Little Ones

Remembering Someone I Didn't Know

A Visitor's Xenitia

This piece reflects the modular structure of Charles Mingus’ extended work “The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady”. Repeated sections constructed from short one or two bar vamps will make up the majority of the performance, with unaccompanied solos and duos acting as interludes. There is also a 12 bar ballad section which is the longest preconceived element of the composition. These elements can be cued during performance in order to create the structure of the work in real-time and to spontaneously respond to the progress of the performance.

Masters Recital 18 November 2016

Universal Tensions

“The Classroom” is a compositional reflection on John Zorn’s game piece “Cobra”. This piece provides performers with a framework to access improvisational relationships that are not likely to occur “naturally” and to encourage performers to consider and actively control structure. The rules for “The Classroom” focus on two improvisational relationships. Firstly “teaching”, where a performer can come up with new material that is taken up by the ensemble and developed under the leadership of the teacher. Secondly, the concept of good and bad students is used to represent soloists (bad students) who are free to let their musical imagination run wild and supporting members (good students) who use the building blocks of the composition to support the soloists.

The Classroom

“Centricity” reflects on Duke Ellington’s “Concerto for Cootie”, a work where every aspect is derived from Cootie Williams’ unique artistry, thus encompassing a very “performer-centric” approach to composition. “Centricity” creates a framework for large ensemble improvisation where a soloist is able to shape the performance of the entire group. The elements of the composition for both the soloist and the supporting performers are derived from segments of the melodic and rhythmic material in “Concerto for Cootie”, and the harmonic scheme was developed to re-contextualise this material.

Centricity

In response to Earle Brown’s “December 1952”, “Blue Mobile” features a mobile structure based on a solar system, where there are several orbits around a central idea. The performers view this structure from different angles, thus presenting different material across the ensemble when interpreting the outer orbits with less variation towards the centre of the structure.

This mobile structure is represented by an animated score where the performers see the pitches moving towards and away from view. They “play what they see” and let their imagination guide their interpretation of the structure.

Blue Mobile

This composition takes King Oliver’s “Canal Street Blues” and distills the basic techniques applied in that performance. “Distillation of Origin” reflects the strain based melodic structure and the constraints of the New Orleans front line style. In addition, the variation of improvisation across the performance supports the melodic character of the three strains as well as further enriching the overall narrative of the composition, with a careful tightening and loosening of the restrictions and obligations on each member of the ensemble.

Distillation of Origin

At EBCC

Moving Forwards, Looking Backwards (rehearsal)

Composition by Andrew Garton

Saxophones: Andrew Butt, Joshua Hatcher, Andrew Saragossi
Bass Clarinet: Andrew Garton
Trumpet: Lachlan McKenzie
Trombone: Moniqua Lowth
Guitar: Zak Scerri
Bass: James Visentin
Drums: Aaron Jansz

Producer:
	Samuel Hogg

Recording Engineers:
	Samuel Hogg
	Wacey Coates
	Jono Frowd

Recorded at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University - 21st April 2017

Andrew Garton 1