Photo taken by the author from the East St. Louis side of the Mississippi River
My time in St. Louis (Fall 1995 – January 1998) was a musically productive period. While there, in addition to hearing a number of truly-great, visiting jazz-artists, I was actively practicing, composing, and recording. All but one of the recordings included below were composed by me while living in St. Louis.
It has never been easy for me to envision names to attach to pieces that I write (the “rose by any other name syndrome,” I guess…). Therefore, I often have named new sketches by using the date on which I first played them. These poor, near-orphan entities have only dates as names and were stored in a folder on my hard-drive named, “Dated Only.” They need names!
Thanks in advance for helping to name “the nameless.”
Click on the mp3 player to play
Title
mp3 Audio
Notes
Oct. 22, 1995
Audio recorded 2013. Uses Yamaha MU-100, only. Sax, flute, and combinations of these as ensembles.
Jan. 9, 1997
Audio recorded 2013. Uses Yamaha MU-100, only. Another sax ensemble.
Feb. 27, 1997
Audio recorded 2013. Uses Yamaha MU-100, only. Chiffy, breathy flute melody, piano, bass, and percussion. Another minor sketch.
Jun. 29, 1997
Audio recorded 2013. Ivory Bosendorfer piano and MU-100 bass duet.
Nov. 11, 1997
Audio recorded 2013. Ivory Bosendorfer piano, MU-100 nylon-string guitar melody, and bass.
Mar. 3, 1998
Audio recorded 2013. Kurzweil PC3K8, only. Celeste, piano, ensemble strings, acoustic guitar, and bass. Old “Site Theme” that automatically played on an ancient version of this site.
Feb. 23, 2008
Audio recorded 2008. Ivory German grand-piano, Synful Orchestra solo-violin and cello, and Yamaha MU-100 bass.
There is a long story and associated history that describe “why the blues are called the blues.” I previously thought that “the blues” had some connection to the color, blue. I wondered why the blues are not called “the reds” or some other color-reference. During my research for this post concerning Duke Ellington’s song, “Mood Indigo,” I discovered my misconception of what the color, indigo-blue actually is. I found that there are several different colors that rightfully claim to be Indigo.
My arrangement of Mood Indigo features an introductory and final chorus that are intended to approximate (OK, imitate…) Duke Ellington’s 1933 arrangement. Recurrent piano noodling and rhythmic chords are Synthogy Ivory’s Italian Grand. Both choruses feature an instrumental trio with two muted trombones and accompanying saxophone (and, sometime alto/bass clarinet). This particular voicing with the trombones higher in pitch than the saxophone, is characteristic of several Ellington arrangements. The chorus trombones, sax, and acoustic bass instruments are all produced by instruments from the Garritan Jazz And Big Band Sound Library. A Garritan alto clarinet verse follows the introductory chorus. The next verse features Yamaha MU100R VL (modeled) trumpet and trombone. The final chorus uses the same instruments as the initial chorus.
I have played many other Ellington tunes over the years. Hopefully this will be the first of a successions of recordings of the other Ellington tunes I love.
“ Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans and miss it each night and day? ”
I have been a fan of the song “Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?” for many years. I miss New Orleans – but, I’m certain I haven’t missed it like nearly half of its residents who were forced to leave the city after Hurricane Katrina (August, 2005). It was not until the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that I began to really understand how many persons were missing New Orleans. I knew then that I wanted to record this song.
My arrangement features solo trumpet, clarinet (sometimes, two clarinets), trombone (sometimes, two trombones), piano, and acoustic bass. It starts with the seldom-heard bridge section followed by two repeats of the single verse. The melody is regularly passed back-and-forth between the trumpet and clarinet who are panned to opposite sides of the stage.
The trumpet is a single Synful Orchestra trumpet. The clarinet is Kurzweil PC3K8 “Solo Clarinet.” Trombone is Alesis Ion. Piano is Synthogy Ivory. Bass is PC3K8 “Acoustic Bass. I had hoped to find a vocalist to record at least one of the verses. My favorite choice has become hard to engage. I still hope to (eventually) re-record this with a vocal part.
The iMovie-made video is intended to support the music. All but one of the images that I used in the animation are versions of Google Images of New Orleans architecture that I vectorized (“Trace Bitmap”) in the Inkscape SVG editor/program. One image is my tracing of an original, numbered (61/2500) Luttrell print, named “New Orleans” that was a gift to me.
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