 |
|
|
"Rhapsodies"
Anthony Brown's Orchestra (2005)
"Some
80 years after Gershwin first brought jazz into the concert
hall, Brown is attempting something equally ambitious —
inviting the world into Gershwin's soaring rhapsody."
—
Andrew Gilbert, San Jose Mercury News
"Brown's
band, which mixes Chinese and jazz instruments with a raw,
Charles Mingus-like energy, delivered a terrific program of
new works and re-compositions of American classics by Duke
Ellington, Thelonious Monk and George Gershwin."
—
Paul de Barros, Seattle Times (review of 2004 Monterey Jazz
Festival)
|
|
Read more about this CD:
American Rhapsodies: Wellspring of the Fifth
Stream
Completing
a trilogy of homages to American composers, Rhapsodies features a new version of George Gershwin's
"Rhapsody In Blue" with electric guitar, Chinese hammered dulcimers and steel drums replacing the piano.
Also featured are Charles Mingus' "Self Portrait In Three Colors" and Duke Ellington's
"Come Sunday," showcasing David Murray on bass clarinet.
|
Anthony
Brown: conductor, drumset, percussion, waterphone; Will
Bernard: electric guitar; Danny Bittker: bass clarinet, steel
drums; Georgia Brown: Western, Asian, African percussion;
Louis Fasman: trumpet, fluegelhorn; Henry Hung:
trumpet, fluegelhorn; Mark Izu: bass, Chinese mouth organ (sheng); Masaru
Koga: tenor saxophone, Japanese flute (shakuhachi) ; Melecio Magdaluyo:
baritone and alto saxophones, flute, cajón (Cuban box drum); Dave
Martell: trombone, tuba; Marcia Miget: flute, soprano and tenor
saxophones; Jim Norton: clarinet, soprano sax (12), bassoon,
contra alto clarinet, contra bassoon; Wayne Wallace: trombone;
Hong Wang: Chinese mouth organ, flute (dizi), violin (erhu),
reed trumpet (suona); Yangqin Zhao: Chinese hammered dulcimer
(yangqin).
Special
Guests: *David Murray: tenor saxophone (2), bass clarinet (12);
Gangqin Zhao:
Chinese harp zither (gu-zheng) (1), Chinese hammered dulcimer (4-6, 8, 9);
Frank Martin: piano (12);
Kash Killion: cello (1).
Anthony
Brown's Liner Notes to "Rhapsodies"
Prelude
to The Legacy Codes (Anthony Brown) (1:18)
The musical score for The Legacy Codes was commissioned
in 2003 by TheatreWorks for a fictionalized dramatization of
the 1999 framing of Tawainese-American nuclear scientist Wen
Ho Lee by the FBI. Playwright Cherylene Lee asked if I could
compose an introductory piece combining Chinese and American
musical elements that would later be choreographed for three
couples. I replied, "No problem." Producer Amy
Gonzales stated that Wen Ho Lee loved classical music,
especially Bach, and could I include something "baroque-ish."
I thought I could thread the piece together with fugal
counterpoint and said, "I'd love to." Then she
stated, "Oh, the piece should be about a minute
long." "Ooooo," I said — they cut the wonderful
saxophone cadenza by Marcia Miget for the show.
Bread
& Bowie [For Lester]* (A. Brown, trad. arr. Brown) (6:21)
This tripartite composition was commissioned by Jazz In Flight
for their Celebrating the Spirit of Lester Bowie program of
the 12th Annual Eddie Moore Jazz Festival at Yoshi's
in Oakland, CA. Percussionist Don Moye and Bob Stewart on tuba
joined the Asian American Orchestra in an unforgettable night
of joyful noise, song and drums, broadcast live on KPFA-FM, on
August 13, 2001. Lester Bowie personified the fundamental
characteristics of the collective motto, "Great Black
Music: Ancient to the Future" —
heart and soul, humor and
intelligence. In his mercurial majesty, with his trumpet and
in his research lab coat onstage with the Art Ensemble of
Chicago and Brass Fantasy, he reigned as the heir to the
legacy of the Trickster, the Eshu-Elegba-Eleggua figure of
post-modern jazz. This recording features the indomitable
David Murray's signature tenor madness.
[Trombone solo:
Wayne Wallace]
Self
Portrait in Three Colors (Charles Mingus) (3:17)
The original 1959 recording by Charles Mingus served as the
inspiration for this rendition: the composition is
through-composed with no solo features. The melody is repeated
three times, each repetition adds instruments and a new
accompanying theme. This is dedicated to James Newton and Red
Callendar, who provided me the direct link back to the Baron
and the legacy of Central Avenue, Los Angeles, wellspring of
1950's jazz innovators including, Dexter Gordon, Teddy
Edwards, Sonny Criss, Chico Hamilton, Hampton Hawes, Buddy
Collette, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Eric Dolphy, Billy
Higgins, Howard McGee, Red Mitchell, Horace Tapscott, and many
others.
Rhapsody
In Blue/American Rhapsodies (Gershwin-Brown) (19:02)
In his "American Rhapsody," George Gershwin intended
to mirror the tenor of his times and a progressive attitude
toward race relations in a musical vision blending the styles
he knew best: European and African American. Gershwin wrote Rhapsody
In Blue, the final name for his new work, to be premiered
by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra on Abraham Lincoln's 115th birthday, February 12, 1924 in New York City. In 2005,
Gershwin's classic portrait is recast in American
Rhapsodies as a 21st century mural of our world’s
demographic mosaic, particularly as reflected in the San
Francisco Bay Area, "Golden Gateway to the East."
[Clarinet: Jim Norton; guitar: Will Bernard; flute: Marcia
Miget; Japanese flute (shakuhachi): Mas Koga; trumpet: Henry
Hung]
— Read the Director's Notes
about "American Rhapsodies"...
Take
Me Out to the Ball Game (Norworth, Tilzer, arr. Mark
Izu) (0:42)
The all-American song is performed by Mark Izu on the Chinese
mouth organ, the sheng, the 2000 year old great, great, great... grandparent of the harmonica.
Tang
(Duke Ellington)
(8:05)
Duke Ellington's extended suite, Afro-Eurasian Eclipse,
was inspired by Marshall McLuhan's claim in his seminal
book, The Medium is the Massage, that "the whole
world is going oriental." During China's 8th century Tang Dynasty, the Silk Road flourished, linking East
and West as the "ancient information super highway."
[Tenor sax solo: Mas Koga; baritone sax: Mel Magdaluyo]
Come
Sunday* (Duke Ellington) (5:25)
Of the over two thousand compositions written by Duke
Ellington, Come Sunday is my favorite. The 1958
recording of Mahalia Jackson performing this spiritual served
as the model. Hong Wang's plaintive 2-string Chinese violin
(erhu), coupled with David Murray's inspirited bass clarinet
performance creates a duet in contrast like no other. The horn
backgrounds, voiced in simulation of a choir, are adapted from
Billy Strayhorn's transcendent arrangement for the Ellington
Orchestra.
Anthem/Baile
de la Orisha (A. Brown) (9:17)
Anthem is the finale of Mô, Shimasen! (Never
Again!), an extended work commissioned in 1995 by the
Asian Heritage Council to commemorate the 50th anniversary of
the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first bars of the
melody were inspired by the folk theme in the fourth movement
of the Concerto For Orchestra by Bela Bartók. The
contrasting middle section, Baile de la Orisha, is from
another extended composition, Incantation Suite,
originally commissioned by the San Francisco Chamber Music
Society in 1983.
[Flute solo: Mel Magdaluyo; soprano sax: Jim Norton]
Rhymes
(For Children) (A. Brown) (1:09)
This arrangement was recorded to serve as the theme music for Pacific Time, a weekly newsmagazine produced by KQED Public Radio and heard coast to coast on Public Radio International. Rhymes is originally
from an extended work, E.O. 9066, about the Japanese
American internment experience of WWII, commissioned by the
Rockefeller Foundation in 1996, in collaboration with San Jose
Taiko Group.
top
of page
|
