D's Blues
for saxophone quartet
Program Notes
The composition "D's Blues" is an attempt to "capture the breath" of a jazz player or blues singer. America's musical soul is deeply imprinted, if not genetically altered, by the structure of the blues. For a "player", the dance of blues structure between its tonic and subdominant is intuited and felt at the deepest levels. If it's the downbeat of the fifth bar, WE BE SUBDOMINANT!
"D's Blues" is one of six composittions written for a 1996 concert performance of a groups known as Dr. D's Debris and is one in an on-going series of works dubbed "Stories Told in Blues". The history of the 12-bar blues form has encompassed the use of some quite innovative tonal constructs that weave interesting harmonic paths from one structural landmark to another, but "D's Blues" avails itself to none of this sophisticated thinking, leaving only the instincts of a "player" to chart a purely melodic path through the blues form. Without question, this work is the arrangement of a single line whose original identity is presented in the soprano sax. This soprano sax melody acts as a "lead" for the other three horns throughout this piece, except for a brief moment of ascending tenths with the "bass". This bass function is, of course, played by the baritone sax which enlarges the scope of the original musical impetus to a two part composition. Although fulfilling a highly stylized function of the "bass player", the performance of the baritone sax part should be filled with intense personality and energetic rhythmic impulsion as the only counterbalance to the melody's internal logic and flow.
Email : [email protected]