Themes & Improvisations on the Blues
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| Themes & Improvisations on the Blues | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Live album by | ||||
| Released | 1994 | |||
| Recorded | April 9, 1992 | |||
| Venue | Merkin Concert Hall New York City | |||
| Genre | jazz, classical music | |||
| Length | 60:40 | |||
| Label | Composers Recordings, Inc. CD 663 | |||
| Leroy Jenkins chronology | ||||
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Themes & Improvisations on the Blues is a live album by violinist / composer Leroy Jenkins. It was recorded in April 1992 at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, and was released by Composers Recordings, Inc. in 1994.[1] The album documents performances of four of Jenkins's compositions for ensembles of varying size. The violinist appears on two of the tracks.
In 1991, Jenkins approached Thomas Buckner, organizer of the Interpretation Series at New York City's Merkin Concert Hall, and proposed a project involving performances of four of Jenkins's compositions. A year later, an all-Jenkins concert titled "Retrospective and Beyond" was presented at Merkin, and was recorded.[2]
"Themes & Improvisations on the Blues" was composed in 1986 and premiered by the Kronos Quartet at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. It blends written and improvised material (the composer estimated that roughly thirty percent of the piece is improvised), and features blues-based thematic material. In some sections, one member of the group is given a number of bars in which to improvise, while the remainder of the musicians play fully-notated music.[2]
"Panorama I" was composed in 1983, and again involves both fully-composed and improvised music. The composer stated that it was "designed to provide maximum opportunity for players interested in improvisation, with the written parts being used as 'fuel stops' for the improvised sections." Directions regarding improvisations were primarily verbal; for the recorded performance, Jenkins told the musicians to "make it kinky."[2]
"Off Duty Dryad" was written in 1990 for string quintet and Jenkins's frequent collaborator, dancer Felicia Norton. The music, which bears some resemblance to Jenkins's dance-opera Mother of Three Sons, shows the influence of the composer's own experience as a performing violinist. The score features sections marked "free time," with no bar lines or notated rhythms, as well as passages with fully-notated unison rhythms but without specific pitches.[2]
The original version of "Monkey on the Dragon" was a dance score commissioned by the 14th Street Dance Center for Felicia Norton, with choreography by Mark Dendy. The version heard on the recording, for violinist and chamber orchestra, was commissioned and premiered by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and was completed in 1990. Most of the improvisatory elements are assigned to the violin soloist; according to Jenkins, "the soloist is the monkey and the orchestra is the dragon."[2]
