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STEEL CITY STRINGS

Experience The Energy

STEEL CITY STRINGS

SOUTH COASTBIG BAND

Our Patron:Andrew Ford OAM

Photo by Jim Rolon

MEETS

2PM SUNDAY 23 JUNE – CHEVALIER PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE

7.30PM SATURDAY 29 JUNE – WOLLONGONG TOWN HALL

2PM SUNDAY 30 JUNE – NOWRA SCHOOL OF ARTS

SOUTH COASTBIG BAND

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OUR NEXT PROGRAM SYMPHONIC SOUNDS Featuring Anna da Silva Chen playing Beethoven Violin Concerto plus Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony

SUNDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2019 CHEVALIER PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE 2.00PM

SATURDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2019 ST FRANCIS XAVIER CATHEDRAL 7.30PM

SUNDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2019 NOWRA SCHOOL OF ARTS 2.00PM

TO BOOK TICKETS TO THESEPTEMBER SHOW GO TO

www.steelcitystrings.com.au

Phone: 0467 869 478 Email: steelcitystrings@gmail.com

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South Coast Big Band Album Release

Featuring compositions and arrangementsby Des Cannings and Paddy Kelly

Friday 8th November - 8pm The Music Lounge - Wollongong Town Hall Annex

Tickets will be available online soon throughwww.wollcon.com.au and www.merringong.com.au

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STOP PRESS

Elena Kats-Chernin, voted favourite Australian composer and favourite female composer in the ABC’s Classic 100 Countdown, will be guest artist in Steel City Strings’ first program in March 2020. Featured will be the world premiere of a new Kats-Chernin work, commissioned by a local Steel City Strings supporter.

Don’t miss The Composer is in the Room on 22, 28 and 29 March 2020.

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Message from STEEL CITY STRINGS Artistic Director

It has been a thrilling ride getting this show off the ground. As it has been in the works for some time now, I am very happy to present this performance to you in partnership with South Coast Big Band. It has been an immense pleasure working with Des Cannings and the big band ensemble to perform works not normally heard in the Illawarra, Southern Highlands and South Coast region. We are very thankful to have had the opportunity to work with featured artists Paddy Kelly and Gillian Meers who have helped to make these performances a memorable one.

A lot of work has gone into this program and it is a testament to the collaborative spirit of the musiciansin our community.

Message from SOUTH COAST BIG BAND Director

The South Coast Big Band is turning ten this year, which inevitably was going to lead to some big projects. We recorded our debut album in March which is set for its release in November and now we’re finally doing this colossal project that Kyle and I have had in the works for the last three years. I’m extremely excited to present this awesomely diverse program. Many of the pieces are very demanding for all theinstrumentalists, and I would like to thank themparticularly for their commitment to the project and the mastery of their instruments (if you didn’t know, there’s 21 woodwind instruments on stage between 5 of the players!). Special thanks goes to Kieren Brereton for the recording and mixing of our album, to John Smith and Sandy Soon for lending us a bunch of their gear as wellas The Kings School for lending us their contrabassclarinet for these performances.

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Music for String Quartet andOrchestra - Fanfare and Folksongs(Arrangement)

Bob Brookmeyer (1929 - 2011) Arr. Des Cannings

When your Lover has Gone Ella Fitzgerald (1917 – 1996)

Another Journey: Music for Symphonyand Jazz Orchestras Part II

Judy Bailey OAM (1936 - )

Jung Parade Vince Mendoza (1961 - ) Arr. Des Cannings

Au Claire de la LuneClaude Debussy (1862 - 1918) As performed by Harry James and hisOrchestra (circa 1941)

The Incredibles Theme Michael Giacchino (1967 - ) Arr. Cameron Zingel

INTERVAL

Holiday for Strings David Rose (1910-1990)

Both Sides, Now Joni Mitchell (1943 - ) Arr. Des Cannings

Rhapsody in Blue George Gershwin (1898-1937)

CONCERT ORDER

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CONDUCTOR: Luke Spicer

An acclaimed violist and chamber musician, Luke is making his mark as an operatic and symphonic conductor. Graduating with a Masters of Conducting from the Sydney Conservatorium, he has furthered his studies in Freiburg and Manchester, and attended the Fondazione Musicale

Chigiana, Siena, working under Maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti. Luke was also a participant in the Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program during 2016.

In 2014 Luke was appointed Principal Conductor of the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra, in 2016 he became Music Director of Blush Opera in Sydney, and has been the Associate Conductor of the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra for several years. 2017 saw Luke join Opera Australia as Music Director of the NSW schools tour, and make his conducting debut with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Canberra Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 Luke has conducted Willoughby Symphony Orchestra as part of their subscription series.

This is Luke’s third year as resident conductor of Steel City Strings.

STEEL CITY STRINGS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ANDCONCERT MASTER: Kyle Little

Kyle Little is founding Artistic Director and Concert Master of Steel City Strings. Since 2014, he has worked with the Illawarra and Southern Highlands communities to promote music in the area. Kyle completed his Bachelor of Music

in violin performance from the University of Dalhousie, Canada in 2006.He graduated from the University of Wollongong in 2010 with a Graduate Diploma in Education and in 2013 with a Masters in Education - Research.

Kyle is the full-time instrumental ensemble director and classroom music teacher at Campbelltown High School of Performing Arts. He was awarded the NSW ACEL Mary Armstrong Award for educational leadership in 2017. Kyle also teaches violin privately at the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music and teaches the Music Methods course at the University of Wollongong. He continues to advocate for the importance of quality music education in schools, and works to provide students with meaningful performance opportunities.

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SOUTH COAST BIG BAND DIRECTOR: Des Cannings

Des Cannings founded the South Coast Big Band a decade ago as a teenager. It is still primarily made up of Wollongong-based musicians, although now also includes friends from Sydney. Des is Musical Director of the City of Wollongong Junior Brass Band that has been successful in Eisteddfod, State and National Band Championships under his leadership. He has also recently taken over as musical director of the Eros Big Band.

Des studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in the jazz program, learning from leading artists such as James Greening, Dave Panichi, Phil Slater, Kevin Hunt and Judy Bailey. He played bass trombone in the Sydney Con’s Jazz Orchestra and toured Los Angeles, Chicago and New York with the group. While overseas he featured on the album “Okay” which features arrangements and compositions by German composer Florian Ross. He is a regular member of Judy Bailey’s Jazz Connection (which is also set to release an album later this year), Paddy Kelly’s ‘Human Laser Experiment’ and plays trombone, bass trombone, euphonium, and tuba in various local and Sydney musicals and bands. He is on staff at the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music teaching brass and ensembles in the jazz program.

The South Coast Big Band’s debut album being released later this year features four of Des’s original compositions as well as three arrangements.

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STEEL CITY STRINGS SOUTH COAST BIG BAND

First Violins:

Kyle Little ** Monique Ziegelaar Tim Talbot Siobhan Mewes

Second Violins: Jacob Antonio * Liana BonaccorsoMaya Kitagawa Sophia Hans

Violas: Adrian Davis * Jo Landstra Miffy Ryan Janine Jackson Renee North

Celli: Karella Mitchell * Rita Woolhouse Louisa Lovasz

Double Bass: Ethan Ireland *

Percussion: Mario Bonaccorso

Chris Higgins: flute, Bb clarinet, alto and soprano saxophones* Daniel Blanch: Eb clarinet, Bb clarinet, contrabass clarinet, alto saxophone Tye Langford: Bb clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophones Kali Gillen: piccolo, flute, Bb clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophones Rebecca Scolnik: flute, Bb clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone

James Power: 1st Trumpet/Flugelhorn* (Chevalier and Wollongong performances) Dane Laboyrie: 1st Trumpet/Flugelhorn* (Nowra performance)

Heather Prowse: 2nd trumpet/flugelhorn Jack Contencin: 3rd trumpet/flugelhorn Stuart McNair: 4th trumpet/flugelhorn

Des Cannings: 1st trombone* Cailey Soon: 2nd trombone Nick Gandy: 3rd trombone Jack Lincoln: Bass trombone, tuba

Callum Burns: Guitar Paddy Kelly: Piano, percussion Dave Quinn: Double Bass Sam Chin: Drums, percussion

Gillian Meers: Voice

THE ORCHESTRAS Conductor Luke Spicer

** Concertmaster * Section Leader

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Bob Brookmeyer: Music for String Quartet and Orchestra Bob Brookmeyer (1929 - 2011) Fanfare and Folksongs

Fanfare and Folksongs was released on the album Bob Brookmeyer: Music for String Quartet and Orchestra by Challenge Records (The Netherlands) on February 27, 2009. Recorded by the Gustav Klimt String Quartet and the Metropole Orkest at Muziekcentrum van de Omroep in 1999, the album is a lively crossover between classical, jazz and folk. The album recording was conducted by Brookmeyer. This is his second collaboration with the Metropole Orkest, having previously worked on a project for them and contemporary trumpeter, Kenny Wheeler.

Bob Brookmeyer began his career in the 1950s as a jazz pianist and valve trombonist; playing in various small groups and big bands and eventually making a name for himself as a studio musician in New York City and Los Angeles, USA. He moved to Europe in the early 1980s to explore jazz and classical crossover composition. As Brookmeyer himself states in the album notes for Music for String Quartet and Orchestra: “While writing for the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra in 1980, I began to ‘go over to the other side’ -- composing for classical players and trying to be very ‘in your face’ and ultra modern. I had spent most my life in jazz music and some New York commercial work and I was very hungry for some new horizons to investigate. Cologne and Stockholm were very open to a new face so, with their cooperation, I was allowed to experiment, fail, succeed and grow in my craft. Without them I would have remained trapped by my past.”

Fanfare and Folksongs is “a furious, exuberant number showcasing the full orchestra, then ending with just the string quartet and pianist” (Allmusic, 2019). The piece draws on Brookmeyer’s then-63 year career of thoughtful arrangements and lyrical compositions. South Coast Big Band director Des Cannings has expertly condensed the piece for jazz orchestral instrumentation.

Heather Prowse, 2019

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When your Lover has Gone

In its original version, Einar Aaron Swan’s “When Your Lover Has Gone” featured in the 1931 James Cagney movie “Blonde Crazy” and quickly became a jazz standard. It remains one of Swan’s best-known tunes.

From 1956-1964, the iconic Ella Fitzgerald worked on what may be her greatest legacy, the Song Book series, featuring the music of Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and Johnny Mercer. It can be argued that along with the seminal work of Frank Sinatra, these records created some of the greatest and most definitive versions of a hugeportion of what comprises the Great American Songbook.

During this period, in 1962, Ella released a studio album with Nelson Riddle called “Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson”, which included an orchestral version of “When Your Lover Has Gone”.

In his arrangement of the song, Nelson Riddle was clearly paying homage to his arrangement of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, recorded in 1956 by Frank Sinatra on the album ‘Songs for Swingin’ Lovers”. This chart shares many of the same melodic figures and overall feel. Sinatra fans willimmediately recognise the intro featuring that familiar bass clarinet line with trombones and celeste in the background. It’s a more up-tempo feel than the original, which makes it less sombre than the versions by Sinatra and Louis Armstrong, lending it a more swinging tone.

Gillian Meers. 2019

Another Journey: Music for Symphony andJazz Orchestras

Part II Judy Bailey OAM (1936 - )

Australian jazz piano veteran Judy Bailey describes her work Another Journey as “a musical travel experience” inspired by “a variety of musical and global influences” (Eric Myers, 2018).

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Bailey is a notable educator and has mentored many of the jazz musicians living and working in Sydney and the Illawarra region today. This includes many members of South Coast Big Band. It is fitting that as a celebrated educator, Bailey uses Two Minds, One Music to school listeners in a exploration of musical styles around the world.

The second movement of Another Journey is a beautifulballad representing European music. Bailey here has demonstrated her understanding of the Romantic era (1800- 1850) with her trademark compositional influence of jazz. South Coast Bi g Band pianist, Patrick Kelly, will perform an improvised piano solo backed by Oscar Peterson on double bass and Samuel Chin on drums. The trio’s seamless work together is always a joy to behold, but the real treat for listeners will be the addition of Steel City Strings providing a lush soundscape on which Kelly can rest.

Another Journey can be found on the live album “Another Journey: Music for Symphony and Jazz Orchestras by Judy Bailey. Live recordings” which was released independently in Sydney in 2017. It was performed on this album by the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Jazz Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra.

Heather Prowse, 2019

Jung Parade Vince Mendoza (1961 - )

Jung Parade is a modern jazz composition with a laid-back swing feel by American composer, arranger and conductor Vince Mendoza. It was first released on Mendoza’s limited edition album, “Instructions Inside” (1991) by Blue Note Records (New York City). It was re-recorded by the Metropole Orkest on the album “54” (2009) by Emarcy Records (Berlin).

Both the 1991 and 2009 recordings of Jung Parade feature improvisations by American jazz guitarist, John Scofield,who plays a large part in bringing the piece to life. His place will be taken in tonight’s concert by South Coast Big Band guitarist, Callum Burns. South Coast Big Band trumpeter, Heather Prowse, will perform the improvised trumpet solo

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previously recorded by Randy Brecker and Ruud Breuls.

It is pieces like Jung Parade that assist the vast soniclandscape of large ensembles to live up to their truest potential. The piece is one of Mendoza’s most expansive and sweeping compositions, as relevant and exciting today as it was at the start of Mendoza’s career.

Heather Prowse, 2019

Au Claire de la Lune Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918) As performed by Harry James and his Orchestra (circa 1941)

When Harry James decided to follow the lead of fellow bandleader Artie Shaw and add a string section, he had to build a book quickly. Besides originals, new pop songs and older songs (one of which, You Made Me Love You, would make his ensemble one of the most popular in the country), his book included arrangements of ‘classical’ or concert music, three of which were piano pieces that James particularly liked: Arabesque, Golliwog’s Cakewalk, and Clair de Lune.

Debussy wrote Clair de Lune as early as 1890, but was published in 1905 as part of Suite Bergamasque. It is possible that the piece was slightly revised by Debussy between its original composition and publication. By 1941, it had become quite a popular piece among piano students and soloists, and James felt it would be recognizable enough to be added to the dance book. The late James Maher often reminded me that big bands during this era played all styles of music for dancing. Even bands led by Fletcher Henderson and Benny Goodman played tangos and waltzes if they were requested; Sy Oliver told me that there were waltzes in the Jimmie Lunceford book, one of the hottest swing bands of the era. So a waltz was hardly a novelty for a big band, particularly one with a string section. It appears that chief arranger Jack Matthias arranged this title, along with Debussy’s Arabesque. The original score of Clair de Lune exists, and was used to prepare this edition; unfortunately, there is no name on the score, and no extant parts. The score is filled with note errors, suggesting that the

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arrangement was prepared in a hurry; perhaps it was one of the first batch of scores created when the string section was added to the James band.

Jeffrey Sultanof, 2010

The Incredibles Theme Michael Giacchino (1967 - )

The 2004 Disney-Pixar production, “The Incredibles”, is a much-loved animated superhero film set in an alternate universe 1960s USA. The soundtrack is notable for its bright jazz influence. Director Brad Bird asked composer Giacchino for an “old sound”, as if the future was being seen from the 1960s. In keeping with the vintage feel, the score was recorded on analogue tapes, with the orchestra all sitting in the same room and “feeding off each other’s energy” (Brad Bird, Michael Giacchino, 2011). The film score draws on such music from retro spy movies as James Bond and The Pink Panther.

The Incredibles Theme begins with a sonorous brass introduction which quickly explodes into a heavy rock ‘n’ roll theme characterised with electric bass, furious drums and screaming trumpets. As the theme develops, the lower brass join the bass in a menacing ostinato while a solo tenor saxophone growls over the top (performed with finesse in tonight’s performance by South Coast Big Band’s Tye Langford). A smooth jazz interlude a la “The Pink Panther” precedes a whimsical melody with slight foreboding played by the lower brass, woodwinds and strings. A harmon-muted trumpet finishes off the piece.

Heather Prowse, 2019

Holiday for Strings David Rose (1910-1990)

Holiday for Strings, characterised by its opening fast tempo and pizzicato strings, was composed in 1942. It was the theme song for American variety television programme, ‘The Red Skelton Show’, from 1951-1971, and for the

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Brazilian game show, ‘Pra Ganhar É Só Rodar’, from 2004-2005 and 2016-present.

The composer, David Rose, was a highly acclaimed American composer for film and television who won four Emmy Awards in his lifetime. The piece is considered a classic American composition with many cover versions and tributes being performed over time. The original and most celebrated recording was by David Rose and His Orchestra, reaching #2 on the US charts in 1944.

The composition begins with a relaxed but urgent pizzicato string melody, punctuated by light stabs from the orchestra (notably flutes, glockenspiel and muted trumpets). The piece then transforms into a soaring string melody backed by a driving bass line, followed by a mournful violin solo whichis then repeated more lightheartedly by the woodwinds.Becoming legato again, the work then recapitulates its theme without the pizzicato and ends on a short, triumphant brass fanfare.

Heather Prowse, 2019

Both Sides, Now By Joni Mitchell, 1967

One of the best known songs of Joni Mitchell, covered by many musicians of note including Frank Sinatra, Dolly Parton and Carly Rae Jepson, as well as Mitchell herself. The song is a “meditation on reality and fantasy”. Written early in Mitchell’s career as folk singer-songwriter, the song is retrospective in nature. Thee lyrics speak of differing perspectives on life and love, using the symbolism of clouds: how they can appear as one thing to the idealist and another to the cynic. Is it childlike naivety that gives us a simple, happy view on these things, and then maturity leads inevitably to a pessimism, a more harsh honesty? Or is it that there will be forever two sides to each facet of life, both accessible and equally valid? Regardless, it is clear that while we can observe life, it is not the same as understanding it fully.

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Joni Mitchell first recorded Both Sides, Now herself for her 1969 album Clouds, and again in 2000 on the album Both Sides Now. It is this later version we present for this concert series: the orchestration lends the song a sense of gravitas which matches the crooning of Joni in her 60s, contrasting with the simplicity of the guitar accompaniment and youthful tempo in her original recording.

Gillian Meers, 2019

Rhapsody in BlueGeorge Gershwin (1898-1937)

If there is a piece of music which seems to define the voice of America in the twenties, it is surely Rhapsody in Blue. The work was composed in the space of five weeks in early 1924 for a program called ‘An Experiment in Modern Music’ organized by the bandleader, Paul Whiteman who had asked Gershwin for a concerto-style piece. It was the composer’s brother, Ira, prompted by a recent exhibition of paintings by Whistler which had included Nocturne in Black and Gold and Arrangement in Grey and Black (more commonly recognized as Whistler’s Mother) who suggested changing the title from American Rhapsody to Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin’s original piano score was orchestrated by Ferde Grofé who, knowing the strengths of Whiteman’s jazz musicians, wrote expressly for their talents. The famous clarinet solo that begins the work was transformed from a simple scale into the familiar wailing glissando by Whiteman’s virtuosic clarinetist, Ross Gorman, much to the composer’s delight. It seems to capture the essence of the jazz age with its bending of convention, while its direct expression of rhapsodic emotion blends joy and sorrow within its ascending and descending arc. It is both evocative of American-African music but also of the rich traditions of Klezmer, the Jewish music that spread throughout the world in the early twentieth-century, finding particularly fertile soil in New York. It is no coincidence that the most popular song writers of the period – Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern and of course Gershwin – had their roots in EastEuropean backgrounds.

Gershwin himself was the solo pianist at the premiere,often improvising some of the material, and not notating

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a final version until after the premiere, while later orchestrations, again by Grofé, expanded theinstrumentation to symphonic proportions, thus facilitating wider performance opportunities.

Seated amongst that first audience were many famous musicians including Stokowski, Rachmaninov, and Fritz Kreisler who were unanimous in their praise, contributing loudly to the thunderous applause. The critic Olin Downes, writing in the New York Times, recognized ‘an extraordinary talent’ though one not yet possessing complete mastery of form. Others were less kind: Lawrence Gilman told his New York Tribune readers that the tunes were ‘trite, feeble and conventional’, the harmonic treatment ‘sentimental and vapid’. Thirty years later Leonard Bernstein, who frequently performed (and adored) the Rhapsody, argued that it is ‘not a composition at all’ but rather ‘a string of separate paragraphs strung together’.

But whatever its failings, Rhapsody in Blue transcends its occasional naiveties and remains a vivid testament to a time when the New World offered an optimistic future for artists willing to embrace the modern. And, in the words of Andrew Ross, Gershwin, ‘epitomizing the Jazz Age in every pore of his suave being… was… the man in whom all the discordant tendencies of the era achieved sweet harmony’.

© David Vance, 2019

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