Bb Clarinet and Piano, 3 movements, (1992) ca. 8′
Premiered by Benjamin Coleman, Clarinet & Kee Poh Lim at Queens College, 1992.
Listen to the 2nd Movement, performed by Jen Gerth and Tracy Bradshaw:
Program Note:
I wrote this piece for my friends Ben Coleman & Kee Poh Lim while we were students at Queens College, and it’s one of the few pieces from my student days that I’m still proud to have in my catalogue. It has been performed in several U.S. venues, but also in Canada and Europe. I began the piece as part of a jazz composition class that I was taking with the famous saxophonist and composer, Jimmy Heath. I was only a sophomore, and the rest of the class were all graduate students who knew the vocabulary of jazz forwards and backwards. I spent much of the semester playing catch-up, but got the basics down by the end.
This was the perfect piece to begin the Sapphire Ensemble’s Knitting Factory (NYC) concert this past June. We presented a crossover concert, and this work with it’s variety of moods, rhythmic variations, and improvisitory feel had a great impact on the Knitting Factory audience-the applause was off the charts! It works brilliantly both in a concert hall and in a club setting-how many pieces can claim that?! ?!