New Classical Tracks - African-American Voices
St. Paul, Minn. — As an African-American musician, clarinetist Marcus Eley says he's in a perfect position to champion the works of African-American composers, and that's precisely what he's does on his latest release titled But Not Forgotten. "One of the things I wanted to do in this recording is to salute the unsung heroes of music composition by people who are African-American," he explains. "And this recording is dedicated to those composers that I've had the pleasure of working with or those composers that I've admired over the years."
This recording actually came together about three years ago, while Marcus Eley was performing at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa. "And luckily for me, the emphasis of that festival was the music of the Diaspora," he says. "And I thought, I've done similar recitals before in the past of African-American composers. But I wanted to, in this case, do something unique. I need something to hook the audience to the recital, to encourage them to come, as it were. And I said a world premiere would be great. So that's how one of the pieces I put together on the CD happened."
That world premiere piece was Soul Bird by Todd Cochrane, a contemporary composer from San Francisco who's also a film composer. Eley says he and Cochrane had in-depth conversations about this "soul bird," represented by the clarinet, as it rises from the ashes very much like a phoenix. "The life begins with the bird flying away, being free, and its life begins to develop and expand. And before the bird can really realize his freedom, something happens — the bird decides to land again and realizes that it's the end of its life. So this is basically a big arch: the beginning of the life, the apex of the life and the end of the life."
When Marcus Eley first started playing clarinet, he was intrigued by Benny Goodman and other distinctive jazz clarinetists like Alvin Batiste. Batiste and Marcus Eley became close friends after first meeting in New Orleans in the mid 1990s. On this recording, Eley features a short piece by Batiste titled Episodes. Eley says it comes from a larger chamber work. "But this piece shows Alvin at his creative best, as I think. It's a very fast-moving piece. It has elements of jazz in it. It works well on the instrument. It's something that, as short as it is, captures your attention and then leaves a lasting impression."
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/09/11/new-classical-tracks--africanamerican-voices/
