As the final soft notes of “Gentle Wind and Falling Tear” faded out, the audience erupted into thunderous applause. This gentle bonus track is the ninth song by University of Iowa professor and percussionist Dan Moore featured on his newest album “The Long Way Home.”

Moore performed his latest album at the Voxman Music Building on Dec. 9. Accompanied by students, friends, and videos that included percussion instruments such as drums, marimbas, and xylophones, the performance delivered on spectacle.

Inspired by his long trips between Iowa and his home state of Texas, Moore began composing this album in 2020 — with a little help from his friends.

The production of this album was originally delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but when he finally worked on it, Moore had plenty of ideas.

“I had all these thoughts in my mind about travels and journeys,” Moore said. “The pieces started to come together, which was really cool, and the pieces I selected all had that journeying/traveling type of feeling to them.”

The friends included in his performance were his colleagues, associate professor and clarinetist Jean-François Charles and audio engineer and drummer Christopher Jensen, to name a few. Additionally, the album also paid tribute to Moore’s teachers, mentors, and friends who have died, including Dave Samuels, Richard Schory, and Armando Corea.

Jensen played the drums on two of the album’s songs while Charles played different types of clarinets in a song entitled “Baby Bossa Nova.”

Written by Mike Simpson, “Baby Bossa Nova” was performed by Moore and Charles as a tribute to Moore’s late friend, Schory. Accompanied by an entertaining video of Moore and Charles performing in the studio, it was a bouncy and uplifting piece.

Jensen’s favorite song on the track was “Tell Me a Bedtime Story,” originally composed by Herbie Hancock and arranged by Moore to include more percussion. It was the song that Moore had invited him to play on.

“I really liked Dan’s vision of curating this sort of drive music,” Jensen said. “[This album] captured the feeling of getting in your car after some exciting event and unwinding throughout the drive.”

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“Tell Me a Bedtime Story” was perhaps the most dreamlike song in the whole album. It highlighted a journey we often don’t think about — the journey into the land of sleep.

Performed by Jensen on the drums and Moore on the xylophone, this rhythmic song had audience members bobbing and swaying to the beat. Ending with the twinkling of chimes, you can almost imagine drifting off into sleep.

One of Moore’s students, Ava Chopskie, played the glockenspiel, or bells, in the performance of the opening song “Once a Song is Sung (the song is freed).”

“I’ve been working with him for the past three years,” Chopskie said. “And I was super excited to be a part of [the performance].”

Yet, the song that had audience members smiling was the title track, “The Long Way Home.” A soothing, smooth jazz song that had gentle buildups in intensity, it certainly captured the feeling of embarking on an exciting road trip.

Further emphasizing the idea of a road trip was the video that opened the performance showing a car traveling from Iowa to Texas. Occasionally, the car would pass by signs that contained the words “Hope,” “Friendship” and “Success,” perfectly timed with the buildups in the title track.

With his newest album released on all streaming platforms, Moore hopes it will elicit nostalgia from his listeners.

“I want them to contemplate the concept of the long way home,” Moore said.