Duke Ellington (Arr

chamber muSic northweSt clarinet QuintetS for our time DaviD Shifrin, clarinet Dover Quartet • harlem Quartet Duke ellington (arr. DaviD Schiff): Ducal Suite DE 3576 chriS rogerSon: thirty thouSanD DayS valerie coleman: Shotgun houSeS 1 DE DE 3576 E E E DE DE 3576 E E E CLARINET QUINTETS FOR OUR TIME DAVID SHIFRIN, clarinet DE ET DAD ) D 1 thm D tet E D 1 D tet VEE E 1 Shot v ome tet T ● ● DAD DAD DAD DAD chamber muSic northweSt clarinet QuintetS for our time Duke Ellington (arr. David Schiff): Ducal Suite (18:45) * 1. Clarinet Lament (3:35) 2. Air-Conditioned Jungle (3:32) 3. Heaven (6:27) 4. Kinda Dukish/Rockin’ in Rhythm (5:04) Chris Rogerson: Thirty Thousand Days (17:34) * 5. Quasi una danza (4:22) 6. Prestissimo, con sordino (4:32) 7. Quasi una ciacona (8:40) Valerie Coleman: Shotgun Houses (19:12) # 8. Shotgun Houses (5:34) 9. Grand Avenue (6:15) 10. Rome (7:23) David Shifrin, clarinet Dover Quartet* Joel Link, Bryan Lee, violin; Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; Camden Shaw, cello Harlem Quartet # Ilmar Gavilan, Melissa White, violin; Jaime Amador, viola; Felix Umansky, cello Total Playing Time: 55:37 2 Duke Ellington, Ducal Suite one-movement concertos, and they display the very different styles of the dward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington clarinetists. Barney Bigard was from New (1899–1974) was one of the greatest Orleans and was a follower of Sidney Ecomposers of the twentieth centu- Bechet. Like Bechet, he played with con- ry. His vast oeuvre includes a long list siderable vibrato and could bend pitches of jazz standards, popular songs, sym- up and down to give the music emotion- phonic works, movie scores, sacred mu- al intensity. Ellington subtly hinted at the sic and a ballet. In the fall of 2015 Reed New Orleans setting of “Barney’s Con- College hosted the 23rd International certo” (his alternative title) by basing the Duke Ellington Study Group Conference, middle section on the harmonic changes attracting scholars and experts from of “Basin Street Blues.” around the globe to a celebration of the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Stray- Jimmy Hamilton replaced Bigard in the horn. A high point of the conference Ellington Orchestra in 1943 (when Bigard was a concert featuring clarinetist David joined Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars). He Shifrin and pianists Darrell Grant and brought a more modern approach to the Matt Cooper. For this event I arranged instrument, strongly influenced by Ben- four Ellington pieces for clarinet and pi- ny Goodman. Air-Conditioned Jungle is ano. The concert attracted an overflow modern with a vengeance, updating the audience to Kaul Auditorium; afterward “jungle” style that Ellington deployed at David Shifrin asked me to re-score the the Cotton Club in the 1920s, to the more work so he could perform it with the dissonant idiom of bebop, and beyond. Dover String Quartet, and so my Ducal Some sections dispense with harmonic Duo was reborn as the Ducal Suite. “changes” altogether, forecasting the free jazz and modal jazz styles of the 1960s. The first two movements of the suite, Clarinet Lament (1936) and Air-Con- Ellington composed the song Heaven for ditioned Jungle (1946) are tributes to his Second Concert of Sacred Music, Ellington’s two great clarinetists, Barney which premiered at the Cathedral of Saint Bigard and Jimmy Hamilton. Elling- John the Divine in New York in 1968. The ton composed these two pieces as original soloists were the Swedish sopra- 3 no Alice Babs and alto saxophonist John- by his enthusiasm for this seemingly ny Hodges; the latter’s sound defined the random day, I came to realize the value Ellington Orchestra from 1928 right up to of looking at life from a broader per- his death in 1970. In this arrangement, I spective. Thirty Thousand Days explores have tried to translate the extraordinary this idea of life’s three stages. styles of both of these performers to the language of the clarinet. In the first movement, I try to evoke the joy, innocence and sweetness of youth. Ducal Suite concludes with one of The second movement depicts strug- Ellington’s earliest hits, Rockin’ in gle, coldness and fury. Finally, the last Rhythm, first recorded in 1931. Elling- movement imagines acceptance, resig- ton often prefaced performances of this nation, loss and love. In each movement, song with a later piece, “Kinda Dukish,” I constantly change the musical material and I have followed this precedent so that no motive or moment is ever re- in this arrangement, which might be peated; it is always evolving. While we termed a jazz rondo. may have memories, we can never again — David Schiff truly experience how things were. Commissioned by Chamber Music North- Chris Rogerson, Thirty Thousand Days west and premiered by David Shifrin and the Dover Quartet in 2017, Thirty Thirty Thousand Days was composed Thousand Days is dedicated to my fa- in the first half of 2017. My father, ever ther, Peter Rogerson. the statistician, prefers to think of life —Chris Rogerson as a 30,000-day journey, divided into three equal stages. When my sister and I reached our 10,000th days soon after Valerie Coleman, Shotgun Houses turning 27, he excitedly called to make sure we knew the milestone we had Shotgun Houses is a tribute to the life reached. With a sharp memory he re- of Muhammed Ali, a man who carried counted stories of his own 10,000th and the pride of West Louisville, KY, with 20,000th days. While we were amused him everywhere, throughout his career. 4 Ali was a role model to me, as someone nerable, sweet sound. Ali wanted to give who also grew up in West Louisville, so his mother a better life than what Grand the work also celebrates his early be- Avenue could provide, so the melody ginnings in our beloved neighborhood. evokes a tenderness that is supported by harmonic shifts in the string quartet, rem- The first movement, Shotgun Houses, is iniscent of Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday. a sketch of the neighborhoods of West Louisville in the 1950s. Inspiration came The final movement, Rome 1960, begins from observing photos and tracing the with a young Cassius Clay, Jr. training path to get to Ali’s childhood home on with a boxing bag, as shown through Grand Avenue from my own childhood the rapid repetitive rhythm between cel- home just blocks away. The beginning is a lo and viola. The clarinet part is meant to nod to Southern life, the vocal drawl, and unapologetically boast like Ali during his the design of shotgun houses all lined up workout sessions when the news cam- in a row. Soon the music becomes punc- eras came to visit. The second section tuated and the clarinetist’s upper register depicts Cassius Clay at the Olympics and is prominently featured, symbolizing the his gold-medal match against European bold personalities that all West Louisville champion Zbigniew Pietryzkowski. The children learn early on: to verbally boast bell “dings” loudly through the combi- and tease one another as a part of play- nation of clarinet attack and strings’ piz- ing in the streets. The music ends gently zicato, to begin the first round, in which with a dark reminiscence from the mod- Pietryzkowski dominates. The bell dings ern-day blight of the neighborhood. again for the second round, bringing about unpredictable swings and punch- Ali’s home on Grand Avenue titles the es that jump out of the texture to show second movement, and is a love ballad to a more heated clash between the box- his mother. In my research, every photo ers, who are evenly matched for that of Ali with his mother shows a kiss or em- round. As the bell dings for the end of brace. The clarinet is once again mostly the round, Clay has an introspective mo- within the upper register, but gone now ment that digs up the desire to show ev- is the brassy, larger-than-life, dominating eryone what he already knows: he is the sound, replaced with an intimate, and vul- champion. And with the bell, Clay revs 5 up the intensity of punches, culminating improvisation and orchestration, which in a triumphant win. often took into account the personal style of the performers in his orchestra. Elling- I dedicate this to my neighborhood, ton leaves a lasting legacy and he contin- Ali’s neighborhood of West Louisville. ues to influence performers and compos- May his life remind us of the greatness ers well into the twenty-first century. we are all capable of achieving. — Valerie Coleman Born in 1945, composer, conductor, ar- ranger and author David Schiff holds degrees from Columbia and Cambridge Duke Ellington grew up in Washington, Universities and from the Manhat- D.C., and began to play piano profes- tan School of Music and the Juilliard sionally at age School. His compositions include op- seventeen. The orchestra (or “big band”) that he formed in- cluded several jazz greats; El- lington gained national fame when his orchestra began playing at the Cotton Club in Harlem in 1927. Worldwide success and recognition soon followed. During his long career, Ellington wrote more than one thousand compositions and recorded more than two hundred al- bums; his recordings show his genius for 6 era, orchestral works, chamber music, and choral and sacred music. Schiff’s music draws on many influences, in- cluding classical, jazz, klezmer, and Broadway show tunes. He writes, “If you grow up in America you hear many different kinds of music; but much of the music being played in New York when I was a student was closing itself off from those other forms.

Load more