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A Message from the Director
The Eastman School of Music is pleased to be a partner with Albany Records in the production of this series featuring American composers. Beginning with the appointment of Howard Hanson as director in 1924 and proceeding consistently ever since, the Eastman School has stood for innovation in American music. While the Hanson era was characterized by consistency of genre as he established his concept of American music, succeeding generations of Eastman leaders and composers have promoted diversity in expressive means. These recordings are a fine example of this latter principle of exploration and discovery.
The series follows in Eastman's spirit of promoting opportunities for artists with significant voices to be heard in a society increasingly seduced by clutter. I salute Albany for its commitment to higher ideals.
James Undercofler
Director, Eastman School of Music
Notes on the series
From roughly the late 1930s through the early 1960s, most serious American composers worked within one of two basic musical encampments, continuing and expanding upon traditions established by the 20th century giants Schoenberg and Stravinsky. In striking contrast to this earlier era, today's younger generation of composers benefits from exposure to what has been called “a veritable salad bowl of styles,” marked by an extremely wide range of character, aesthetics, and musical cross-currents.
The works represented in this Eastman American Music Series of new music recordings bear eloquent testimony to the effect his healthy and diverse musical diet has had on the work of American composers. Various auditory repasts offer composers a choice of forms and influences from such divergent sources as jazz, non-Western music, romanticism, dodecaphony, minimalism, pop and rock, asceticism, “cross-over,” and spiritualism - and all on the same menu!
This variety serves both as a high-calorie, vibrant sign of our own creative times, and as a demanding burden placed upon American composers seeking, indeed groping for, their own unique voices: “Red or green peppers? Radish? How much onion? What kind of lettuce? How do I choose my OWN language that will allow me to speak what I need to say?” The works recorded here present the distinct and often unusual offerings of a few leading, contemporary American “workers” in the sonic kitchen.
Sydney Hodkinson
Project director, Eastman American Music Series
JAZZ SONATA
Very often people compartmentalize and label music of different styles. R&B, soul, adult contemporary, new age, world music, bebop, alternative and, of course, classical and jazz are but a few common music categories. These labels tend to make the public think in terms of black and white - classical/jazz for example. While labels certainly exist, a new spirit has developed among many musicians. A more liberal attitude has taken hold. Increasingly, greater numbers of performers have opened themselves more to all music. It is quite common for today's music student to enjoy and have the desire to gain skill in performing in a wide variety of styles. More musicians now possess, or are working toward, high level jazz and improvisational skills that are supported by equally high level classical training, and the boundaries between the two genres have become more blurred.
Throughout their musical careers Roman Ricker and Bill Dobbins have championed this less compartmentalized approach to music. They began their musical association in 1973 as faculty members at the Eastman School of Music where Dr. Ricker is presently Professor of Saxophone. Mr. Dobbins left his professorship in Jazz Studies in September of 1994 to assume the position of music director of the West German Radio Big Band in Cologne, Germany.
Both musicians have extensive professional experience in jazz and classical music. Dr. Ricker plays in the clarinet section of the Rochester philharmonic orchestra, has recorded and toured with such jazz artists as Buddy Rich and Chick Mangione, and is active as a studio musician, composer/arranger, producer and contractor. Mr. Dobbins has performed as soloist with symphony orchestras under Pierre Boulez and Louis lane, and has worked with jazz artists Phil Woods, Red Mitchell, The National Jazz Ensemble and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. He is also a prolific composer with numerous works to his credit including compositions for Barry Harris, David Liebman and the West German Radio Big Band.
Each is a well-published author. Dr. Ricker is noted for his texts, Pentatonic Scales for Jazz Improvisations, and for his four volume series of saxophone etudes for the French publisher Alphonse Leduc. His most recent releases include a series of jazz saxophone ensemble music written for the award winning Eastman group, Saxology® and The Ramon Ricker Improvisation Series. Both are published by the German publisher Advance Music. Mr. Dobbins' Advance Music publications include The Contemporary Jazz Pianist, Jazz Arranging and Composing: A Linear Approach, The Jazz Workshop Series (a six volume play-along series), and his recent A Creative Approach to Jazz Piano Harmony. Both men's publications are widely known and used in college and university jazz programs throughout the world.
From this unusually versatile and eclectic background, it is not surprise that the music on this CD encompasses the most engaging aspects of both the classical and jazz traditions. If one insists upon a label for these compositions, perhaps “improvised chamber music” is most appropriate, since it is personal, intimate, and replete with spontaneous interaction. It ahs often been said, with good reason, that it takes at least two musicians to make jazz. Jazz Sonataprovides a perfect vehicle for showcasing two exceptionally multifaceted musicians and the creative teamwork that has resulted from a long and mutually enjoyable friendship.
Roman Ricker's Jazz Sonata was written in 1991 and was premiered in Naples, Florida in the same year. Inspired by the sonatas of Phil Woods and Bill Dobbins, the piece was written in a conscious attempt to wed certain stylistic elements of classical and jazz music. The first movement begins in a manner reminiscent of French classical saxophone recital music, but quickly finds a rhythmic groove in the Allegro section that follows. Subtitled “danse macabre,” this ominous, dark, sometimes “bluesy” sounding music is propelled along by the use of intricate counterpoint and improvised solo sections. “Danse d'amour,” the second movement, and though written in 1991, the thematic material was composed some fourteen years earlier in the form of a tune for Ray's wife, Judy, and entitled Let Me Spend this Night with you Forever.
The final movement is a large ABA form (Allegro-Waltz-Allegro), and is subtitled “danse infernale.” The opening Allegro section features rhythmic intensity and counterpoint for its interest before being interrupted (a la Rachmaninoff) by a lyrical waltz that allows space for improvised solos. The Allegro returns and the piece ends in a flurry.
Echoes from a Distant Land has influences from many musical traditions and historical reference points, but all of these manifest themselves in a completely subconscious manner. The natural way in which the melodic, harmonic and formal content seem to flow from the opening rhythmic ostinato gives the piece a feeling of timelessness.
The Stranger is titled after the novel of the same name by the French existentialist philosopher and writer Albert Camus. The piece seems to capture some of the general mood of the story, with its underlying feeling of melancholy and sense of inevitability,
Bill Dobbins' Sonata for soprano saxophone and piano combines musical elements from both the classical and jazz traditions. It was written partially with the intention of stimulating the growing interest in crossing the boundaries between jazz and classical music, and also to encourage creative musicians to become familiar with the vocabularies and performance practices of both. The work was written specifically for Ramon Ricker, and was premiered at the “Saxophones” international conference in Angers, France, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the invention of the saxophone.
The three highly contrasting movements are developed through an imaginative and widely varied use of the same thematic material.
Prelude XIII has definite leanings toward impressionism and late romanticism. Both of these historical styles have much harmonically in common with the American traditions of popular songwriting and jazz. The mixture of these two elements in this particular piece seems quite natural and organic,
Prelude XIV was inspired by a beautiful and powerful song for voice and mbira by the Rhodesian musician Simon Mashoka. His command of both extremely low and extremely high vocal registers create the impressions of two completely different voices, as in the main theme of this rondo-like composition. His rhythmic independence between his singing and his mbira accompaniment (a sort of “thumb piano” with metal keys on a wood base which is played inside a large gourd resonator) is truly amazing. This personal homage is a sincere gesture of thanks for Mr. Mashoka's special music.
All compositions are © and published by: Advance Music Maieräckerstr. 18, D-72108, Rottenburg, Germany.
advancemusic@t-online.de
Recorded at the Kresge Recording Studios of the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music.
Cover Design by 10eG visual, Oberhausen, Germany
Produced by Ramon Ricker
Post Production and Mastering by David Dusman
© and (P) Eastman School of Music
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ALBANY RECORDS U.K.
Box 12, Warton, Carnforth, Lancashire LA5 9PD
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WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL.
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