Jazz Sketches for Orchestra
The Jazz Sketches for Symphonic Orchestra were first composed as individual pieces in the early 1990s as MIDI studies. In 1997 Lawrence Kohl, conductor of the Classical Philharmonic Orchestra in the San Francisco bay, area asked me if I had any light orchestral music his group could play for a concert. I put the four pieces: "Saturday Is Here", "You Strike a Chord", "Automatia Dance 1", and "Tenagne" together at that time and labeled them "Jazz Sketches for Symphonic Orchestra".
"Saturday Is Here", You Strike a Chord", and "Tenagne" are all poems on the phrases or word of the title. For example, the phrase "Saturday is Here" is rhythmically played on for the entire movement. You hear it stated by all the instruments in the orchestra in some form or another. The same is true for "You Strike a Chord (within me)" and "Tenagne". "You Strike a Chord" and "Tenagne" were inspired by my Ethiopian girlfriend at the time, Tenagne Mekbeb, MD. "Automatia Dance 1" is a purely abstract piece that has nothing to do with words.
"Saturday Is Here", You Strike a Chord", and "Tenagne" are all poems on the phrases or word of the title. For example, the phrase "Saturday is Here" is rhythmically played on for the entire movement. You hear it stated by all the instruments in the orchestra in some form or another. The same is true for "You Strike a Chord (within me)" and "Tenagne". "You Strike a Chord" and "Tenagne" were inspired by my Ethiopian girlfriend at the time, Tenagne Mekbeb, MD. "Automatia Dance 1" is a purely abstract piece that has nothing to do with words.
