the fertile, eclectic music scene of Ithaca, New York in the late 1970’s. Two artists who emerged to prominence from Ithaca at that time were noted guitarist and composer David Torn, and Mother Mallard, the electronic vehicle of minimalist composer David Borden, and with whom Doug performed several times. Several fellow musicians from Doug’s Ithaca high school days appear on the album’s title track, “Days of Gypsy Nights”: bassist Tim Reppert, drummer Michael Waldrop, violinist Helene Pohl, and noted saxophonist Michael Rosen. Rosen is featured on four other songs on the album.

Said simply, “Days of Gypsy Nights” is the debut recording of an artist who has spent many decades getting ready for his close-up while keeping far enough away from the spotlight to gather his ideas and to develop his “voice”. Wyatt is a fully mature and developed artist doing his first proper album. We live an age of “instant” stardom where a newcomer wanders out onto a stage and thinks they have “made it.” In the case of Doug Wyatt, he has spent the time, paid his dues and made the hard choices that artists who have something to say make. This is why this recording is both so welcome and an event unto itself. This recording bodes well for Doug’s future musical prospects and for us in the audience who are looking forward to where this dynamic and talented “new” artist wants to take us.