On August 13, 2002, five musicians descended upon Webster University's Music Annex building to record a jam session. Seventeen-year-old drum phenom Tony Royster Jr. was touring the country, doing drum clinics. Scott Jones had established contact with him, and had offered to provide a backup band for him when he arrived in St. Louis. The jam would serve as a testament to the caliber of the players. The recording "Fictional Characters" was the result.

It was a misty night, and the equipment load-in procedure was extensive. Thanks to Steve Schenkel, guitarist and faculty professor at Webster, Scott and I gained access to the Annex building to bring in his guitar equipment, my keyboard gear, and Scott's iMac computer, on which we would record the session.

As saxophonist Bill Elrod, drummer Jeremy Flagg, and bassist Philip Burton arrived, everyone assembled in a half-circle to maximize eye contact. Two members of the Grace tech team, Tom Schneller and Ron Krause, arrived to operate the video camera and assist with audio, respectively.

As the jam began, serious problems arose with the iMac, due to peripherals which had been previously present and were now absent. Fortunately, Scott had also brought his MiniDisc deck, to rough-mix the band before being recorded digitally. Scott pressed "Record", and Jeremy kicked off Wayne Shorter's "Footprints", except in 4/4, and with a funk groove.

This tune wrapped up twelve minutes and forty-two seconds later, at which point Krause had extended his technical skills to repairing the iMac, and ProTools was now the recording platform of choice. The next song was uncharted, a free-form jam which came to be known as "Jam For Tony" (but not until much later). Long, drawn-out solos, and ever-morphing soundscapes made this 20+-minute piece very interesting.

Miles Davis' "All Blues", played once again in 4/4, came next, and fast became a hard-edged blues jam. Philip Burton kicked off the tune, his trademark punchy bass soon accompanied by Scott's wah-wah guitar, my Hammond organ swirls, and Jeremy's slamming drums. Bill finally arrived after the intro, and played an altered head over the changes. Solos were flavorful and diverse throughout.

The final tune was a hard Latin version of "Blue Bossa", which featured an extended drum solo by Jeremy Flagg near the end. I was hard-pressed to keep time in my head as I played the piano clave over Jeremy's furious assault. After this piece concluded, Scott quickly burned the entire 65-minute session to CD, and, five hours later, a few of us headed to Denny's for some late-night hunger satisfaction. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.

The cover art for this CD was designed with a comic-type feel, since the name was rather whimsical in nature, not unlike the Justice League of America. I used the Stop font for the group name, with its futuristic appeal. The "FC" was also Stop, incorporated into the shield for the logo. The Swinger font was used for the album title, so as to stand out against the unearthly look on the rest of the cover.