“It was great to hear from Julian a couple of months into the first national lockdown here in the UK, who introduced me to John Mackey’s riotous Asphalt Cocktail. Having heard Julian’s brilliant recording of Steve Reich and Marc Mellits a few years back, I knew this project would be kick ass. I added the full arsenal, often in duplicate of percussion to the multi-tracked clarinets from my home studio. Working in isolation, although only just a few miles apart, this was a great way to undertake a new duo project in 2020. I hope you enjoy our vivid selection of re-imagined American band music.”
Joby Burgess
Track Listing
1 Asphalt Cocktail John Mackey 5’31”
2 October Eric Whitacre 7’31”
3 Blue Shades Frank Ticheli 9’44”
Asphalt Cocktail John Mackey
Composer John Mackey describes Asphalt Cocktail as “a five-minute opener, designed to shout, from the opening measure, “We’re here.” With biting trombones, blaring trumpets, and percussion dominated by cross- rhythms and back beats … Picture the scariest NYC taxi ride you can imagine, with the cab skidding around turns as trucks bear down from all sides.”
October Eric Whitacre
The composer’s favourite month, Eric Whitacre’s October contains “simple, pastoral melodies and subsequent harmonies inspired by the great English Romantics (Vaughan Williams, Elgar) … perfectly suited to capture the natural and pastoral soul of the season.”
Blue Shades Frank Ticheli
Frank Ticheli’s Blue Shades is a love letter to blues and jazz music, mixed through the composers own compositional voice: “Blue notes (flattened 3rds, 5ths and 7ths) … Blues harmonies, rhythms, and melodic idioms pervade the work; and many “shades of blue” are depicted, from bright blue, to dark, to dirty, to hot blue.”